Whisp dashed back into the room that he landed in. Leo was still chasing him, and a pair of Fire Elementals were behind the former White Knight of Althena.
Unfortunately, the five dopplegangers were all still in that chamber. Anti-Hiro and Anti-Leo were about to run off and follow the Ball O' Fire when he came flying back into the room. Leo's clone grinned evilly and slashed Whisp with his rapier. The little elemental was knocked through the air and landed on top of the chest in the corner.
The dopplegangers begin to laugh as they watched the dazed wisp of fire slowly rise and shake its head. Then they heard another voice.
"What madness is this?!" Leo exclaimed as he skidded to a halt upon entering the room. Only one Elemental was behind him now, glaring fiercely at the shades. The beast-man slowly walked into the room, still not seeing the creature in the hallway behind him.
"Ah, finally the heroes have come-"
"Well, it looks like only one made it through the Ruins actually," Anti-Lemina interrupted.
Anti-Leo glared at her.
"QUIET!!" he yelled. Then, turning back to face the real Leo, he continued, "I'd say you're definitely outnumbered. I guess we'll never know if the originals are better than the superior copies... time to die 'brother'."
Leo held his silver sharion in a defensive position when he noticed a hissing sound behind him. He stepped briskly out of the opening to the hallway as he saw Anti-Hiro gleefully take another swing at Whisp. The little elemental was knocked to the ground near Leo's boots and shrank in size even more. He looked very weak.
He bent down to look at the strange flaming creature. It was very unlike the normally huge Fire Elementals he had been encountering throughout the Dragon Ruins. It also appeared somewhat more intelligent... rather than run head on into his sword like the flares stupidly did, this one actually retreated. The hissing behind him became a roaring and he heard the female shades scream in front of him.
The other Fire Elemental had seen the doppleganger's treatment of Whisp and had been angered. His companion flew off and returned with about thirty more of the fiery creatures... all of which now flew into the room and rushed the clones.
Seeing this, Leo decided to take advantage of the situation and investigated the jeweled case in the corner of the room. The five shades were VERY busy with the horde of Elementals now in the room. All that was inside was an elaborate looking staff. As he picked it up, the runes of a spell appeared in his mind. With a grin, he pointed the rod at Anti-Lemina and chanted to activate its inherent magic. The shade was stunned for a second (allowing an Elemental to get a nice head-butt in) and Leo felt his moderately drained magic power recharge a bit.
"Interesting staff," he murmured to himself and trotted out of the carnage-filled chamber.
Whisp had recovered a bit and looked to see what was going on. A crowd of his distant kin engaged the shimmering shades against one wall. He looked toward the opening to see the half breed leaving with a strange staff.
Seeing how Leo had not finished him off when he was helpless on the floor of the chamber, Whisp decided to follow him. Without Alisia or any of the others around, he had no idea of where he was or what to do. Perhaps the beast-man would let him accompany him for awhile... it would be better than wandering alone.
At the stairs to the sixth floor of the Dragon Ruins, Leo turned to see Whisp following him. He put his hand on his sword's handle as the fire elemental approached him slowly.
"Hm... you again. Something seems different about you... compared to your brothers that is," he muttered mostly to himself.
Whisp nodded.
Leo's expression became puzzled.
"You understand me?"
Whisp was about to nod again when Leo's expression turned into one of moderate shock. The knight unsheathed his sword. Whisp spun around to see five more of his larger cousins eyeing Leo angrily. He quickly turned to the half beast and shook his head.
"What? Don't attack?"
The little flare turned around again and emitted strange hissing sounds to the other Elementals. They calmed down in a moment and floated off in another direction.
Leo was stunned again. The flame had relaxed his brothers and prevented them from attacking.
"You're certainly an interesting little fellow... but something tells me you'd don't belong here," he spoke.
Whisp slowly nodded.
Leo continued, "Would you like to leave here with me? I'd say I probably owe you for that last situation at least. And you haven't attacked me yet either... you appear smarter than your brothers in that sense."
The Ball O' Fire nodded rapidly.
Leo grinned, "I guess that's a yes. Come then... I think it's time to visit an old friend."
The knight and wisp of flame started off for the exit... until a Cannon Angel dropped down in front of them and fired its weapon at them.
Leo barely had time to raise his sword before the blast hit... but he felt no pain.
Whisp floated in front of him, acting like a shield and absorbing the energy of the attack. He shrunk momentarily, then grew back to his full magnitude.
The attacker was stunned by this tactic, allowing Leo to slice through its neck with a Flash Blade.
The two of them hurried toward the next stairway.
"I guess that's two I owe you now."
"Sorry I'm late class... on the first day no less..."
Lemina dashed into the class area, nearly tripping on the way in but able to keep her balance. Thundra winced in pain a little.
"All right everyone, its time for your first tests-"
"WHAT?!?!" was the unanimous response. All of the young students were frozen in shock.
A well-dressed boy in the front row murmured aloud, "You're kidding...right? What kind of crazy teacher gives a test on a first day."
Lemina's face became stern. She placed the raven gently on the table in front of her.
"I'm most certainly not... I have to know how much experience each of you have...and an exam is the easiest way."
She continued while making a makeshift splint out of objects in her desk.
"Move to where I indicate the highest spell in your knowledge. If you know Flame Bomb, move over to this side. If Flamer is your latest spell, go to the center of the room.. Anyone with Flame only, go to that side."
The young mages-in-training shuffled about noisily to their positions around the room. Each formed their groups and stood in lines in front of target dummies set up at the far end of the room.
"Proceed," the young Junior Premier announced and kept one eye on the Flame Bomb group while finally putting the splint on the strange bird.
"There. That's better... now you can relax and watch this mega-boring exam with me."
Thundra looked at the splint-supported wing and sung a pleasant note. She then tried to move the wing by accident and shrieked in pain. A few of the children heard the noise... but all of them noticed the small burst of lightning shoot forth from the pained thunder raven's eyes. It struck a practice dummy that was set up for Lemina to demonstrate upon and blackened a large section of it.
Lemina stood wide-eyed with a huge grin on her face. The children started making 'oooh' and 'ahhh' sounds as a number of them approached the front desk.
The well-dressed kid walked up to Lemina and jealously announced, "Why... that's nothing. I don't belong in any of these groups...I can do Flame Shot!"
Lemina rolled her eyes and glared at him.
"Oh sure... let's see your fabulous spell."
The brat pointed at the blackened practice dummy.
"Watch!" he yelled and began to concentrate. His eyes and teeth clenched shut and he began to murmur...
...after about five whole minutes of 'concentration' he finally raised his wood cane and chanted.
Lemina yawned and joked aloud.
"Oh... you're ready? I couldn't tell if you were casting a spell or having mega-nasty abdominal problems there. The bathroom's in the hall if you need it."
Amidst giggles from the rest of the students, the kid yelled, "HAH!"
From the tip of his stick, a small burst of flame shot forth... barely larger than the Red Dragon Ruby's fire spurt when she was in 'cat form' and much smaller than a regular Flame spell.
Roars of laughter were emitted from the other students. Lemina cracked up immediately, holding her sides.
"Oh wow...I might have to use the restroom after this..."
The rich kid was not amused.
"It wasn't my fault... I got distracted!"
He then noticed the raven who had shown him up was also 'laughing' (or at least, singing in a mocking tone). The brat took a swipe at the bird and made slight contact with its hurt wing.
"Stupid bird..."
Thundra screeched in pain and glared at the kid. A white flash filled the room, particularly around him, accompanied by what could be considered to be a sound of thunder.
When the Lightning Flash cleared up, Lemina and the students saw the brat dazed on the floor with the raven still staring at him. He tried to sit up... and passed out.
Lemina stared at the strange creature in wonder.
"Mega-Cool!!! A magic bird!"
She checked the splint again to make it sure it was not damaged by the swipe. One of the students (who was unlike her fellow children who were wanting to see the bird and pet it gently) pointed at the rich kid on the floor.
"Oh yes... well," Lemina started, rummaging into her pouch again, "Does anyone want to demonstrate Little Litany for the class now?"
During the class break, the Junior Premier hurried back to the Guild Mansion with Thundra perched on her shoulder.
She entered briskly and walked to the main chamber to find her mother Miria... and fortunately no Borgan... reading through some business materials dealing with the long-overdue repairs of Vane.
Miria looked up and saw her daughter walk in.
"Why, hello there dear. How has your teaching been so far?"
Lemina shrugged her shoulders, careful not to knock off Thundra.
"All right I guess... so far. There have been a few troublemakers though," she replied, winking at the raven. "What I wanted to show you is this bird... it's kinda strange."
"What is strange about it?" a loud voice asked from the chamber doorway. Lemina turned briskly and saw Borgan float in on his levitating platform. She sighed and frowned.
"Go on dear," Miria pressed as her daughter stayed silent.
With a glare at the 'floating fat man' she continued.
"First off, it didn't exactly just land in Vane... a strange white beam from the skies slammed it into one of the two towers. Secondly it's magical... you should have seen the lightning spells it could cast!"
Borgan lowered his head to look at the bird. Thundra was a little frightened (and repelled) by his ghastly appearance but calmed down as Miria inspected her.
"Hmm... many monsters have inherent skills that could be viewed as magic-" Borgan began but was cut off.
"Yeah... like you did... but this raven's spells seem to come from within. They don't seem to be learned skills... more like pure magic is inherent in it."
Miria tried to block the remark to her lover with, "What exactly happened with its 'arrival' in Vane?"
Lemina replied, "Like I said, a huge white beam from the sky came down and basically spit the bird out directly into the Crystal Tower. It was injured so I put a splint on her wing."
"That's a very strange entrance," Borgan noted. "Perhaps it was sent here by someone...white light could mean 'divine'."
A clock in the corner chimed.
"Rats... I need to hurry back to class. I'll take her with me... and don’t you touch my mother Borgan!" Lemina scolded sternly.
"Of course not my little cream-puff... we'll just do a little 'research' together on your feathered friend there while you are with your pupils," he replied.
"See you later, Lemina," Miria added as her daughter dashed out of the room, muttering to herself many a bad name for Borgan.
Far off to the west in Horam, Ryko was waiting at the spot where she and Jan usually met after they were both done with their training or exercises for the day. Normally, Jan watched her finish her martial arts lessons from the side of the practice mat and they would walk to the spot together. If Jan was busy, they'd meet there when both were done.
Today, Jan was late... VERY late.
Ryko had been worried about her all through training. She had seemed very depressed that afternoon. She seemed to be quite out of focus earlier... almost in a daze. The martial artist didn't even bother changing out of her gi before running to meet her.
Ryko didn't expect to wait more than fifteen minutes usually... this early evening she was standing at the meeting place for an hour before she got up and began to search the town.
She stood at the town's gate, looking out onto the plains. It was beginning to get darker out.
"You say she left town for a brief walk hours ago?"
The guard replied, "Yes. It didn't seem like she was doing anything particularly different. She normally goes out for a little quiet or to practice her swordplay."
Ryko nodded, "But didn't it dawn on you that she was out for A LOT longer than a few minutes for a 'brisk walk'?!"
He coughed and cleared his throat.
"Well... yes... but I have to stay at my post," the guard replied, not expecting the girl to get into such a huff.
"Did you ever think to send someone else out to look for her?!" Ryko angrily replied.
"Ah... um..." he stammered until a voice interrupted them.
"Your shift is over," another guard walked over and took his place at the gate. The original guard looked relieved. The heat wasn't on him anymore.
Suddenly, his expression changed as Ryko grabbed his shoulder and literally dragged him out the gates.
"Fine... I'm going to look around for her... and you're coming with me!"
"Damn... nothing in that direction either."
Ryko sighed and looked over her shoulder at her companion. The guard held his spear at his side, sheepishly looking side to side. They had not encountered any monsters yet... but also had found no sign of Jan anywhere.
The girl was losing her determination and decided to search to the west of town. If there weren't any indications of her best friend's presence, they would have to give up till tomorrow. It was not a good idea to be outside a safe haven at night... monster attacks always increased in number after the sun set.
They hurried along toward the forest when the guard noticed a thin wisp of smoke coming out of the ground in that direction. Ryko dashed toward it without hesitation. The gate guardian tried to keep up with the quickly running girl.
The smoke was emanating from a crater in the ground. It appeared something had plowed into the surface of the plains there.
The two of them stood and stared into the depths of the hole. It was not very deep actually, but the darkening skies altered their perception a bit. It was empty though... all that was in it was the rapidly dying smoke trail that reached upwards.
Ryko shook her head and murmured, "Nothing..."
Then, taking a step back, she found herself flat on her back after tripping over a cold object. She flipped to her feet and took a look at it.
"Jan's sword... but... where is she? She always has this blade on her."
The guard crouched and looked closer at the dug up dirt at the edge of the crater. The dark skies had made it hard to notice a set of boot prints going down into the crater. Ryko came over and saw them too.
"But what does this mean?" she asked.
The guard shook his head, "I have no idea."
Dejected, the martial artist walked back to Jan's sword and picked it up.
"Where are you Jan?" she spoke softly to herself.
Suddenly, the guard yelled in pain and flew through the air. He slammed onto the ground and his crumpled form emitted a moan of pain. Before Ryko could move a gruff voice was emitted behind her.
"Don't move!" it sternly spoke. "Turn around slowly and give me what you found in that crater and you will be allowed to live."
Ryko could feel hot breath on the back of her neck, arms, calves and heels. She shivered in fear for a second and slowly turned around.