Unearthed Legacy

[Zach Kaiser]

Relief visibly spread across the girl. Not that it erased her tension; it merely replaced it with a different kind. Still, she managed to let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Ohthankgawd," she spilled out. "For a second I thought I summoned a demon or something. Not that you look demonic or anything!" she added hastily. "I-I just didn't realize you weren't human...n-not that there's anything wrong with not being human!"

"Ooooohhh," she whined to herself, suddenly turning around and shuffling in place, her arms waving wildly. Composure under pressure was not one of her strong suits. "I'm totally screwing this up!"

She took a few deep breaths, attempting to regain a little bit of dignity. After a few moments she turned back around. The calmness didn't last long, as she flushed as she walked up to her and stuck out her hand. "I-I'm Valerie Durandal, but everyone calls me Val. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

[Nayt]

Valerie's reaction wasn't too terribly unexpected. People did not react to Xibtrae well, and certainly would have not reacted any better if she wore the clothes of her preference and possessed a weapon of her preference (speaking of, she needed to look into picking up some of this next time she had the chance) . . .

Nevertheless, it was good to finally see Valerie. Good, but odd. Val looked nothing like she pictured her to-- but then again, Xibtrae looked nothing like Val pictured her; this Xibtrae was sure of. Regardless, this was grounds for calming and dropping her guard. How she was here and speaking with Valerie in person, Xibtrae would have to deal with a little bit later.

"'Tis a pleasure to at last maketh thine acquaintance, Valerie," Xibtrae said with a smile.

She shook the girl's hand like she would with any person, but here, in dreams, Xibtrae was a lot stronger than she looked. She may have looked thin, but the woman definitely had the grip of a tried and true warrior, that was for sure. This, of course, differed from her interactions with Garv and others, at whom she could produce little force. Her body barely felt like it belonged to her; it was weak and untrained. The self she knew in dreams was a different story entirely.

"Thou hast no need for apology," she added as an afterthought, "I am beginning to accustom myself with these . . . reactions. I know that I was certainly stricken by my first sight of a . . . a . . ."

Xibtrae trailed off. It suddenly dawned on her that until Val mentioned it, she sincerely had no idea what this species of people were named.

"Human?" she concluded as a rhetorical question.

[Zach Kaiser]

Val couldn't help but blush a bit as she shook Xibtrae's hand; the way she spoke was so formal. Granted, they'd been speaking for over a week now, but it was one thing to just hear a voice and another to actually see the person. Despite looking...well, rather fierce and warrior like, she had a refined air about her. It was kind of like talking to a prince (she imagined).

Except that Xibtrae was a girl.

"Eh? You just saw a human for the first time?" This was news to her. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. She'd found the scythe deep in a ruin that had probably been completely sealed before the End. "How long were you down in that ruin?" She was far from knowledgeable on history, but it would have been a really long time ago if she'd never seen a human until she met her. Or was she just from somewhere where there weren't any humans?

[Nayt]

"I-- well, 'tis not the first time, not now. The first human I bore witness to is the man with whom I travel." Xibtrae wondered if Val was able to hear Garv when he talked, but said nothing more on the matter.

Still, she actually felt a bit embarrassed to admit that she hadn't seen humans before. It also stood as a direct indicator to what she was. Well, kind of. That was something she didn't feel comfortable even flirting with, though. To her knowledge, it was for the best for humans to know nothing of her kind-- sad as the thought may be.

Well . . . Val had seen a great deal of the supernatural, what with being trapped within a weapon like Xibtrae had. It wouldn't have been long before a smart girl like her figured out that this was Gaiasoul containment. There was really no hiding this information from her. From others, of course. If she could stop Garv from ever knowing, she certainly would, but Garv's body and soul was not contained within an animate object, and Xibtrae wasn't currently out questing to somehow remedy that problem.

"I am Xibtrae of Sengurk. I twas once called the 'Goddess' of Spirit," she said, and rather matter of factly at that. "I was imprisoned long before the conception of man."

Odd though it may be, it felt nice to actually admit that to someone. Pretending she had no such history was a constant source of strangeness for her.

"Tis mesmerizing to witness the works of Saqin so evolved," she remarked as a side-thought, whilst she was still thinking about humanity.

[Zach Kaiser]

"G-Goddess of Spirit...wait...you're...that Xibtrae?!" Val squeaked. She wasn't terribly well read, but one didn't have to well read to know of that legend! Granted, she didn't really know much about the legend, but it was still something she'd heard of. It was a pretty famous legend, after all.

This meant all kinds of things, if that legend was true. There plenty of meaningful things to be taken from confirmation of that much. Val was not quite together enough to realize any of those things. "W-Wow, you must be really--!" She covered her mouth suddenly. Okay, that was just being rude.

"S-Sorry...oh wow, no one at the Academy's going to believe this..." Which was literally true. Everyone would probably accuse of her making things up to glamorize herself. Of course, that was if she made it back at all.

"So, umm...you're probably wondering what you're doing here, right? I summoned you here. I, uh, kind of wanted to meet you face to face." She didn't say that it took her a long time to get it right, even with the unlimited supplies she kind of had here. "I wasn't sure it would work, so I'm glad it did...though, I'm not really sure how it all works...I mean, this place isn't real, right?"

She gestured around the room; no, it was definitely not real. She swore it changed and moved things around more than once. All the books in the room were ones she'd already read (though not necessarily fully absorbed or understood), and it seemed like there was an endless supply of whatever she could imagine.

All in all it would have been a nice place to stay if it wasn't so boring. And lonely.

[Nayt]

"I . . . well . . . t'would be much appreciated were thee to sayeth nothing," Xibtrae remarked awkwardly, "Twas many a year ago, but Saqin hath requested that mine-- that . . . our --presence be minimal, and cloaked if at all possible."

Really, this was something she needed Valerie to understand before they went on much further. If she went to back to the "Academy" and started telling tales of meeting gods and goddesses, and she were to be believed, she'd create such a level of suspicion and wary-- one that might spread on to the rest of the world, however slowly, and recreate the same disasters that prompted Saqin-- the one otherwise known as Death --to specifically state that the presence of gods must be as removed from this world as possible.

It'd been so long since she'd heard Saqin's voice that she did not quite know if he continued to enforce that rule between himself and his brothers, but Xibtrae recognized the honor in words. She'd be sure to uphold her promise to him until he, himself, told her differently.

That . . . would be an awkward meeting, and one Xibtrae personally chose to not think about.

"Tis not in a world of gods thou liveth," she reasoned, and hoped that Val would understand as much. The only reason she revealed this to Val was the necessity of the situation, and how impossible it was to lie to her at this point in time.

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Oh! Okay. S-Sure, no problem! I won't tell a soul!" Val promised, puffing out her chest to try and look more trustworthy than she did. "I'd just get laughed at anyway." She wasn't held in the highest regard on campus; nobody was going to take her word on something like this even if she wanted to brag.

While she was a little disappointed this was a story she couldn't tell others, keeping quiet was the least she could do. Xibtrae had saved her life, after all! She'd do practically anything for her if she asked. Speaking of which...

"U-Umm...if there's anything I can do for you, just let me know! You saved my life, after all." At this, she blushed and looked at her feet. It always went like this; the more composed another person was, the more flustered she got when she talked to them. Especially if they'd saved her life.

[Nayt]

Xibtrae smiled. "Tis much appreciated."

She soon shook her head, though. As much as she appreciated Val's offer to help her in any way, Xibtrae couldn't bring herself to ask. Right now, it was Xibtrae's duty to somehow help Val out of here. In fact, that was the whole reason Xibtrae was on this quest.

It was more than just that, though . . .

"Thou needeth only to rest and relax," Xibtrae said as her smile turned sad-- knowing, even. She'd been here before. She knew the limitations. "I can borrow thy power, but . . . 'tis little thou doth can do to influence the world from here. This world is . . ."

Xibtrae trailed off. She didn't want to say it, but in the way she frowned and the way she held her hands out to show the boundaries of the world around them, it might very well be clear to Val what Xibtrae was trying to say to her:

. . . a prison.

[Zach Kaiser]

Val had no problem finishing the sentence for Xibtrae, though her wording was a bit different. "Boring." She clearly didn't the same perspective on the situation as Xibtrae did, though perhaps it wasn't really her fault. She could hardly fathom the kind of time frame the older woman was acquainted with.

"But it beats being dead," she added with a smile. "So, umm, if you don't mind, can I summon you here again sometimes? Having someone to talk to face to face really beats just killing time in here myself."

She was slowly getting over her nervousness around Xibtrae; really, it was a problem of self-consciousness more than anything. If she stopped being worried about saying or acting stupid, then she had a much easier time talking to people.

"Oh, and I can release the spell whenever you want, if you want to get back to sleep." This was probably something she'd want to know.

[Nayt]

"I do not mind at all," Xibtrae replied, a smile growing upon her lips again.

Valerie was actually quite delightful. That she could take something as disheartening as her current situation and treat it with borderline levity-- as if she simply didn't care about how bad it might be, or outright believed in Xibtrae enough that she didn't see any problems in the future --was absolutely amazing. Xibtrae certainly wished she could have had the same bravado when she was first trapped . . . but alas, when she was trapped, she knew exactly what had befallen her, and gave up all hope instantly.

If she'd had someone as cheerful as Val around during the time she was trapped . . . it might very well have never felt like such a prison.

"Though I wonder . . . meeting thee-- doth it function as a dream?" Xibtrae asked, "If so-- then sleep shant be a problem. If we may part by morning, I shall be all right."

After all, her companions would probably be a wee bit worried if they tried to wake her and failed. Xibtrae was supposed to be a light sleeper and all . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

That was a difficult question for Val to answer. "Ummm...probably? There aren't really any spells for things like this, so I kind of...improvised." She's more or less crossed a summoning spell with a dream diving spell; she got the impression things must work differently in this space, because neither spell was something she'd been able to do before, let alone combine them into one.

"I-It'll be fine, though! I have everything under control. Probably." She gave a nervous laugh. Well, there was a limit to what could go wrong in something that was like mental space, she figured. It wasn't as though they could actually get hurt. She assumed.

In an attempt to change the subject away from this lack of confidence, she said, "O-Oh, I was also going to try a scrying spell too, maybe see what's going on outside a little bit, but I wanted to ask your permission first, s-seeing as it's essentially, umm, spying on you."

[Nayt]

"I see. Thou art an able spellcaster," Xibtrae smiled through the compliment, but it was entirely genuine, "Thou shouldst be proud."

Combining spells was tough, after all. Back home, Xibtrae was not a capable spellcaster. She knew some of the basics, but all of her power came from raw instinct; she couldn't weave a spell together to save her or another person's life. Really. She'd tried it before. It failed miserably.

On the concept of spying, though . . .

"Oh. I do not mind," Xibtrae replied with a shake of her head, "From where I hail, privacy is a ghostly concept. Close friends and family know most everything about each other, perhaps even share and act freely within the same quarters. And-- in the militia --that was absolutely expected."

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Oh...I see..." Val's eyebrows scrunched in thought as she tried to grasp this. "W-Well, we don't get much privacy in the dormitory at the academy, so I guess I can see where you're coming from. Kind of." Though it was less a matter of trust and sharing and more about it being a giant rumor mill. She still remembered the one about some burly mercenary getting changed into a kid. She didn't know if it was true or not, but if it was, she'd have loved to see it.

"Though, I can't imagine--" She paused suddenly and broke eye contact, looking as though she was listening to something. Which wasn't far from the truth. "Umm...did you feel that?"

[Nayt]

"I see," Xibtrae said thoughtfully, "Perhaps our cultures are not so far apart? I know not; all I know of human culture is what Saqin hath told me-- but the world looks so much different than what he described . . ."

She'd been out of the picture for a long, long time, though. Hundreds of years, maybe even thousands--she really didn't know how long it'd been since she'd last been told anything about the world, and without any such scrying abilities, she was virtually incapable of seeing beyond her little prison.

Xibtrae soon tilted her head to the side. "Feel what?"

If Val was experiencing something special, then it was entirely unique to her. Xibtrae felt nothing beyond what was normal for her.

[Zach Kaiser]

It was a testament to how distracted Val truly was that she didn't react to the offhand mention of conversing with a god. It took a few seconds for her to answer, as she searched for a possible explanation for what she was feeling but came up short. "I-I don't know," she admitted with a guilty shake of her head. "It's just...the mana in the area suddenly went all...wonky. Err, maybe unstable is a better word for it."

And then Xibtrae would feel something herself, albeit something different. A very, very powerful Qi presence, but she would only feel it very briefly, like the twinkling of a star, gone as soon as it appeared.

"M-Maybe I should send you back," Val suggested nervously. If Xibtrae really was still in bed, asleep, then she was helpless as long as her mind was here with her! As much as she wanted to talk to her savior, she didn't want to put her in danger by doing so.