Fantasy Kast: The last Quest Guild

[Guardian Angel]

The mage had sharp ears, mused the rogue, didn't like my style of talking to him. Understandable, but predictable. He sighed and returned to his seat in the darkest corner of the tap room, observing the room, and, more specifically, the interactions between healer and mage, he wondered, his eyes twinkling in the shadows, if they would get along. A healer, and a man who didn't scruple to blow the arms off of innocent barmaids merely for the sake of making a point. He was enjoying this.

 

[The Master]

"The woman's actions reflect on her boss. I am not proactive, I am reactive. So if you ever see me make someone's arm explode, it is because that person deserved it. The rogue is arrogant but holds no actual substance. If we were not in HIS building, he would be smarter than to challange a mage. Like how I would know better than to antagonize a group of pyromancers. So far he is proving nothing except he has no place in being the leader of a group." Elijah never looked up from his book as he spoke. "I will never see anyone as dominant or submissive when it comes to work. When we have a job, we do that job. No one is better than anyone else. The rogue doesn't seem to understand that. You are not better than me, I am not better than you, he is not better than either of us."


He put his book down and leaned forward, "I am proving that what I say is true. I am giving YOU respect because you have given it to me. I have no need to do anything rash with you like I have with him." Elijah finished speaking. He leaned back and waited for the healer to respond, finding her rather enjoyable.

 

[InactiveCoffee]

Syndra cracked a smile at his words, "Then you are either a bold wolf, or a foolish one." she said with a soft chuckle. She laid her hand on the table so that the mouse could climb back down to its hiding place in her pocket. "Though I am in agreement that respect be due where respect is given. An alpha wolf respects those in his territory. If they don't pose a threat." she laughed, and glanced around the taproom. "Not that humans seem to understand the ways of the wolf most of the time." she added with a sigh.

 

[The Master]

"I understand the ways of the wolf. But we are not wolves, nor is he the alpha wolf. He is simply the owner of this establishment. An alpha wolf never stops being alpha no matter the location. If we all were to step outside, he would stop being in charge. That isn't an alpha. So if you want to compare us to animals some more, pick one that is more appropriate." Elijah picked up his book and continued reading. As he suspected, she was just another arrogant elf who knew less than nothing about the down to Earth reality of things. "The rogue is simply a man with a big goal. If we are to be working for him, he needs to show he is capable. He has shown so far he is good at nothing but being a rogue and a very bad host..." Elijah turned the page slowly.

 

[Guardian Angel]

Kas chuckled. He liked this mage. He was a walking talking contradiction, and that amused him. But perhaps he was right. He was human now, his abilities were limited. No fool the trickster. He could have crept up behind the mage like he had the first time, but he was never one to do the same thing twice, unless of course it promised more fun the second time around. He stood from his table and approached the one where Elijah and Syn sat. He gave the healer a small salute and turned to the mage. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced." Said he, his voice echoing strangely in the depths of his hood, and stretched out a hand, offering a shake, if the Elijah deigned to accept it. "I'm Kas, this is Syn, and you are?"

 

[The Master]

"Elijah." He spoke, not looking up from his book to shake the man's hand. "The hand shake originated as a way to show one had no weapons up their sleeves. I trust you enough to not use whatever you might have against me. So do not take the declination of your hand shake as a sign of disrespect." He turned the page yet again. "So, who else might you be expecting?" Elijah asked, his voice as stoic as his expression. "I'd like to think a mage and a healer are not all that you will be taking with you on your little adventure." He chuckled softly.

 

[InactiveCoffee]

"The alpha is always alpha in his domain. This guildhall being his domain. I thought it was very accurate." Syn said with a wry smile. "Personally, civilization could learn a lot from the wolf." she said with a shrug, glancing at the rouge. "It's rude to offer another's name without permission." she stated, then turned her attention to the room around her. She listened to the goings on between the mage and rouge, but pretended to pay no mind. She was curious about what the guildmaster would say, since she had thought about asking the exact same questions.

 

[Guardian Angel]

"No offense," said Kas, a smile in his voice, his gloved hand still hanging in the air between them. "But I didn't offer the hand to show you that I don't intend to hurt you. You blew up my barmaid, I don't appreciate that. But I like you, so I didn't let her tear you into tiny peices. I want you to shake my hand to show me that you won't do something like that to my things again." The barmaid walked by, carrying a tray laden with tankards, and Kas removed one and took a sip. "Manners," He said, staring into the contents of his tankard, "are still a bit new to me. Ought I now apologize?" Without waiting for an answer to his question he shook his hood back, revealing an unremarkable countenance framed by unruly black hair, and inset with sparkling grey eyes. "If I offended you," smiling impishly at Syndra, "I am very sorry, it was not my intention." He took another sip and murmured almost as though to himself, "They aren't."

 

[The Master]

"Your barmaid would have been mulch before she could get within a foot of me... You and I both know that rogue." Elijah never looked up from his book or changed the monotone of his voice. "And if you had been paying the amount of attention a child would, elf, you would know that I never said he stopped being alpha in his domain. I said that an alpha will remain alpha no matter where he goes. But when Kas leaves his domain, he stops being alpha. There for he is not a wolf. Humans cannot be wolves. Your illustration is redundant to say in the least."


Elijah looked up for a quick moment from his book. "If the next words out of either of your mouths are hollow or foolish at all I will take my leave. I came here to do a job and work for Kas. Not to play a childish game of who is better than who. Show SOME sort of intellect at least out of self respect..." He continued reading. Elijah wanted the two to just cut the sh** so they could get on with why they were here. He could hold his own against the two no problem, but it would undermine a lot in the future. Something like that is not worth the risk in the end. Especially if it meant someone dying because of something petty.

 

[Guardian Angel]

"My barmaid is perfectly able to tear you to pieces. Unless you are a priest as well as a mage? Which I highly doubt. And you still haven't shaken my hand. For one who seems to despise any sign of pride in others, you don't seem to lack the quality, one might even say you had an overabundance of it." Kas said, his tone still light. "And, while I am attempting to show you the respect you demand of other beings, though it goes sorely against the grain with me, I have received none of the promised return, nor have I even seen an attempt at it. I like you mage, but if you're going to work with me, you're going to have to respect my stuff. You can shake my hand, or you can leave my guildhall. I can assure you I have made the necessary preparations for a team of adventurers in these dangerous times, but while your self-centered nature and stoic, may I say it? Condescending attitude, amuse me, I have seen no cause in them to confide in you. I said I liked you. I didn't say I trusted you. Why should I, when you blatantly refuse to even shake my hand as a promise not to touch my stuff, and rebuff every effort I make, quite arduous efforts too, to be respectful, and civil? I assure you neither of these qualities are in my nature." All this talking was getting boring. The mage was more interesting when he sat judging everyone in stoic silence. Kas had recourse to his tankard again and made a face. "How can you humans stomach this stuff?" He says, setting the tankard on the table.

 

[InactiveCoffee]

Syndra couldn't help but giggle softly at the interaction. Humans were some of the most interesting of the races. The most diverse in cultural personality. "None taken, Kas. I just prefer to offer my name only when asked. In which the mage hadn't asked yet." She said lightly, smiling back at the rogue. She had wanted to retort that even an alpha wolf loses alpha status outside their territories except to their own pack, but she figured it was a tiresome argument. Animals would be animals, and even humans were animals. "I am very intellegent, thank you. Just not familiar with civilized affairs. I'm a druid of nature, not of human affairs." She responded curtly, "So don't go telling me what I say is hollow or foolish. It is merely the way I observe the world around me." She finished, then glanced at the rogue. "Ale is far to bitter. I prefer wine since it is derived from fruit." She commented, and held her half full glass of wine in offering to the man. "If ale isn't to your liking, then perhaps this would be better suited for your palate." She said lightly, smiling.

 

[Guardian Angel]

Kas smiled at what the healer had to say, he responded to Syndra, though his eyes never left Elijah's face, "I would not think of it Woodwalker Syn. An alpha, after all, does not eat, or in this case, drink, after it's packmates." It did not suit his nature to stand still for so very long, but neither did it suit him to back down after a demand, and he waited, arm extended. He raised an eyebrow at the mage, a question in his eyes. He knew the mage didn't like him, but so far he had stuck to his guns about wishing to be on the team. How far was he willing, then, to go. Surely the shaking of the tricksters hand would not be his breaking point?

 

[InactiveCoffee]

Syndra laughed out loud then, a chiming sound. "Ah. Finally someone who sees the way I do." She said and pulled her cup to her lips. She eyed the interaction between Rouge and mage. This was turning out to be rather interesting. "If that be the case, shall I have a separate glass brought for you?" She asked as she took a sip of her drink. A small squeak came from her pocket, so she slipped her free hand into the pouch and ran a finger across her mouse's fur. "I would request your magics be reigned in, if you please, Elijah. The energies are frightening Gem." She said calmly.

 

[Guardian Angel]

"I thank you no, when I wish for a drink," he paused, and made a swift motion with his free hand, and a goblet seemed to appear in his hand from out of nowhere, "I am tolerably well able to satisfy myself on the account." He swirled the contents of the goblet, glancing at it in a slightly wistful way, but making no motion to taste it. "Besides, it would not be polite of me, as a host, to allow my patrons to buy me my own drinks. . . . Would it?" This question, he asked with a tilt of his head. He really wasn't sure what counted as polite in human circles, never having concerned himself with such.

 

[InactiveCoffee]

Syndra smiled, but opted not to respond. She knew his words were correct, and also that there was no need to press any further on the matter. She slipped her hand out, Gem the small forest mouse, settled in her long fingers. She set the mouse on her shoulder, where is promptly nested in the curls of her ponytail that hung over the same shoulder.

 

[The Master]

Elijah cracked a small smirk as he read. "These people are easier than a brothel woman" He thought silently to himself. Elijah's expression went back to its neutral state. His mother was a high elf and his father was a dark elf, both students of magic and knowledge. Elijah was raised by elves, and because of their fanatical obsession with knowledge and magic he was also raised to be the best he could be. Because of this he was a master at covert actions and knowledge and magic. Elijah didn't care one bit about anything the two had done, he just put on an exterior to see how they would react.


He didn't care about the barmaid, the healer, or the rogue in the way they thought he did. Elijah didn't even care if they treated him like dirt. He needed to see the kind of people he would be working with though, and they made who they are VERY clear. Elijah would tuck away the information he had just obtained for a later date.


Elijah thought about the barmaid and ran the scenarios through his head. The woman would be able to kill him 2 out of every thirteen times. He was taught never to test those kinds of numbers no matter how capable. So he merely half agreed with the rogue on that subject. Elijah wondered as well when the rogue would realize that if Elijah DID shake his hand he would be able to slip a glyph on him and have him burst into hell fire. He wouldn't do it of course, but he at least thought the rogue would be smarter than to offer a hand shake to a mage with more capability than a high elf and more murderous ability than a dark elf. Elijah would not lie to himself by saying he understood these two very much, because he didn't. Elijah just continued to read slowly and in silence, listening and observing everything and everyone. He would give the occasional glance at the healer though.

 

[Guardian Angel]

Kas saw a flash of something in the mages eyes, he was uncertain what it might have signified, and before he could discern it's meaning, it was gone. the mage was playing deep. The rogues eyes twinkled as he took Elijah's book, almost without the mage noticing, and looked at it. He knew there were likely wards or glyphs meant to transfer to anyone besides the mage that touched it, but one couldn't be a rogue very long without learning to plan for such things, especially if one was particularly curious. His gloves, and indeed, all of his clothes, were made of woven Celestial Obsidian fibers, also known as dragon cloth, very difficult to make, very expensive to buy, unless of course you steal it, and wouldn't take glyphs, it had the happy effect of shedding magic like water. "What is it you are reading? It must be awfully interesting." He flipped through the pages.

 

[The Master]

Elijah looked at Kas. It struck Elijah as odd that the rogue would take a book right out of his hands like that. He simply sat up straighter and continued staring at the rogue. In the book were symbols and marks, none of which able to be deciphered as Elijah's mother wrote the book FOR him. His dad, due to being a dark elf, was the one who turned the words into a language only Elijah would understand. "It's instructions and lessons for arcane spells of the highest caliber. Some haiku's, a handful of elven lullabies, and plenty of stories. My mother put all of her knowledge into that book using a spell she made. My father was always the one for secrets so he put it all in a language only I knew. Mostly because I made it up for fun when I was a kid. I didn't think he'd put something like that to use." Elijah shrugged.


"The book does have magical properties. Because my mother was a high elf, she lived a very very very long time. All that knowledge wouldn't fit into that book, so there are one hundred thousand pages to read on each page. There are one thousand pages in the book. My mother taught me the spell needed to change the pages so I can continue reading the book once done with a single page." Elijah took the book back carefully and slowly. "If you want I can teach you a thing or two. There are minor spells in the book too, but only a handful." He offered Kas.

 

[InactiveCoffee]

Syndra watched the interaction with amusement. This was certainly going to be an entertaining group. Her interest piqued when the mage mentioned his parentage. "A high elf and a dark elf?" she asked curiously. "That's a combination all but unheard of." she added, looking over at the mage. "Why is it you look human, then? With two elven parents, should you not resemble an elf?" she asked. She was now looking at the mage with a new light, having more knowledge of his heritage. This would turn out to be more interesting than she had first thought. She smiled when a small squeak resounded near her ear, "It's ok, Gem. There is nothing to fear here." she whispered softly to the hidden mouse.

 

[The Master]

"My birth mother and father were killed by a band of rogues. My adopted mother saw me in the pile that used to be my home and she took me in. I was five months old, and she had recently lost her own infant so she saw me as a second chance. Both of my parents raised me to be stronger, smarter, and more capable than any high or dark elf. Mostly because they wanted their child to grow up to be an elf. So they were a little extreme." Elijah rested his book on the table.


"My ability to surpass elves in their own realm of things is because of my parents. If I were raised to be the way I am now but by humans, I would amount to just another human mage." Elijah scratched his chin lightly. "My parents were an odd couple yes, but when I asked my mom she gave me an odd answer. 'I just can't resist how much he turns me on.'" Elijah cleared his throat. "She wasn't really one for sugar coating. So her answers were blunt and uncensored." He chuckled nervously.

 

[InactiveCoffee]

Syndra nodded, understanding what the mage said. So he had been adopted by elves. His last comment made her smile, "I've yet to meet an elf who sugar coats anything." She said with laugh.

 

[Guardian Angel]

"No, they don't tend to sugar coat things, but I've met plenty of elves you couldn't give simple directions in anything less than a twenty line poem with a complex rhyme-scheme." Kas chuckled. He handed the book back to Elijah. The mage was acting completely different. Being adopted by elves explained a lot, so that's his game, Kas thought, he was just reading the company, there was more to the mage than met the eyes, more even than one might assess after a long period of time, it was going to be fun to figure him out. Maybe even more fun than it would have been, if he had still had his full abilities. "No," Came his response to the mages offer. "I was never meant to be a mage, it's not for me. Of course, there might be some spells I might want to know, but chances are I already know them. However, if you care to teach me how to read that nacky little language your books written in . . . " He grinned.

 

[The Master]

(He already had the book. But eh whatevs (:3))


"The language contains power. To learn it is something very difficult. There is more knowledge and information in this book then there is in all three of us. My parents have lived very long lives striving to reach superior intellect since they could first read. I might teach you..." Elijah tapped his fingers on the book that was now on the table. "Sometimes I forget I am human. My parents did two things before dying. One was casting a spell on me where when I die I will turn into a hybrid of high and dark elf. The second was making this book."


Elijah took a breath, not used to so much socializing. "Ironically, I have always wanted my wife to be something along the lines of you." You was looking at Syndra. "Although I find high elf women extremely beautiful, I lean a little bit more towards the wood elf girls. It's sort of a fifty fifty thing. I just like how in tuned with nature they are. In all honesty I think humans are weird..." Elijah finished, now opening the book and flipping through the pages.


"There is a spell in here actually, that can turn humans into orcs and vice versa. As well as dwarf into hobbit and hobbit into dwarf. A high elf into a dark or wood elf, and the same with the other two. As long as their are similarities between the races I can change them. So elves into humans, humans to elves, and many more. Of course I need a good days rest afterwards." Elijah read over the contents of the spell he spoke of. "I'm not saying I will change any of you, but if you ever get bored and want to become something else for a bit I can help." He continued reading.

 

[Guardian Angel]

((Then I don't know how he got it. But like you said, not really important.(^.^)))


Kas listened to the mage with half an ear. He wasn't completely disinterested in Elijah's story, but he would very much have preferred to have had to drag it out of him in tiny mysterious tidbits over the course of the adventure, instead of it's being offered so quickly and easily, and, he thought, in the most boring way possible. The mage probably realized this, and wished to avert as much interest in his history as possible by divulging a large portion of it in so small a time, hoping that in doing so he would bore his listeners enough for them not to ask impertinent questions. He was sadly mistaken if this was his plan. Kas had no immediate plans of wheedling out of the mage what, if anything, he was hiding. But he certainly intended to do so sometime. As it was he merely said, with a twinkle, "Ye might be surprised at how nacky I am with languages."

 

[The Master]

(My second post of the page. Read the last paragraph. 'Elijah took the book back carefully and slowly.')


(From what it looks like, you might not actually be reading anything I post. Just skimming it.)