Time Out of Memory

[Aki_no_kaze]

Aki yawned and leaned back in her chair as she listened to Leonite drone on to the gathered guests of the Eldred. Since he was the head of the Order he was obliged and privilaged to speak first and introduce the topic of discussion, the situation, and indeed, explain to them all why they had summoned hence. But even she had to admit that he was abusing the privilage droning on and on the way that he was. The poor half-dragon, Areon, while listening intently appeared more than a little bored and as she gazed across the table at the group of magical elites, Aki couldn't help but fidget a little in anticipation of her turn. There was so much to tell them... So much that she herself was unsure of- and indeed unsure if she would bring up at all. New research had been pouring in over the past two days and she was more than a little excited by the new information, especially when coming across something about some guy who had actually KNOWN Widow AND being a vampire, might still be alive. She just had to procure Leonite's approval to find this Jason. Who knew how much help he could be?

With a twinge of irritation she noted as she momentarily turned her ears back to Leonite that as he explained the previous conflict concerning Marius (specifically his lat battle with Widow, THE sorceress of the age), he conveniently "forgot" to mention the fact that the necromancer had joined his soul to the Magus Cian, the single greatest source of magical power on the continent. The young sorceress shook her head and turned her gaze to the table. Much as she liked Leonite (he WAS her best friend, after all) at times he was just too political. Too much weight was placed on public opinion under his direction. Too often the right thing would be to strike at problems head-on, and he danced around them like a tourist doing a REALLY bad Mexican hat dance.

A slight cough brought her attention back to the gathering and she turned her bright, hazel eyes back to the group to find them all staring at her intently, waiting for some response, seemingly. With embarassment Aki realized that Leonite had finally turned things over to her whilst she day-dreamed and pondered. A slight cough and she stood, brushing stray strands of her long auburn hair from her face and adjusting her glasses as she reached down and pulled her bag onto the table. "Thank you, Leonite for the background of the situation at hand," she said while pulling out a small glass orb and setting it in the middle of the table. With a wave of her hand, it began to grow in size and glow a bright purple as she continued speaking. "As you all now know, you have been summoned here because there is a threat to the Continent that has recently come to light in the form of an organized, dangerous group- a cult if you will." Another wave of her hand near the orb that was now the size of a large pumpkin and the picture of a strange symbol appeared in the center. It had what appeared to be a compass rose twisted around a tree-like shape like a vine with the words "Eternitate authoritae" scrawled across the top like leaves. "This is the symbol of said group it-"

"Wait a second," a voice said and in the dark Aki couldn' t see who it was that spoke, "I thought these guys were just trying to resurrect Marius. Why are we looking at the ancient symbol of the Archaics?"

Aki smiled as she opened her mouth to answer. So they hadn't all fallen asleep during Leonite's drawl. "It is true that you are here to discuss the threat of reusrrecting Marius, but the exact reason why it would be so disastrous lies in a fact my colleague seems to have forgotten to include in his introduction, that being that in his last battle with the sorceress Widow, Marius had managed to locate the Magus Cian, the ancient power of those beings that we are all descended from, the Archaics, whose symbol you see before you. Just for trivial information, it is comprised of a pointed cross wrapped around the Tree of Life from which they believed themselves to have 'dropped'. But back to Marius. Not only did he find the power of these people-" The viewing-orb flashed and revealed a three-dimensional picture of an enormous white, half-man-half-serpentine creature looming above a woman in long red robes trimmed in white. "In an effort to remove the only threat that stood in the way of his plan to purify this world and remove all the 'unworthy' via the Magus Cian he tied his very spirit to it. Thus, as you all can infer, he was no longer tangibly mortal. He could not be kiiled so long as the Cross of the Archiacs that summoned forth the Magus remained. To date we STILL have not found a way of destroying them and so Widow did the only thing that she could and sealed him away. After doing so she broke the relic into four pieces and the map to the location into three, leaving the Eldred one of each." With a small sigh Aki strecthed out her hand and the orb began to shrink until it floated into her palm and was placed back in her messenger's bag. With earnest intent she gazed round at the lot of them and when she spoke, what smile there had been in her features disappeared for a moment.

"You've been summoned here to help me in this investigation. We all can guess what will happen if this cult calling themselves the 'True Light' will do if they manage to assemble the relic and resurrect the Magus Cian and Marius. For those of you who don't, allow me to put it in perspective. In the past two months they have attacked nine communities in search of pieces, only two of which were spared. Those two housed and were made up of ONE thing that the others did not and were not: Human magic-users. The others were supported by elves, dwarves, druids, vampires, non-users... You can see what their intent is." Here she paused and sighed again, a desperate look in her eyes as she continued her address. "You all are the best at what you do. We have the first map-piece, we've solved the riddle on the back that will lead us to the next piece and to the next relic-piece, but to be honest, I have no one in this entire Council that would understand this quite so well as any of you would. Should you decide to leave and go home, I will hold you no grudge and wish you well. But if you will help me in this investigation, I only ask that you meet me tomorrow morning outside this building ready to leave. Thank you." With that she resumed her place at the table and picked up her bag as the gathered group began standing and leaving.

"I'll stick around if anyone wants to ask anything or needs additional info." she chimed, doubting that anyone actually heard her as she gathered her notebooks and scrolls together.