[hiatus]Siblings [closed]

[Dreadicon]

Traephen leaped from the shadows, throwing an elbow, aimed at that man's lower back, followed by a finger jab at the back of his neck. '3rd vertebra, T-10. 15th Vertebra, C-5.' he thought. This should disorient the man, and in the drunken state he should fall asleep, and seince he had used the neural cluster in the lower back, likely wet himself as well.

Traephen was careful to land flat on her icy trap, so as to stabilize himself. he didn't wait to see the man fall, but instead began a small invocation of his own to cover their escape.
He began softly but shout the final word.

"Wind, bend to my fingers;
gale, strike with my arms.
Nikinah be willing, Wind spirit deliver;
I command the zephyr as THUS!"

With the last word, he swept his right hand from behind him low to the ground and the up. While he put as much force as he could behind it, he main goal was to create a gust of wind which would pick up dust, masking their escape, and confusing the men in their already confused stupor.

[Treijim]

The leader almost slipped over but managed to stabilise himself. This was to no avail, for after receiving a blow and a jab, he toppled face-first onto the ice patch. His pants grew dark from moisture. The dust that was brought up from the paved street certainly swept through the men, but it seemed they had chosen a rather clean area of the town, and the dust got in their eyes a little but did no more.

One of the men at the back drew out a shortbow and readied an arrow, letting it fly towards Tisiphone's legs. The two men with swords went left and right, quickly surrounding the siblings that were about to attempt an escape. They then ran in, large swords swinging wide at about mid-body height, aimed at whoever got in their way. The final man guarded the archer, who had another arrow ready. If they were intoxicated before, they certainly seemed very steady-minded now. It was an usually fast switch.

[Dreadicon]

The switch in nature was definitely a surprise to Traephen, and he now had to decide on another plan of action. He hadn't had much experience dealing with weapons while unarmed, nor fights against multiple opponents, so this was not the best of situations. Not to mention they were all full-grown men, while he was a boy of 15. He could use fire magic, but it bore the risk of setting the curtains and wooden structures around them on fire. If it were him alone, he could make a break for it; he was sure he could dodge at least a couple of the men, but Tisiphone was here, so that wasn't an option either. Before he could manage to form a plan of action, however, an arrow was flying in his and his sister's general direction.

Traephen immediately saw the arrow fly, and he was filled with dread, moreso for his sister than for himself. In a desperate attempt to avert it, he made a jab at it attempting to also cast magic with the motion, hoping that shouting a word scribbled in the margins of the description of Wind magic would somehow aid him. "Buroba!" He shouted, putting as much force as he could gather into it.

[gummiarms]

Tisiphone was shocked at the sudden turn of events. Just what was going on? These men weren't just a bunch of rowdy drunks! In fact, they were acting with coordinated tactics and it seemed pretty well planned out. Also, the conspicuous absence of bystanders and guard patrols was somewhat suspicious as well. What had they gotten themselves into?

Her thoughts were cut short by an arrow flying toward her legs, and reacting more on instinct than anything else, she dove sideways, hoping to take cover behind some boxes.

Her biggest concern was the archer, he would make escaping much more difficult. The two men fanning out would be a more immediate problem of course, but the archer would keep them pinned down if they didn't do anything.

Once she landed, Tisiphone started searching for something, anything, that she might be able to use to defend herself.

[Treijim]

The arrow missed Tisiphone's legs, both due to the wind thrust upon it (though the arrow seemed to flash green as Buroba was spoken) and Tisiphone's nimble maneuver, but it wasn't two seconds before another came down at her from above. Or was it the same arrow? A keen observation of the archer's bow would inform anyone that it wasn't normal: the wood had a green tinge and it was elaborate and large. On top of this, the archer was pointing down at the sister. Bizarre, foreign, and lethal sorcery, to say the least.

As Tisiphone had taken refuge, the two men with swords went for Traephen; one swinging low and another swinging high. As for a weapon-like item, there were perhaps stray small planks of wood, crates, barrels, loose pebbles, but little more. The sleeping thug on the ice had dropped his sword, though.

[gummiarms]

It was a split second decision on Tisiphone's part, but it saved her life. Her questing hands found an old barrel lid and she hoisted it over her head, thinking to use it as a shield, but unaware of the deadly archery magic until the arrow struck through it, coming withing an inch of her face! Tisiphone was not a cowardly girl, but the sudden and nearly fatal experience caused her to shriek at the top of her lungs, and she reflexively hurled the barrel lid away.

Tisiphone immediately realized the foolishness of what she had done, but it was too late to do anything about it now. Given the lack of useful tools on hand, she really only had one option. She grabbed the largest plank on hand, relying on luck more than anything else to use it as a shield, but something was better than nothing. Then she dove for the fallen man's sword, praying the move would be crazy and unexpected enough to work. She could only pray that her brother could fend for himself.

[Dreadicon]

Traephen had no time to think; only to react. he jumped, preforming a backhand spring into a crouching position, sliding further back on the ice Tisiphone had created, picking up a piece of hard wood lying on the ground as he slid back. he pulled the cloth from his foot and wrapped it about the piece of wood, lashing it to the back of his arm and hand. It would serve as a reasonable shield, and as long as he parried with it instead of block, he could even deal with a sword. This wasn't Traephen's battlefield, but he was determined to not let them harm his sister.

He had been alarmed when the arrow had plunged toward his sister, and cursed himself for trying crazy magic in a time like this. he did, however, have a plan now, as his sister grasped for the sword. They slid next next to each other, and Traephen whispered to his sister "Freeze as much of the ground as you can." Traephen was used to fighting with low to no resistance, and while he wasn't sure how much of the ground she could freeze, every bit she could would help even the playing field.

[Treijim]

Both swords missed the sliding Traephen and the swordsmen only just missed one another as they watched the boy barely escape their swings. The archer grumbled as he thought about where to aim next. Obviously whatever magic he was using allowed him to use minimal ammunition. Having one wedged into a piece of wood rendered it useless to him. This time he aimed at neither sibling. He pointed his bow toward the sky and let it loose. Immediately, he held up his hand, seemingly guiding the invisible death shaft. It had become very difficult to foretell where it would strike from.

There was nothing between Tisiphone and the sword, so it was hers for the taking. Both swordsmen seemed a little too slow to comprehend what had happened, as they seemed concerned about the archer's previous arrow. Instead, one went for the girl with the tenacity of a bear that happened to be wielding a sword at the time, and the other swordsmen ran after Traephen, though he obviously didn't know what to do, so he went for an overhead vertical swing.

The man guarding the archer remained static and simply watched from beneath a low hood. If he had seemed a thug before, he seemed a shorter and more frail man now. It was hard to say. Though his cloak was heavy, he didn't appear to have any weapon of reasonable weight on him. He simply stood in front and slightly to the left of the bowman.

[gummiarms]

"Freeze the... I-I can't... it's too much, Brother!" She turned momentarily to the archer and the now frail looking man beside him. "Why are you doing this?!"

But seeing him fire another arrow, she decided she really didn't have much of a choice. Traphen must have had some kind of plan, whereas she had simply been focused on retrieving the weapon, and hadn't thought of what to do with it, once she had it.

Tisiphone placed one hand on the ground, holding up her sword to deal with her tenacious attacker as she put all of her efforts into her magic. Of course, just making the ground icy cold would be useless without some water to freeze into ice, so she first had to summon up enough water to flood the immediate area. (By flood I mean that it covers the ground, not literally a flood.) But making that much cold at once could be dangerous, because it would affect her too.

[Dreadicon]

Traephen only needed patchy ice, but the arrow was now the most serious threat from what he could see. As he stood on the ice and the man's sword came down, he easily sidestepped and parried his sword into the ground with the plank of wood. Using the momentum from his sidestep, he glided across the bit of Ice, spinning into a corner-palm strike to the man's kidney, followed by another finger jab to just under his arm. This wouldn't take the man down in all likelihood, but he'd at least be nauseous a bit if he had hit right, hopefully enough to make him slip on the existing and forming ice.

Traephen quickly sprang from his position to make an attack on the barreling man assaulting his sister, aiming first to deflect his initial attack away from her, hoping that it would also knock him off-balance.

[Treijim]

Traephen's attacker received a blow to the side but avoided the second jab. Instead of turning and chasing the boy, he stopped and stood in a calm manner. Tisiphone's attacker did much the same; parrying Traephen's intrusive move and backing away quickly. The small robed man didn't respond to Tisiphone's cry, that is, until he saw her trying to use water magic. A bare arm shot out from his robe and he outstretched his fingers, straining them and pointing at the ground beneath everyone. Nothing seemed to happen, though. An eerie silence suddenly flooded the street.

Then it became evident that they were all being watched from a nearby alley entrance. There stood Ignatius, looking disapprovingly at the other robed man. He did his glancing from person-to-person thing as though calculating how to rid the area of every one of them.

"You want to plant seeds between the cobblestones," he said to the robed man. "Once the girl summons water, they will grow and strangle the young ones. I do not approve of this. You, and the man with the bow, and you two with swords all feel like going to some distant tavern. Drinking your brains away is far more entertaining than facing street-mages."

Slowly and silently, the thugs simply walked away without a single sign of anger towards Ignatius. They followed his every word. He stood still, watching the probably exhausted siblings.

[gummiarms]

Tisphone blinked, staring at Ignatius. How had he done that? And how had he known exactly what the other mage had had in mind? Then it registered that he just saved their lives, not only that but saved them from a humiliating death that she would have brought upon herself.

After a few moments of her staring and panting, it registered that not only had her and her brother been saved, but she had not even thanked her rescuer.

Tisiphone turned to Ignatius, an embarrassed smile on her face. "Th- Thank you, Sir. You saved my life, and the life of my brother! How can I ever repay your kindness?"

As she spoke, she dropped to her knees and did her best to look respectful and subservient.

[Dreadicon]

Traephen remained on guard as the others retreated, but was highly puzzled by Ignatius' method of stopping the agressors. The words he had chosen were anything but a logical reason for stopping the fight. It all seemed a bit too perfect, but as it remained a fact that this man had halted the attack, and it was speculation that he had instigated it, Traephen decided he should follow his sister's lead, and also thank the man. He, of course, recognized the man as the one from earlier, the white eyes being unmistakable.

He knelt to one knee, "Thankyou sir. It seems you have not only turned a blind eye to my transgressions earlier today, but also have now saved us both." He said. His expression unchanged from combat, one of intense thought, like a chess master still analyzing the game he just finished.

[Treijim]

Ignatius gave a tight cough of content and raised his head a little. "I did nothing. They simply came to a realisation. Still, your gratitude is commendable." He paused and stared into space for a moment.

"Enough about that, though. What I do find interesting was your magic abilities. Such passion is difficult to come by in this forsaken place. Which institute did you two learn at? Or are you raw? Ah, pardon me... By 'raw' I mean did you teach yourself from books and such?" He took a step forward. "I am so very interested."

[gummiarms]

Tisiphone nodded. "Yes, I learned it from books. I love to read, despite my common heritage, and well, I started to figure things out. I'm not sure where my brother learned his magic though."

She kept her head low, slightly embarrassed to be getting this attention from someone of obviously high stature. Also, given the legality (or lack thereof) of their discussion, she was somewhat nervous about it. She didn't really suspect he would turn them in though. Why would he have bothered to save them otherwise?