[Closed] When you wish upon a star

[Logan]

At night, the Concordian Forests could be a haven from the chaos beyond the treeline or they could be the chaos themselves. It all depended upon where one ventured within the verdant lands. For Logan, he knew the dangers awaiting him within, but he also knew those dangers afforded him opportunities of great gain; both monetary and otherwise.

Not all that long before, the psion had intense discussions with Silence Sei Orlouge about training and guiding the younger Rehtul Orlouge in the ways of the mancer. The problem for Logan was he really didn't know the way, he just knew he somehow did the things he did. There was no focus of will or finding his center. For him, it was simply his natural gifts showing themselves when he most needed them.

Still, at the back of his mind Logan wanted to better understand if somehow he could control those abilities more inherently, and rely less upon happenstance. After much thought and personal deliberation, the psion agreed to take the younger Orlouge under his wing with the wish the two might settle upon their own version of the way of the mancer.

The night Rehtul and Logan were to meet was quiet and peaceful. The Forest swayed and lightly whispered with each gentle breeze. The creatures beneath the trees murmured in their native tongues. Light from the stars and moons glowed through, alighting the small clearing in monochromatic tones of silver and grays. Shadows danced about the clearing, but not a one felt wrong to the psion. Everything simply felt right.

Logan made his way to a small petrified stump protruding from the dimpled earth and sat, arms folded as he waited Rehtul's arrival.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul stood out among the trees of the Concordia Forest somewhere outside of Radasanth, where he had been told by one of the Knights working under his Uncle he was to meet a specific man at a predetermined time in order to learn more about Elemental magic, the ways of the mancer, as they had called it in what the young man only hoped was a joking manner.

The wind swept through the canopy of the forest. Speckled moonlight broke through the thickly knitted branches of the surrounding trees. The young Mystic could see the splendor for what it was, but did not have the time to sit and sightsee at the moment. There was too much to do, and little enough time before the sun would rise and daylight would once again permeate the woods.

“Why he even asked me to meet him out here,” he muttered under his breath as he held up the small ball of light he had conjured in his hand, thankful for once for his minute mastery of the Mystic Light magic that his family was known to be blessed with, for the most part. There had been some over the course of the family’s history that had taken the Shadow Trials, which granted the Mystic Shadow Magic, though only one person in the history of the race had ever taken both challenges and survived.

“Kyla,” Rehtul said as he thought about her. It was fairly well known that she had died, though he could not for the life of him get anyone to give him any specifics. It was painful to talk about, he was sure, but he wanted to know. Sighing, he pushed a low-lying branch out of his way and threw the small ball of light in his hand ahead of him, where it floated in the air for a few moments, illuminating the area in about thirty feet in all directions.

The young man calmly assessed the area and smiled as he said, “Nothing there.” He stepped forward into the clearing and looked around. He had assumed that the meeting place would be somewhere right around this area, but had yet to see the petrified stump that the man, Logan by name, had asked him to meet him at.

A loud hum resounded from Rehtul as he considered his options. The place he was looking for had to be somewhere nearby, but he wasn’t about to yell out the name of the man he was supposed to meet, at least not right yet. The forest might have been beautiful, especially at night, but there were still hundreds of thousands of creatures around that could eat you or slice you into ribbons, or poison you...

The Mystic shuddered as the thoughts continued to enter his mind. He shook his head violently and called the ball of light back to his hand before continuing along the path.

At long last, he came across the proper clearing and saw a man shrouded in the shadows of the trees above sitting atop the stump that Rehtul could only assume was the meeting place.

“You’re Logan?” he asked as he approached the man, stopping just out of striking distance, where he would be better able to protect himself with his magic if things got ugly. Vigilance was necessary in Concordia. There were people just as dangerous as any animal who made their homes in this forest.

[Logan]

The psion nodded slowly.

"And based upon your delightfully inquisitive nature I will make the assumption you are Rehtul of the clan of Orlouge," his question reeked of sarcasm and held a slight arrogance about the situation.

Rehtul looked at the psion before him with half a smile. His eyes betrayed nothing of his annoyance at Logan's put upon arrogance.

"You'd be correct in your assumption, though I'm not entirely sure why we have to meet out here in the middle of nowhere... much less in the dark." He opened his palm and released the small light construct in his hand, allowing it to rise above the two of them and bathe the area in a dim but steady light.

A chuckle escaped Logan's lips. The twilight offered a chance to remove themselves from everything for even a few moments of time. Life carried on during the day, but at night everything slowed down exponentially affording them a moment's respite and an opportunity to experiment in an almost slow-motion sort of way.

There would be no distractions, and that was how the psion preferred it.

"If you must know, I needed to make sure you would put forth the effort and actually show. I can't exactly truly believe if everything played out nice and easy you would be challenged enough to stick with this little scheme of Sei's."

The young Orlouge laughed at the psion's words, a sound similar in tone to ice cracking on a frozen stream. Rehtul waved his hand at what he could only consider the best definition of most of his Uncle's personality.

"Scheme indeed. It seems to be the only skill he's good at nowadays... If you can even call it a skill, that is." A chuckle escaped his lips as he slowly began to relax.

"I'll admit I thought it was about as hair-brained an idea as anyone could come up with, but when Sei gets his mind to something there's really no use in arguing. It is his way or no way," the psion said with a smirk. He stood up from the stump and extended his hand to the ice mage, "I don't believe we've formally met yet. I'm Logan, and according to your uncle, you get to study how I work."

Rehtul smiled and shook Logan's hand. His grip was light as a feather as they shook.

"It should be most interesting, to see how your magic ticks," Rehtul replied simply. "I am always looking to learn more, though I hope that Sei didn't have to twist your arm too much."

"Meh. It wasn't so much he had to twist my arm as I didn't understand the reason behind his plan. As much as anything else I just want to learn how to better control whatever it is I can do. Right now it all feels like it happens just...randomly. You know?"

Rehtul pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes slightly at the question.

"Never really had that problem, no. I learned all of my skills, though, except for the Mystic Protection, which I was taught to control so early I do not remember it ever being out of my control. Natural gifts are something outside of my current arena, sorry to say," Rehtul said.

Logan thought for a moment without a response. If Rehtul was being genuine then was there anything he could offer to assist the psion? After deliberating a moment longer, the fledgling water manipulator responded, "Everything I have ever done has come naturally. As far as I know, at least. I've never felt the tinge of magic energy or anything. There's never been this mysterious focusing of my internal will, to my recollection. But with all of that said, I suppose our best course of action is to simply manifest our skills and see what one another can do."

"Sounds like a plan," the young Mystic said, looking Logan up and down. "What do you say you start off? If I'm supposed to study you, I guess it'd be better to start sooner than later."

The psion nodded as he did a couple of absurd stretches which were entirely for show and held no bearing on his abilities. As he focused in, the ground began to shake beneath Rehtul. The molecules in the ground began to shift, stretch and break apart as small bubbles and jets of water spewed upward into the air a few inches. Within a moment or two, jets of water formed bars in a circle around the younger ice mage.

"How's that," Logan shouted telepathically over the gentle hum of the water spouts.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul smiled lightly as the earth beneath him began to tremble beneath him. This man obviously had power to spare, and to think that it could possibly natural for the man to be able to manipulate the element of water in such a way was incomprehensible.

Laughing as the water spouted up from the ground well beneath the forest, the young Mystic said, “Then again, my father always did like to say that nothing is impossible.” A sly grin slipped across his face as he looked at Logan. The man asked him what he thought of the skill through a telepathy not unlike that of the young man’s uncle.

Shrugging, he held out a single hand to the water cage surrounding him, a perfectly spherical prison the likes of which he had never seen in any of the spell books his father had let him peruse as a child. There were so many things left for him to learn, so much left for him to master and take for his own in terms of magical knowledge and skill.

“The ability to directly control the water in the ground,” he whispered as the water stung his hand. He pulled back from it silently and looked at the man beyond the crashing fluid surrounding him.

It’s magnificent.

There was something about encountering new types of magic that he’d never seen before that set Rehtul’s blood on fire. He had yet to put any finger on it beyond his abundant curiosity, but every time he’d seen a new technique, he had documented it within his mind, filing it away for further study at his leisure.

The same would not be done with this magic. It would take him days, perhaps, but he was determined to get to the bottom of Logan’s usage of the properties of water. The man seemed to have the same fine-tuned control that Rehtul himself had over the element’s solid counterpart, Ice. It was most interesting to see it being controlled, brought into a nearly solid shape while still maintaining its liquid form.

“Intriguing,” he whispered under his breath. “Sadly, I doubt it’d be very effective against someone who can fight water with ice.” With a single gesture of his hand, he pulled upon the innate power within his body and the ether around himself to gather the necessary energy. The air within the sphere of water bars began to mist, the humidity in the air becoming visible to the naked eye.

With a deep inhalation, the Mystic drew in some of the water surrounding him and swiped his hand to the side casually, dismissively, as the water instantly froze into sheets of ice resembling swords. The blades of ice cut into the bars of water and held their positions just long enough for the ice mage to walk through them without so much as a stray drop of the liquid getting on his clothing.

“I’m honestly impressed,” he said casually. “For something that is apparently natural and spontaneous for you, this is obviously a very well controlled power. It seems like, whether consciously or not, your magic knows exactly what you want or need from it and manipulates the forces of nature to match. It’s... most intriguing.”

“I think we can help one another very much,” the Mystic said as he reached out with one hand toward the water spouts and clenched his fist. The water closest to the ground froze over, and the water flowing through the air finally fell to the ground around the spot the young man had been standing.

“The question is, what do we want out of this trade? I’m interested in your hydromancy primarily because it would be useful to be able to control free flowing water instead of only its solid counterpart. What do you think you could gain from this?”

[Logan]

The response was quick and to the point, "Forces are at play to which I cannot speak openly, but they pointed me to you and to this place. What exactly that may mean for either of us I cannot say, but these forces I tend to trust."

=====

A couple of days prior to the meeting between Logan McCloud and Rehtul Orlouge.

The psion grew weary of the bunker's creaks and groans. Every change in wind or weather sent the frame swaying and the echoes of metal adjusting to the tension throughout the Tarot's headquarters. He took a deep breath as he waited for Alyssa to join him in her office. Time passed slowly within the walls of the House of Cards, or at least it felt like an eternity for someone like Logan who preferred to constantly be on the move.

"Logan," Alyssa's voice came from the doorway behind the telepath.

Logan stood, turned to her, and embraced her warmly. Were it not for Alyssa, he would have never found his way to Tarot. Even amidst all of his annoyance with being relegated to the House of Cards as his home, at least he could finally say he had a place to call home. The Empress eyed him curiously as his affections were not normally so open, but she let it pass.

"It is good to see you, Alyssa," he said softly.

"Thank you, I think?"

Logan chuckled.

"I meant it as a good thing, yes."

Alyssa nodded.

"Very well. I've spoken with Vincent and we have agreed you need to take Sei up on his offer to meet with Rehtul. I sense you should be prepared for a struggle, but he is to be quite valuable to us. Cooperation need not come via acceptance, if you understand what I mean."

"You're saying if he doesn't agree, I make him agree. That isn't my way, Alyssa. You know that."

She thumbed through a few pages of parchment on her desk.

"I am aware, but the fact remains you will get him to agree. His importance cannot be understated in this moment, Logan."

"Let us hope it doesn't come to that then. His compliance should be entirely voluntary. I will do everything within my power to find a way to make that happen."

"Very well. I will be in touch. For now, I have other matters to attend."

The psion nodded solemnly and glanced about.

"How is Leona anyways?"

"She is," Alyssa paused for a moment looking for the right wording, "okay. But just okay. We're not sure yet what is happening, but we will do what we must. Just as I entrust you to do the same."

He nodded in response.

"I will leave you be then, Alyssa. Keep in touch."

She didn't even acknowledge his last words. Logan lingered only a few moments before turning and leaving the office.

====

The psion stood quietly, reflecting upon the conversation with Alyssa just a few days before. Could he really force compliance or acceptance from the ice mage? A large part of him sincerely doubted he possessed such disregard for free will, but a small part of him knew he would do what must be done, if it came to that. His eyes focused on Rehtul once more.

"I am a member of a group which specializes in acquiring magical artifacts in efforts to return the Tap to its rightful state. You have no doubt heard of the Order of the Golden Dawn, but they are not the only group in the business of relics. The group I speak of has been around for ages, well beyond my forefathers time on Althanas. What I get out of your experimentation is a chance to see if you have what it takes to join our ranks."

Logan paused and looked around the clearing. The stump came into focus as he clenched his fists tight. Tiny veins of water began to climb the stump and pool on top. After a few moments, the pool formed into a sphere of water about one foot in diameter and then began to float into the air. A small, subtle hum of energy filled the clearing. His gaze turned to Rehtul once more, the ball remaining in the air just above the stump.

"What I know about my ability is I am not controlling the water. I am more or less manipulating the essence of the water. Forming water into various shapes or features is easy. It takes a minimal amount of my own energy and focus. Water is dynamic. It flows freely, and always flows to the lowest point. However, what I've also learned lately is water can become static with the right type of manipulation."

The sphere rotated rapidly before exploding outwards into a mist. As the mist fell, the tiny droplets of water vibrated and then ceased all movement. The mist literally hung in the air about them.

"Manipulation is a powerful tool, at any level. I am not here to manipulate you or your powers, and neither is the Ta...I mean the group to which I belong. We merely want to see you afforded the opportunities to continue your research and growth into the fields of magic and science. I personally believe there is much to learn, and with learning comes understanding. I know deep down you are like me. You simply want to understand."

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul listened lazily to the man’s overtures, and his explanation for dragging the young Mystic out into the middle of the forest for no good reason at an ungodly time of the night. Sighing, he began to rub his temples, until he heard the older man starting to talk about the idea that he might be getting manipulated. When he slipped and began to mention the real name of the organization he had come forward to represent, Rehtul’s ears perked up and his eyes went immediately from glassy to sharp and focused.

He craned his neck to either side, popping the stiff joints in his neck easily as he thought about everything the man had said so far, his eyes closed and mouth immobile. His arms were crossed over his chest, fingers tapping each elbow in a beat that only the man performing the action could hear inside of his head.

“This is... most peculiar. If an organization is looking to draw someone into the fold, as it were, why wouldn’t they want themselves, or their motives, to be known?” he asked simply. He knew that the answer would not be a simple one, but fixed his hair back behind his right ear with a smirk and looked at the man before him as he continued to poke holes in his story, at least, thought he was poking holes in it.

“Also, returning the Tap to its rightful state? You can’t possibly mean you intend to reforge that thing into one solid piece again? Not sure I want any particular part of that. It’s a dangerous super weapon, and if it were ever unleashed all at once, it would literally destroy all magic on the planet, and probably the planet itself. You’d have to be crazy to want to rebuild something like that.”

He turned back toward Logan with a curious glint in his eye that no one except for his own father and one woman at the Citadel had ever seen him take on.

“But, you want to recruit me to help further my research into things magical and scientific? Honestly, I’ll leave the technology aspect to Alerar, but magical research is important to me... However, how am I to know that your organization can be any more trustworthy than the Knights?”

If I can’t trust my own Uncle, who can I trust? the unspoken thought flared up within the young man’s mind, unbidden.

“If you want trust, I want details. I won’t work for anyone without knowing the full story any more.”

[Logan]

"Potential recruit or not, trust is a mechanism earned in time or through proving one's self. In this instance, as of yet, neither have transpired."

The psion ran his hand through the mist droplets still suspended in the air. As his hand moved between them, a small barrier formed around the appendage akin to a thin glove.

"I realize returning the Tap to its previous state is dangerous, at best, but we are not the only force seeking the same goal. In my opinion, it is far better for us to reach our goal than for the others. Consider it an ends to a means. It may not be a perfect ending, especially with certain unknowns in play, but the path to get there will take substantial time. It isn't an overnight play, but instead a multitude of marathons run across numerous lifetimes. In other words, you needn't worry about the effects for hundreds of years, and by then I will have figured out a more eloquent solution to the problem anyways."

Rehtul's point about the Tap was, of course, one Logan ran through his mind many times before. The Tap in just about any state was volatile and unwieldy. Some said it possessed a mind of its own and could not be controlled, but perhaps it could be contained. Containment was the real reason he agreed to work with Tarot in the first place. Any opportunity to prevent disaster on universal levels was something even the psion could not ignore.

"The Ixian Knights are about as trustworthy as a three card monty dealer in a back alley in Radasanth, and you and I both know that to be true. Their leader abandoned them, more or less, and they have no direction or guidance. When our de facto leader stepped down, we had two more ready to step into their place. The difference between the Knights and how we operate is everyone has a say in everything. We are not a dictatorship, but rather more a democracy combined with a meritocracy. What you do matters more than who you are."

Logan turned his hand over and opened his palm. The water pooled and then began to swirl creating a small vortex of water centered on the center of his hand.

"Much like a vortex, imbalance would spell the end of our group."

To accentuate his point, a small bit of the water spun out of the vortex and it began to wobble and then exploded outward into a fine mist.

"So if you must know, we keep ourselves secret to simply protect that balance. We are not all good. We are not all evil. We are not all neutral. We are all parts of a whole. We are all individuals led by our own goals, desires, so on, but we all possess a common thread. We are guided by the cards."

Logan flicked his hand to the side. The mist formed into the shape of a tarot card, a suit and number visible if one looked close enough.

"Do you believe in fate? I do. I believe fate guides us, and the cards help us perceive fates motions and movements. They gives us unique discernment into events happening and yet to happen. The Ixian Knights have the vision of a single man."

With a flick of the wrist, the water shifted form into an image of Sei Orlouge.

"A man who has left his post and left the Knights completely devoid of focus. They have no direction until given one. We always have direction, we always have guidance. We are never without focus, cause or purpose. No event is inconsequential. No moment is without purpose. This is what the cards have shown me."

His eyes closed and the water fell to the ground in a gentle rain.

"You can't trust the Ixian Knights because you can't trust Sei."

He inhaled deeply, paused a moment and then exhaled.

"Unlike the Knights and Sei, the cards have always been there. Since the early dawn of Althanas, they have been a guiding force behind many of the greatest events, whether good or bad, in history. They have -- we have -- always been."

Focusing his thoughts, water veins began to form small streams climbing the sides of stump once more. Atop the petrified wood formed a figure of a young lady completely made of water. The water silhouette danced like a ballerina atop the stump as Logan's eyes settle upon Rehtul.

"But let's get down to the heart of the matter, you want to know who we are and how you can trust us. Before we answer that, how about a final little bit of fun. Use your abilities on her. Let's see what you have inside you."

[Rehtul Orlouge]

“Alright, why not?” Rehtul said simply as he accessed the core of his magic, that will within himself that allowed him to pull moisture and form it into solid creations. He reached out with a single hand and exhaled a small cloud of mist that snaked up his arm and out toward the ballerina figure.

As the tendrils of mist that Rehtul summoned wrapped around the image of the woman that Logan had summoned using his own water magic, the young Mystic immediately felt that something was off, that something didn’t quite feel right. A foreboding, almost overwhelming feeling of fear gripped his heart for a moment, but immediately faded.

Wonder what that was, he thought as he worked his will on the ballerina figure, trying to freeze her body over through his sheer force of will. The woman kept pirouetting in place, though the movements became steadily, progressively jerkier, as though she were fighting against something that would freeze time around her for moments at a time. Finally, her movements began to slow and she started to solidify, starting at the feet.

The water creature’s back arched, bending in ways that would break a human body as the face, if it could even be called that, began to contort in what could only be assumed was agony. The young man was confused, unable to determine exactly what was going on. It was as though he was exerting his will over the will of another being, something that scared him more than he was willing to admit.

A loud twang echoed through the forest, as though a cable had snapped, followed by a screech loud enough to completely beak the Mystic’s concentration upon his spell work. The sound, similar in fashion to a cat screeching through a hundred leagues of water, cause the young man to reach up and cover his ears until it finally stopped.

As the sound finally died down, he looked up at the magic that he had been trying to exert his will over and took a step back. The ice he had summoned was still slowly working over the body that the hydromancer had created, but it didn’t look right. Cracks were appearing in the ice even as it continued its steady climb up the petite figure.

“I... didn’t will this to happen,” he said, his simple words belying the more intricate thoughts running through his mind, chief of which being, What the hell have we done?

As the ice finished encasing the body that had been summoned forth, Rehtul could feel that the magics were combining in an unexpected and likely very dangerous way. He could no longer exert his influence over the ice he had created, and he was certain that the man standing near him could no longer control the water that he had summoned himself.

“This... is not good,” he whispered as the ice began to fall away in small shards, shattering on the ground below before rising as vapor, or perhaps mist. As more and more small chunks of ice fell off of the being’s form, the cold, white substance began pouring forth from within it, gathering a few feet above the shell... the chrysalis, he thought... that had contained it only a few moments before.

Long tendrils of the cloud of mist, nearly solid, began to coalesce into a solid shape, that of a young woman. Dark blue eyes, bordering on black, floated in the air where the head would be, twin voids looking out upon the world around them. The creature’s neck was slightly elongated, the arms seemed to be reversed at the elbow, causing it to look like both arms had been broken, pushed into a hinge that was unnatural to look at. The creature’s legs were nowhere to be seen, hidden perhaps behind what appeared to be a torn skirt of mist.

The long, white hair flowed out, unaffected by the wind, constantly flowing in a single direction. The air around the being looked outright deathly, as the mist began to lighten the further away from the core body it became. The aura, as it could only rightfully be called, was an ashen gray, a color often associated with corpses.

The creature reached out toward her creators, tendrils of mist exploding from each of her arms and solidifying, reaching out to grab those who had used their combined power to create it.

Without thinking, the young ice mage reached out to the air to his side, producing a short sword from the ambient moisture and cutting through the tendrils that had reached out to him. As soon as they were severed from the main body, they disappeared into the air.

A high pitched scream erupted forth from within the misty core as the body twisted and writhed to and fro in ways that resembled nothing that the young man had ever seen before.

[Logan]

"What manner of --", but before Logan could finish his statement the being formed from his 'magic' combined with that of Rehtul lashed out with frozen tendrils the likes of which even the veteran of numerous battles had never seen. Instinctively, he rolled to his right just as two tendrils squarely aimed for his throat screamed past.

Only a moment passed, but the moment was plenty of time for the psion to unsheathe both of his swords and to prepare for the next attack. No longer did he pay any attention to what Rehtul did off to his side, but instead Logan's full attention was on the creature from origins sent a shiver down his spine. If the thing was formed when their 'magics' combined, then he could only imagine the twisted abilities it might possess.

Tendrils whipped at him once more, this time he rolled to his left and swung upward with his blades. Prevalida met ice as hot knife to butter, and a large portion of one tendril flopped motionless onto the ground. The second tendril managed to avoid the blades, and sliced against the side of the psion's leg. A small pool of blood formed over his pants, and he reached down to press against the wound with one hand.

"Shit," Logan said as he released the pressure on his leg and stood slowly. The pain was bearable, but it would certainly slow him down. The psion's eyes darted to Rehtul who was busy with the second set of tendrils, and sighed. There would be no simple rescue for him that night.

He turned to the creature, bracing himself all the while for another attack, but none came. The untouched tendril had curled back to the being, and that really didn't leave Logan at peace about the situation. Something tugged at the back of his mind. The being and how it came to be just did not feel...right.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

The short sword in the young man’s hand flashed as he reduced two more of the creature’s tendrils to nothing. A frown crossed his face as he thought about what could possibly have created this horrifying monstrosity, and more importantly, if they could actually kill this thing created by the freak reaction of their magics. His eyes wandered over the creatures form, from its head to its... feet. The ground around the creature’s feet was dry and flaking. The grass and smaller plants had already dried out. It was quite the sight.

“Damn,” he muttered as another tendril whipped out at him from the corner of his vision. In a flash, he had his sword up to block it, but failed to cut through. Sensing this, the creature wrapped the appendage around the weapon and pulled it from the young man’s grasp easily. In only a second, Rehtul’s knife had flown into his hand and severed the tentacle before he retreated back. He looked over at Logan for a second, noticing that the flurry of strikes the other man was using was turning out to be about the same level of effectiveness as his own attacks.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out forever. There had to be something he could do to fight this creature. As he considered his options, silently running the possibilities through his head, something caught his attention, a bright flash of light. Just in time, he moved his head just enough to the right to have a spike of ice fly past him, slicing open his arm. The blood began to seep into his white sleeve, but he paid it hardly any mind.

“I’d be impressed if I weren’t so scared. Careful, Logan! I think it can use our magic!”

With the warning well and out of the way, the young man concentrated on retaliation. His muscles tensed as he lowered his center of gravity and faced the creature before him, unmoving. The air around him began to mist as water was pulled from the atmosphere to the air around his body. He concentrated his focus on nine specific spaces in the mist and willed the water to solidify there, so that he would have all of his angles of attack and defense covered.

Seeming to grasp his intent, the creature rushed at him, but the young mage was already well prepared for this eventuality. A wall of ice erupted from the ground before the creature, slowing it down just enough for the water to freeze around the young man.

“Now, I’ve never tried this before, but it can’t be too hard, can it?” he asked, knowing Logan would more than likely be too busy to answer him. Eight small blades of ice, some mix between spearheads and dagger blades hovered around him in a circle. Experimentally, he exerted his will on a select portion of them, while willing the others to remain in the position he had set for them. The three he selected danced around him, while the others remained suspended in midair.

“I can make use of this, I think,” he said, smiling. The creature looked at him through the ice wall and finally made its own move, flowing through the ice like a ghost.

The ice looks thinner where it was touched. This thing might spend the lag between each attack regenerating its body from the moisture in the area around us. I can hardly blame it. It’s the same exact method I use to replenish my ice weapons as they shatter, break, or melt.

Sighing, he held out both of his hands, crossed at the wrist, and frowned. This wasn’t going to be fun. The creature seemed to be having trouble splitting its attention between its two creators, though Rehtul was beginning to think that perhaps he had become the primary target for some reason.

Ice began to flow from deep within the monster’s core and flew out in all directions. The young elementalist had been prepared for this, however, and tossed up his Mystic Protection. A shimmering dome of glasslike energy popped into existence around his form and took the brunt of the blow before shattering into a few hundred pieces.

Pieces of the protective spell faded from existence as quickly as they came in, but most of them remained behind, held by Rehtul’s will. With a motion of his head, they homed in on the creature before him, stabbing into its body and eliciting a sound that he could place somewhere between a roar and a shriek.

Following up, he lashed out with four of the eight blades that he had created, biting into the creature’s body a bit at a time in a flurry of slashes before he pulled the blades back to hover around him in a spinning formation.

“You won’t ever touch me again,” he whispered.

[Logan]

It can use my magic? Of course!

The thought slid around in his mind as the lightbulb went off finally. While Rehtul distracted the creature almost entirely on his own, Logan took to another tactic. If their magics together created the being from nothingness, then the only chance they had was to once again use their magics together to destroy it. The psion watched Rehtul's tactics and abilities unfold before him, the eight blades spun around slowly. If the blades could strike true, perhaps he could fuse the tips with plasma to eat into the creature.

As Rehtul sent blade after blade around him into the wretched thing, Logan focused his essence and clenched his fists around the hilts of his blades. The points of the blades began to land truer and truer as steam forced more cracks into the ice. The final blade struck, and the shell encasing the actual essence within shattered. Crystal shards fell to the ground and melted away. Where once a horrid monstrosity stood, instead stood a small little girl no older than nine or ten dancing like a ballerina.

"Holy shit, I think we did it," Logan shouted to Rehtul. When no second attack came, Rehtul nodded in agreement.

Through panting breaths, the two managed to collect themselves and move closer to the little girl.

"At the heart of every monster is a child whose nightmare has come true. Free the child from the nightmare, and the monster will soon be vanquished, too," the little girl spoke to them both telepathically, catching both of them completely off guard.

The psion took a deep breath and looked down at the little girl with a gentle smile.

"How can we free you from your nightmare for good," he asked.

The little girl stopped dancing, lifted her hand and grabbed his.

"You can never completely free a child from their nightmare. That is something they have to do on their own. What you can do is help them see the nightmare for what it is, nothing more than imagination run wild."

Logan understood what she meant. At least he thought he did.

"To beat your nightmare, you must face your nightmare. Otherwise, it will consume you whole, encasing you as its prisoner."

The little girl smiled and nodded up at him.

The psion took a deep breath as he let her hand go. She meandered off into the woods as both Logan and Rehtul watched on. After a few moments, he turned to his new friend.

"So, that was a bit unexpected, but I still have the same offer for you. Join us, and learn all you want to know. Do experiments and tests as you see fit," Logan said with a grin.

Rehtul extended a hand to Logan, and the two shook.

"It will be an honor. If we work together, Logan, I do believe we are quite the team."

The psion smirked.

"Oh, just you wait until you meet the rest of the crew. We all make quite the team."

[Rayleigh]

Hi there, gentlemen! Thank you for your patience.

Plot 15/30

This was a nice little story. Save for a few issues that affected the clarity (which I will expand on later), the storyline was straight-forward enough. Logan and Rehtul meet up for a brief training session, prompted by the requests of both Sei and the Tarot Hierarchy. When things get out of hand, the pair teams up to put their skills to the test. This proves both their skills, and their ability to work as a team. It was a very nice power group initiation thread. You both do a nice job of weaving the setting into your story, as opposed to making an occasional mention of it here and there. I also enjoyed the girl, and the lesson she taught your characters at the end. Her transformation was very creative, and very well-done.

Your biggest downfall here was pacing. You had some serious pacing issues that affected the overall flow and clarity of your piece. My first concern was Logan’s flashback. I felt that was oddly placed, and not entirely necessary. I think that, instead, you might have included the flashback in your first post. Or, you could have simply had Logan recall the events, rather than writing it as a flashback. It cut up the action, and threw off the pace you and Rehtul were establishing. Afterwards, I felt that your progression from discussion to innocent displays of power to all-out warfare with a monster was far too rushed. It felt choppy, and I found myself re-reading a few times. That is so unfortunate, because the actual concept itself is so cool, and you do a great job writing the fight scene. A bit more build-up to get there would have benefited you both greatly.

Character 20/30

Both of you do an excellent job portraying your individual characters. For the most part, they are both very realistic. The choices they make, and the way that they behave are constant throughout most of your piece. Even more impressive, I think, is how well you wrote each other’s characters. I was impressed by the fluidity from one post to the next. Well done.

There were a few instances, however, when your characters’ actions were a bit questionable. Most of this can be attributed to mood swings taking place a bit too quickly. For example, in post ten, Rehtul literally comments on how scared he is. A few very short paragraphs later, he is smiling. This, by itself, is a bit confusing. I was imagining the fear he was experiencing, and all of the sudden, he is seemingly over it. This is easily countered with a bit more information. Was the quote about being afraid meant to be sarcastic? Was his smile a nervous one? Make that clear to your reader! Of course, a writer will never be able to predict what will throw a reader off, but keep that in mind when you write in the future. It might be something to keep an eye out for while proofreading.

Prose 20/30

It is very clear to me that you are both good at what you do. This is a polished, finished piece, free of really any spelling or grammatical error. Proof-reading is evident here, which is always nice to see. Your descriptive language is a real pleasure to read, and I had no problem at all imagining what was happening. This is especially true for Rehtul’s ice (I’m sure you’ve never heard that one before!).

There were a few little things that I did want to mention though. First, I would encourage you to consider word choice. Logan, I really do like the way that you use the word “psion.” It is a very unique word that adds a certain magical element to your writing. However, when overused, the word becomes dull and powerless. A great exercise for this is to sit down and list all of the ways you could refer to Logan. That will give you a bit more variety next time. Along a similar line, I would urge you to be careful with your pronouns. There were a few instances in your faster-paced scenes when it was not clear who “he” was. With two male characters, and the level of bunnying you both used, this is an easy mistake to make. Maybe have someone else read your especially action-packed posts, just to double check that there are no clarity issues.

Wildcard 6/10

It is always nice to see what two skilled writers can come up with. I look forward to reading your future endeavors!

61/100

Logan receives 2,400 EXP and 75 GP.
Rehtul receives 1,750 EXP and 65 GP.

The 3x experience Althanas Day bonus has been applied.