Familiar Ground (OPEN)

[Sage]

That was a good question, the boy thought as he mentally pondered the same thing. He was certainly glad about the knight’s oath to aid him.

‘Thank you’, he silently mouthed to the bright-eyed stranger.

Though he was hopeful that such aid would not be needed and that the portal would dissipate without anything else making its way through.
But wouldn’t that be a nice end to this temporal incursion, he thought incredulously.

But no, Sage knew he would not be that lucky. Since the first day he had expressed his interest in magic his luck had took on a rather sour note, with incident after incident of bad luck, until he had been swept away into a whole different world.
Sage inherently knew this would only get worse before any resolution could come of it.

He turned to the handsome stranger, who he realised had yet to give his name. Actually, Sage quickly noted that he had been the only one to utter his own name. Although he granted, there had been no time for proper introductions as the mantis reaper had been content to ruin everyone’s day.

“More of that I should wager” he answered gesturing to the headless mantis.

“The portal is frayed and unstable. It would be best that it should be left alone and allowed to disperse by itself” he said eyeing the portal. A break in reality was notoriously difficult to accomplish and usually took a massive amount of power to brute force your way beyond the walls of reality, such as what the chaotic maelstrom of the Vale had done.

But such methods were temporary at best, breaking a hole was easy, keeping it open long enough to not loose an arm or a leg, now that was the hard part. And sage’s mind boggled at the amount of force that had not only created this rift, but had also allowed it to remain open as long as it had.

It would have been akin to a magical enhanced hammer and striking it against an ordinary glass window.

“But reavers feed on uncorrupted magic, and this world has so much that my skin is tingling. It would be akin to an all you can eat buffet to any that catch scent of it” he said gently rubbing his arm feeling phantom winds.

“I fear more will come before long” Sage said with a melancholy tone. A decision needed to be made, he could stay here and help with the defence of the small town. Or he could go back through the portal, back to the vale and try his luck again with another portal to who knows where.

But the less time spent in the Vale the better off he was.

“I must ask again, Is this Althanas? I’m trying to return home to Crossroads and the Vale is currently my best option as it can open ways to many different worlds.” He said looking across the odd collection of fellows that were all in the right place at the wrong time.

From the handsome stranger with a beauty that appeared almost unnatural, to the intense stranger with the glowing blue eyes.

Even the Kenku was an odd one he thought, she had wings, and he did not think…

The boy recoiled away from the Kenku girl when he noticed that there was a piece of the reavers innards that was sloppily clinging on to the side of her beak. He opened his mouth to tell the girl, but found no words, he tried again a second time, and attempted to use his finger to point at the piece of giblet. But his nerves were for too unnerved to even attempt it, so he mentally switched his attention to her previous feat
.
“I, ah, sorry, but what you two did was completely amazing” he said, purposely not looking at the red and ichor stained girl. Instead he kept his attention squarely on the only part of the girl that was not covered in the blood of her for which were unironically her eyes.

He had thought that the stranger had an intense look about him, but that certainly did not compare to the stare of the Kenku before him, it was like she was not even seeing him, but rather was looking through him.

“Arcane enhanced eyes, perhaps?” He thought to himself and wondered if that had anything to what she had done to the mantis, dangerous, he easily concluded. But he would not deny that if not for the chaotic situation Sage’s curiosity over such magical feats would have easily overruled his caution.

Perhaps they would be open to an exchange of knowledge during a more civilised time. He hoped so, his time within the magic academy had been fun and a very educational time.