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Post by Hitotsumami on Nov 5, 2012 10:45:44 GMT -5
[Ch.2] Cheshire Cat "When it is needed, it will always return. This is my gift for my beloved Guild. Fa--"A new Guild Building had risen out of the ground, forming the basis of something no one could ever imagine. At the doorstep of this building, a new Guild had formed, and although their numbers were small, their ambitions were strong. It was time for a new adventure! Elrond looked back up at the magnificent Guild before him. He began laughing and spun around to all the mages gathered. "Well that was easier than I thought! Welcome, everyone, to Renascence!"
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Post by CJ on Nov 6, 2012 15:16:49 GMT -5
Xing Qi leaned onto her cane as she watched with surprise as the guild, well, magically rose out of the ground. She was somewhat quiet after Atrum left, not knowing what to make of the whole scene. Several people suddenly appeared along with a rather enthusiastic man.
"I don't think the guild we came here for still exists," Horse whispered rather loudly to the woman.
"I suppose you're right," she sighed.
"You'll probably be able to find some answers here though. Likely better than that weird Atrum thing..."
"Yeah..."
The woman hobbled forward with her cane, soon followed by Horse (though slowly as to not bump or knock into anyone). She looked up with a strange seriousness at Elrond.
"I'm Xing Qi, a Summoner. I'm honored to meet you, Renascence Guild Master. Please tell me, how much is the entrance fee?"
She slowly reached into her pocket and fiddled with her red wallet, as decorative as the rest of her attire, and began to pull out several paper bills.
---
A certain dragon slayer might have been able to sense a particular dream about the small woman. Eleven fuzzy figures would appear along side the Horse Giant (though noticeably smaller). Xing Qi herself would be decorated in even more ceremonial robes with a large crown and enormous, grand staff, with a dozen keys dangling from it like rings on a monk's staff.
It might have first seemed like a dream of power or selfish ambition though Puck, out of anyone, might have seen it as a dream of possibility and hope.
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Post by Kuro on Nov 6, 2012 23:50:24 GMT -5
"Wa-hoo! That was some amazing magic right there!" Dofun cheered in appreciation of the sudden construction. "Well, that saved us a three minutes or so of tedious montage. Oh, and it seems that the gang is all here now, well finally..." Dofun jumped up high into the air one, two, three times, and brought his hammer down on the ground hard on the last jump. The end of the hammer that wasn't leaving a crater right in front of the new guild building swung open from its hinge and let loose a flurry of streamers and confetti as variety of horns honked loudly for all to hear.
"My name is Dofun Gofundo, the Copy Clown, the Mimic Master, the clown to rule them all, the top-notch performer, the king of laughter and undoubtedly the best pony, I am Dofun Gofundo!" He performed a backflip and landed on Elrond's shoulders. "Attttttttttttttt your service! No ticket exchanges, lawsuits or refunds."
He stayed on Elrond's shoulders for a bit, still holding his massive hammer, apparently only going to the ground if either the guildmaster or gravity forced him to. "So, who are you guys again? I mean, I know you guys, but we should re-introduce ourselves for those just tuning in."
"I meant the guys who were waiting here, of course."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Nov 7, 2012 10:14:22 GMT -5
When they reached the top of the hill, Alden really didn't know what he was expecting to find when he was more or less Shanghaied by the collection of mages. He certainly did not expect nothing however, and would have expressed disapproval (among other things), but he never got the chance. In a few moments, and an expansive and well-kept building sprouted from the ground to his amazement, and it was not often that he was amazed.
"Now that, is an impressive kind of magic. You sure know your stuff, guild master."
Without hesitation he ran to the entrance, hoping to be the first inside so as to claim the best room for himself. He attempted to open one of the doors when he reached it, so as to look around. If the place was as nice inside as it was outside, then he could end up scoring a pretty sweet place to stay. As occupied with this current priority as he was, Alden didn't seem to notice yet that he still had a stringed needle still embedded in his leg from the fight earlier.
"Dibs on the top floor."
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Post by Mise™ on Nov 7, 2012 17:10:09 GMT -5
The punk was already about to to leave this train wreck of a guild behind, even though the guild master had invited him along with all of the others to join, but then all of a sudden he felt the ground shake and after a moment a grand looking guild house stood at the once empty piece of land and after taking another step away from this place the punk turned around and gazed upon this wonder. This made him walk back several steps, closer to the new Renascence guild house. "You should just give up on this magic guild business. With you being able to build houses in a matter of seconds you should instead look for a career in construction. You'd make loads of money like that." The man gave advice to Elrond, who he had thought built this house in the time he had his back turned to the cliff. This was certainly impressive, far more impressive than what he had seen of Renascence so far, though still not enough to convince him that it was worth joining. "...The design isn't very original though... I've seen a house that looks exactly like this somewhere before, so you must have copied the design. I just can't remember where that was." The punk tried to recall where he had seen the house like this before, but just couldn't do it. Then the man heard this weird and extremely creepy clown talk and took a good look at him. The clown made the punk feel very uneasy, even visibly so. "Someone better call an exorcist..."He tried his best to ignore Dofun, but it wasn't easy. Someone wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. The one person with dream reading powers would soon sense something quite... disturbing. There was a local middle aged and a very ugly man who not too far away, reading the latest issue of Playmage in public, not even trying to hide it. Quite unsuprsiignkly had some rather vivid, erotic daydreams.
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Post by Hitotsumami on Nov 9, 2012 10:24:38 GMT -5
Elrond was overjoyed to see people pouring into the Guild to find a spot and explore. But even so, while all of this was going on, he couldn't help but feel there was something different, something wrong about this Guild. But what was it? Qi brought him back to reality.
"H-Honored to meet you as well, Miss Qi! I am Elrond, Guild Master!" He had never thought of an entrance fee, however.. "Entrance fee? O-oh of course! For you my dear, free!"
He then spun over to face all of the other mages. "But for everyone else, 10,000. But you don't have to pay off immediately. Haha!"
Dofun then stepped forward, introducing himself. He was certainly one of the more stranger looking fellows appearance wise. "Nice to meet you Dofun! Go on, go inside and find yourself a room! Everyone else, we should go in as well. We shouldn't be standing outside when there's a Guild for us to enjoy!"
While Alden walked past him into the Guild, Jupiter talked with him. "O-oh yeah, this was all my Magic! I usually don't specialize in.. uhm.. Guild Forming magic, the ancient powerful magic.. but I thought this was a good time to use it." Of course, Elrond didn't have a clue how it happened, but it was better to leave those questions unanswered for now.
And with that, he encouraged the others to get to know each other as he entered his new Guild.
However, they weren't alone.
It was watching.
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Post by Kyubey on Nov 9, 2012 16:42:41 GMT -5
John shrugged as the building rose up, hardly surprised by anything at this point. Still, he had to admit, making the guild suddenly appear like that was a rather impressive trick. Not impressive enough for any man to start making the claim of having the strongest guild, but at least now there was a guild to start making outrageous claims about in the first place. The guild master was kind of unusual, though, nearly more unusual than what he had imagined. John questioned the wisdom of inviting people to join a mage guild without even stopping to confirm if they were actually mages or not, but a job offer was a job offer, and now John had to make a decision between joining the tiny, questionable group which he was now convinced was lead by the mentally unstable, or joining Atrum's shifty little group. One option was definitely cheaper, and John knew from the get go that even if he were to join Renascence, he would put off paying until the end of time. Still, considering the members of Renascence and Atrum, continuing to guild-hunt seemed like a better idea, despite the two valid offers he already received.
He had already agreed to meet Atrum again, and he was right at the door of Renascence. While he was far from making a clear decision, it might not hurt to see what they both had to show for the time being.
"Alright, sure," said John as he approached Elrond, "I'll check out your guild, but I ain't making any promises right now. The name's John Hrungnir, uh, freelance mage. I'm a man of very specialized talents, but I'm sure what I have to offer can be useful."
He casually held out his hand to Elrond. He was beginning to have a feeling that this guild would suit his purposes just fine.
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Post by Hitotsumami on Nov 9, 2012 21:46:02 GMT -5
Elrond seemed a bit disappointing with John not seeming so excited about the new Guild, but he shrugged it off. He was sure he had his reasons, one way or another. Elrond gave him a nod and a slap on the back, grinning.
"Nice ot meet you John Hungry! I'm Elrond, the Guild Master of the most powerful guild in the-- eh, uhm, maybe I've said that too much for today? Ah yeah, I'll stop now, haha."
He left John to do what he wished, and he entered the Guild himself. Inside, the first room a person would enter was the main rec room. It was a giant circular room with many tables and chains, with a stage in the center. Located on the left was another room which led to a tower which held many individual mage rooms. In the far side of the room, directly opposite the main door, was the entrances to the kitchen and storage rooms. Inside the main room a spiral staircase led to the higher rooms, which were reserved for the S-Class Mages.
S-Class.. Elrond realized there weren't any of those yet. Maybe after a few missions he'd be able to find out who deserved such a prestigious title.
Then, to his right, was another doorway. Strangely, although the rest of the Guild seemed to be in fantastic condition, that door seemed to be off its hinges just slightly. Elrond went to investigate, nodding and smiling at the other Mages as he walked by, he realized this door led to the previous Guild Master's office.
But who owned this Guild? Who was the Guild Master? Elrond didn't know, so he took a breath and opened the door. He blinked, and took a step inside. It was completely empty. Not a desk, not a chair, nothing. He opened the closets and realized there was nothing in them either. Even the one large window in the room was for some reason bricked up. How strange...
Elrond was just about to leave to pull a table inside for his new office when a glint of light caught his eye from the floor. Elrond bent down, realizing that there was something under the floorboards that was just barely, slightly glinting in the sunlight leaking through the cracks in the window. But what was it?
"Sorta looks like a key... and.. something else.." muttered Elrond, but he shrugged, deciding it probably wasn't a big deal, and certainly not worth pulling up the floor to get it.
He stood back up and went back into the main common room, wondering what the other mages were up to.
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Post by CJ on Nov 9, 2012 23:20:32 GMT -5
"Xing Qi is my first name. If you'd like, you may call me whatever you wish, Elrond."
The woman smiled kindly at the new guild master. She seemed appreciative of her "no fee" exception and made a mental note that she could probably trust him in the future. She looked around cautiously at the mages who stepped forward to join the guild. She seemed especially disturbed by Dofun (as would anyone), but tried to keep her emotions in check.
"Again, I'm Xing Qi, Summoner," she murmured to Dofun. "It's nice to meet you... Dofun."
"If you're going inside, Master, should I return to my world?" Horse asked, leaning down to Xing Qi.
"Good idea," she responded with a sigh. "See you later and thank you."
With a bright light and a sparkle, the Horse Giant faded away, leaving the small mage alone. She looked up at the guild with a brief sense of hope and walked inside.
---
Xing Qi bypassed the common room and walked into the mage's quarters to analyze each of the rooms. She set her mind on picking one of them, but couldn't bare to choose just one before making sure each one was exactly the same.
One in particular had a small black object on the bed stand. She looked around to make sure no one saw her walking into the room. She hobbled up to it and noticed it was a glasses case. Curiosity got the best of her and she opened it to see plain, black framed glasses. She picked it up and saw a symbol etched into the hinge.
"Fable," she whispered, tracing her finger on the emblem. She had to try them on.
Xing Qi saw white. As her eyes focused, she noticed there were light blue cracks, like a crystal or broken glass. She took off the glasses and put them on. She repeated the process, realizing the glasses were a magic item, likely a looking glass to some other place.
"Or they're just broken," she whispered to herself. She put them back in the case and stuck it into the folds of her robe. It was clear the glasses belonged to someone at Fable and she was not about to toss away a possible clue just because it didn't work properly. She reminded herself to keep the glasses a secret. The less the others knew about Fable, the more she likely would be able to learn about it, she figured.
---
After placing her bag in the dorm (which she inevitably chose for herself), she took a seat in the near empty common room. She pulled out two golden keys from a pocket in her robe and analyzed them. She turned the keys around in her hand, looking particular at the red, Chinese symbols that decorated them: the words for Horse and Snake.
"Soon, I'll have them all," she muttered to herself and continued to stare at the keys, ignorant of others' presences.
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Post by Sprite on Nov 10, 2012 0:13:54 GMT -5
Puck's jaw dropped and he took a sudden step backwards as the giant guild building erupted from the earth. He rubbed his eyes once or twice just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, what he could sense however was the appearance of the guild building stirring the dreams of everyone around him. He grinned, looking at Elrond as his dream seemed to be coming one step closer to completion.
Looking at Xing Qi, Puck saw the majestic transformation and the great host of mysterious figures. Puck gave a low whistle of appreciation, she had a grand and powerful dream, and he could tell it was not one of guilt. Squinting, and trying to make out the finer details, Puck was unsuccessful and could only conclude a vague feeling that it was a dream of "heritage" and "completion".
Finally, the tall dark mysterious man. Puck first sniffed at the man, still standing some distance away. But poorly hidden beneath the familiar scent of a normal human mage, was the smell of...a dragon? No, it was different. So very alike, but so unlike. And this man too, as he shook the guild master's hand was presenting a "Dream" to the all-seeing eyes of the Dream Dragonslayer. A shower of coins, fame, signs bearing his name. It was a dream of pure greed, Puck stuck his tongue out in slight disgust, he would need to confront this man about his odd scent and dangerous dream later.
And finally...
Puck turned bright pink and rushed inside the guild, pushing past everyone including Alden with a rush apology and introduction to everyone present.
"Puck Mayvill! The Blaze Verdue, the Dream Dragonslayer at your service!"
---
Panting as he managed to escape the disturbingly erotic dreams of the ugly middle-aged man, Puck stood up and began roaming around the guild attentively. What struck him immediately was the aura of the place. Great powerful, grand, and hopeful dreams once dwelled here everyday and as a result the dreams had soaked into the very structure. Puck touched the bar and closing his eyes, saw a scene very different from the clean but lonely bar.
There was a gypsy looking young man with long hair, a mage in a cowboy hat and a scared doctor with glasses came by, a fight broke out. A giant man with trees for arms came laughing and roaring in, and what appeared to be an older version of Elrond and the blue-haired punk from outside watched with bemused expressions.
"Beautiful.."
Puck could only smile and wipe a tear from his eye as he beamed and looked about the building. It was a grand place, wiping a hand along the polished wooden bar, Puck was surprised to see purple and green clouds wift up slightly before sinking back into the wood. Dreams were truly alive and present in this building, even if its former residents were not.
And then he saw it. The green-haired man froze in awe as he came upon a giant painting dominating the wall directly opposite from the entrance. It was a massive portrait. Puck traced fingers lightly against the painted words and faces.
"Fable...and....Nightingale."
Puck smiled seeing the triumphant faces of the Fable mages and the evil sneering visages of the Nightingale forces. And then Puck saw IT.
The face looked at him, eyes penetrating past his very soul, it knew he was there. It was ready.
Puck gulped nervously and felt himself beginning to sweat, the color drained from his face as he weakly and unsteadily backed up, bumping into Xing Qi on accident and falling to the floor in a shaking tumble.
"S-sorry!"
"E-e-vil...it's evil...a destroyer of dreams.." muttered the young mage to himself. Peering up he saw the rest of the guild members coming in, quickly banishing the horrifying thing he had just seen to the back recesses of his mind. Seeing John, Puck got up and dusted himself off.
"John, right? I'm Puck in case you didn't hear me outside. Your smell, its so alike to mine yet so...different."
The Dreamdragon slayer lifted a hand and allowed the emerald and rainbow infused flames to surround the appendage, the shadow of the hand within the flames appearing almost like a dragon's claw.
"So, what are you?"
Trying his best to engage in conversation and answer some questions, Puck was trying his best to ignore the burning sensation on the back of his head. The feeling of being watched.
The feeling of...
Terra.
Terraface.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Nov 10, 2012 2:39:18 GMT -5
Though Puck shoved his way past into the building, Alden didn't much mind because he had something else to occupy his focus, something Elrond had said. Still holding onto the door handle, Alden leaned back towards the others to address his concern.
"Entrance fee? Fuuuuuuuuck that."
With that the mage hunter promptly turned back to the doorway and headed inside, leaving the door itself swung open. Walking into the center of the building, he hopped up on stage and turned around in a full rotation to look at everything. A big creepy painting had caught his eye, but he was most interested in the view straight up of the upper floor past the balconies above. Even before anyone else got started, he intended to make good on his claim.
"Nice place. Definitely worse places to stay. Could be living in a bunch of hobo shacks on a hill."
With that he hopped down off the stage and dashed up the spiral staircase to the floor above, his heavy boots making a constant banging sound as he went. Understandably, he wanted to see what it was he had put dibs on.
---
Having gone around to the different rooms on the second floor, Alden was feeling pretty good about his claim. Most of them had assortments of random stuff or were empty, but apart from that one room that looked like a fight had broken out in and everything was burned, it was probably the best conditions he had been in for quite some time. If not as fancy, then easily as spacious. He had never really went after entire mage guilds before, but maybe this could become a thing, just finding newly forming guilds and abusing hospitality.
Although they were all his rooms at this point, he still had to decide on which room he would actually be sleeping in. Just before that however, he remembered something that had caught his attention earlier, though he hadn't pursued it. Walking around the outer corridor of the rooms, he came back to the stairwell and saw that it did indeed go further up to supposedly some other floor. Curiously he followed the stairs up, slower this time than the first flight.
Oh wow... Avelynn will love it.
What he found, he immediately liked. Much, much more than any of the rooms below, and that was saying something. Seeing the many gears and pendulums of the clocktower, it was in a word, perfect. Though the mechanisms themselves lie dormant and the great four-faced clock was not actually working, Alden only saw promise. The great bell suspended far above him would ring again. For at least the time being, all thoughts about playing Renasence like a bunch of saps and hunting them all down, were completely driven out. Driven out, and replaced with wonder of what this place had been, and what it could be. Although he didn't yet realize it, it had been a very long time since he had felt a change in his heart as profound as this. It almost certainly wasn't permanent, but it was something.
Forget the ground or second floor. He'd live here. It needed a whole lot of work and fixing up (and he wasn't even thinking about the clock tower mechanisms yet), but he could get it liveable. And after that, he could get the place working.
Running down the stairs faster than he had climbed any, he made his way all the way down to the stairwell to where it could still be considered on the ground floor. It was only for a second, and to shout one thing before he was to bolt back upstairs to begin the arduous task. Of note, there was a hint of actual amiability in his voice, however small it was.
"Hey hey, just letting everyone know, I'm giving up my claim on the second floor. Anyone can have it, I've got the clock tower instead!"
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Post by Mise™ on Nov 10, 2012 4:28:50 GMT -5
After having a brief conversation with Elrond the punk felt like he should leave this place behind, but the oddly familiar guild building, that the Renascence guild master had just built with his ancient magic, did fascinate him. This man wanted to take a look inside even though he got a bad feeling about all this.
"Better try to keep a low profile here or they'll drag me into something."
Once inside the Renascence guild the punk took a look around the first floor to see what he could find. Most notably there were several other mages (or people he at least thought were mages) the ones the punk had seen outside the building a minute or so ago. Besides that the man saw several tables, stairs and some rooms. What quickly caught the attention of the Punk was one particular table at the metaphorical corner of this round room or more accurately the painting hanging over it. It was a painting of an outrageously fabulous man with the caption 'SATURN' beneath it.
"Why is there a painting of this bastard here?"
Seeing this painting reminded the punk of something. He had seen this building a long time ago in a photo with this man from the painting standing ffront of it. That's why it had seemed so familiar before.
"This is..." The man said out loud, while still staring at the painting trying to remember the exact word. "...Fable?" He had tried to be quiet so that he wouldn't be noticed but he was confused enough to forget that and had said the previous line out loud enough that at least probably someone had heard it.
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Post by Kuro on Nov 10, 2012 20:03:32 GMT -5
"Well, this is rather nice and cozy. So, this is my new home now? In that case, it needs more balloons, and streamers, and cake! Lots and lots of delicious, yummily fabulous cake for throwing! Oh, it'll be so nice to not sleep under the dirt for once!" With that, he walked to one of the unclaimed mage rooms and set down his hammer on the ground. With a phew, he looked around to see just where he would be sleeping for the rest of eternity. There was a bed, a mirror, a cabinet, a drawer, not much else. It was more than he was used to, anyway.
He looked at the mirror, the crescent eyes of the mask looking back at him with its fixed grin from ear to to ear. He looked on at it in silence for a while, doing nothing as he simply looked back at what was staring at him. Eventually, he saw a circus tent in the mirror; he saw a massive audience, rings for the lions to jump through and the giant pole that helped hold up the whole thing together. He saw himself blowing a stream of fire from his mask, a stream of fire that flew into the air and turned into a magnificent dragon that roared and flew around the inside of the absolutely gigantic tent, flying only a few feet above the amazed onlookers. His parents looked on as he, the main act, the Copy Clown, lived up to his name and performed the greatest show on the planet to the sounds of thousand's applause.
Something snapped him out of his daydreaming and he looked to the floor. He gasped and went down on one knee to closer examine the object in front of him. It was a massive hammer, one with giant metal lids and the rest as some kind of toy-like material. He opened one of the lids, as if it had a hinge, and gasped again when he saw what was inside. Party accessories of every variety. He closed the lid, slowly got up with the hammer in hand, and held it close to him.
"T-this....this object....it's so meaningful! So much meaning! What a beautiful hammer! I'm experiencing happiness of the most majestic sort! My life has purpose! A thousand epiphanies and a catharsis a thousand-fold! It's too much! Tooooo mucchhhhh...."
He collapsed onto the floor in a heap that now knew what he had to live for.
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Post by Hitotsumami on Nov 11, 2012 23:01:14 GMT -5
As Elrond left the office, still somewhat curious as to what he saw under the floorboards, he was greeted by the mages all seeming to enjoy themselves in their new Guild. Some had already gone exploring and settled into their own separate rooms. It made him feel proud to have a good start, and he wondered what their first mission would be.
He looked over at the staircase leading to the S-Rank rooms and saw Alden, calling out he'd be taking over the Clock Tower. For some reason, Elrond thought that matched his personality, and gave a nod before Alden vanished again.
The strange clown Dofun wasn't there, he must have found a room, but the others were around. Puck was having a chat with John. Both of those guys did seem really similar... Other than that, Jupiter seemed to be staring at a rather strange painting that honestly freaked him out. He made a mental note to take down that painting eventually and get it out of sight. That face.. It was terrafying.
Elrond was going to ask Jupiter what he was muttering to himself, but Xi caught his eye. She certainly was young looking, and her physique wasn't the most charming, but she had a beauty all her own. He quickly sat across from her on a table, admiring the keys.
"All of what?" he asked curiously.
---
In the top corner of the room, where the ceiling and the walls touched, for a split second a shape could be seen, but it was instantly invisible again. Maybe someone saw it, but maybe not.
Either way, it wasn't there anymore, still completely invisible, not making a sound, it sat right behind Jupiter.
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Post by CJ on Nov 12, 2012 10:26:45 GMT -5
Xing Qi eyes rolled to see Alden claim the clock tower for himself. She didn't really care, so long as no one contested to taking her room in the dorms. She still hadn't thoroughly searched the room to see if there was anything other than the strange glasses. She looked at Dofun, the freaky clown, as he freaked out on the floor. Puck's bump into her was so distracting, she didn't notice Elrond sitting before her.
"Well, all of the Golden Zodiac Keys, of course," she started. She looked up and froze, realizing who was asking her the question. Elrond wasn't exactly a person of legend like Validus or Joan of Fable, but she still felt like she should respect him as a guild leader.
"I mean... Elrond, it's just... well, I'm a Summoner. In order to be an effective mage, I have to collect keys. I can't just settle for any old keys. I'm looking for these Zodiac variety. I have the Snake and the Horse so far but if I could get a few more, I could be really powerful."
Xing Qi shuffled on her seat. She pressed her hand to her hat and slid it down over her eyes.
"Well, not powerful in a bad way. I mean powerful in a diverse way. I could be a better problem solver. More keys means more options. So..."
She placed her golden keys on the table in front of her eye and meekly looked up at Elrond.
"So, what do you specialize in, Guild Master Elrond? Was that guild raising magic really your own magic? Or are you running this guild simply as a business? You've already got a dragon slayer so it seems like you'd be doing well for yourself."
A certain mage once called "Pony Love" had a portrait situated behind Xing Qi. Its eyes still to sparkle intensely toward Elrond.
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