melodiesoflife | Event || In Your Worst Memory

Event || In Your Worst Memory

Characters: All Heroes of Light. Only those who signed-up can start a memory.
Where: Interdimensional Rift
When: May 27th - May 30th
Summary: The Heroes of Light relive some of their worst memories, with a twist. All characters participating in this will be physically missing from Crystallis for the duration of the event.
Warning: It depends on the memory.

Where you were or what you were doing— It does not really matter. Not any more. Everything around you freezes, nearly as if time itself stopped, as if the world was frozen in time. And before you have a chance to understand what is happening, you can hear a voice right behind you.

"Kali Shashidhwaja."

Should you turn around, you may see a child who seems to be the only one aside from you unaffected by what is happening. And as she stares right at you, it makes no doubt these strange words are aimed at you. But before you can reply to her, the world around you collapses. Reality twists and shatters... Or maybe you are the one who is collapsing and shattering away from reality as you know it. No matter what the answer is, it will only take a few seconds for you to find yourself sinking into a void, Crystallis vanishing into the distance. There is nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see.

And once again you feel different: all the powers from your Jobs are fading. Not only that, but you might find that your Crystal is gone and your clothes back to what they were before you woke up in Crystallis. It is silent, cold and before long it feels as though life itself is slipping out of you... And yet, slowly the world reforms around you. The darkness fades away and a new world appears, yet at the same time this is not a world.

This is a memory. The question is, is it yours or that of someone else?

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K'pandolu followed after, and glanced over the room, frowning. "Which door? Or… a secret escape route?" she asked, a little doubtfully. Still, she went to investigate the closest door, scanning it for any indication of where it went.

Since there were no more knights around and thus no need to maintain the darkness, Jade concentrated on casting again, though not for attacking this time. The fonic glyph that appeared under his feet illuminated the dark room.

"Do you see anything?" he asked, careful to keep the light dim enough that it hopefully wouldn't startle Ashelia too badly.

It appears as though the young princess cannot see the light given off by Jade's glyph.

To the Heroes, the light reveals a very crowded storage room. Chairs are piled on top of each other, tables and wardrobes and various sconces and lamps precariously balanced throughout.

Ashe feels her way along slowly, trying to quiet her breathing as much as possible. She is obviously still very upset, but is managing to keep focused for now. "I think she said...in a corner, the servant stairwell..." she mumbles to herself.

Back in the hallway, there is the dim sound of the Imperial soldiers speaking with each other as they make their way through the door. Having come upon the broken lock, they chose to investigate further.

Ashe makes her way through the room, making for one of the corners - however, the light from Jade's glyph reveals that she's headed the wrong way. The door is in the opposite corner, along the outer wall of the tower. However, it is mostly blocked by a large wardrobe, on top of which is an end table with a small chandelier and a set of wine glasses placed on it.

With the light from Jade's glyph, there is no danger of the Heroes catching on something they couldn't see, but once they catch on to the door's location, there is still the wardrobe to be moved. Try not to make a noise...

"Over there." Zelda was talking softly even though there was no need for it. It was hard not to in the glow of Jade's light and then watching the young princess stubble around as if it wasn't there. She glanced back at the door a few times but for now she figured they would be safe.

She wasn't as strong as the others with her and while Jade had tremendous powers the others in the group didn't seem as skilled. There was no way to know just yet but they had a long journey a head of them.

"We need to guide her."

Olivier drops her voice to a whisper. "Well, we have two options. We can move her into the right direction, but if invisible hands were pulling on me, I would probably resist. Or, we can direct her attention to this other door, but that might attract unwanted attention. Either way is a risk. We should be ready to fight again, no matter what decision is made."

K'pandolu glanced over towards the door, then bad to the others. "Directing her attention to it sounds the better option. Besides- all that looks as though it needs to be moved. We'll need to be careful, but I'd think she'd notice that. Let's see about getting the first few items off it."

With that, she headed over to look for a way to get up to the stacked items.

Jade walked back they came from and made sure the door was closed all the way before lifting his spear to bar it. They were going to make some noise no matter what they did, so someone had to slow down the soldiers as much as possible.

"Clear out what you can. Quietly." The less time Ashelia had to spend moving the wardrobe, the better. Jade resumed his casting so that the others could see what they were doing.

It is easy enough to get up to the stacked items; the light cast from Jade's glyph reveals a healthy amount of chairs available to move over and stand upon to remove the more delicate items from atop the wardrobe.

Ashe gasps as her foot catches on a rolled up rug stuffed between two dressers. She steadies herself easily enough though, and continues on. She reaches her destination shortly, but curses under her breath when she realizes it was the wrong way. With there being only one more corner the door could be, she begins to make her way over.

Outside the storage room, the soldiers make their way down the hallway. For now, they seem to be distracted by looking into the other doors. But they will advance...

Edited 2015-06-06 04:05 (UTC)

Zelda quickly moves so that she was looking up at the top of the wardrobe. This was a moment where being very short was to her disadvantage. She carefully and quickly steps up on a chair and begins taking things from atop the wardrobe and handing it to anyone close by. She didn't stop once those items where handed off. She moved to the next things so that she'd be safely down from the chair by the time Ashe made her way towards her.

Her gaze was determined and while her moves where quick she took care to be silent. Once the pieces where off they could move the limbering piece of furniture from Ashe's path.

Olivier is quick to help with unstacking the items off the top of the wardrobe, carefully glancing back to the door every few minutes.

She realizes what Zelda moves onto right away and glances at the others.

"Keeping her path clear will help reduce drawing the guards. Once she gets to the wardrobe we can all help her move it for the same reason."

K'pandolu moved to help with stacking the items and stacking them elsewhere, listening intently. "It makes sense," she agreed. Perhaps they could move it a little more quickly, with a little less noise than Ashe would produce alone. "I'll do what I can." Which she would do regardless, of course, but all the better to have it out there.

Unfortunately casting required Jade to stand in place and as such he couldn't help them clear the way. Keeping the light up seemed more important for now -- moving in the dark in this cluttered room would inevitably cause too much noise.

Which was why he was worried about Ashelia traversing the room practically blind. All it would take was knocking down something heavy or breakable, and the guards' attention would be drawn...

Ashe makes it across the room without any more missteps. Assessing the situation is easy enough at such close range, even in the darkness, but with nothing atop the wardrobe, she braces herself to start pulling. With the help of the Heroes it moves easily enough, but the sound of it scraping across the stone floor is quite noticeable.

"Did you hear that?" a voice drifts in from the hallway. Ashe gasps quietly and abandons the wardrobe. Having pushed it just far enough to slide the secret door open and squish by, she leaves the room shortly before the door opens and the Imperial soldiers enter. They look around for a moment, but then leave to join their compatriots, no doubt to perform a more thorough search of the room later on.

The stairwell she finds herself in is narrow and steep. After taking a second or two to catch her breath, she begins her descent. She shivers slightly in the cold breeze of the desert at night and clutches the hilt of her sword with both hands, bringing the pommel close to her chest with the blade pointing down. She shakes her head . "Should have put something on..."

Ashe slows down when she hears voices through on the of many doors to various rooms she passes. The door in question is slightly open. She peers through the crack and looks down to see what is is that's blocking it from closing - and just barely manages to stop herself from screaming. A hand, palm up, is wedged between the sliding door and the jamb. Following the arm up from the wrist, Ashe stumbles backward, one hand over her mouth. She recognizes that face; one of the younger servant boys. His eyes are still open...

She closes her eyes, trying to focus more on the goings on in the room. She needs information. She holds her breath, keeping herself out of the sliver of light that made its way into the servants' staircase as much as possible, and moves in to hear what the soldiers inside are discussing.

"Heard back form upstairs yet?" one of them asks. He sits on one of the beds - the room looks to be full of single bunks - and wipes his sword with a cloth. It comes out red. There's slight movement on the bed behind him...is someone still alive?

"Nay," comes an older, more cultured voice from the doorway. "We're to stay here. There is still resistance on the ground floor."

"But the princess is up there, isn't she? She's supposed to be beautiful, I wanna - "

"You will not!" comes the stern reply. "She has suffered enough. The last thing she needs is to look upon a nasty cur like you."

The younger man shrugs. "Suffered enough? She sits atop her tower on a bed plush with feathers while we massacre her household. Suffered enough..."

The older man waves away the other soldier's words. "She's a long, hard road ahead of her, more difficult even than what she's endured so far. You know what happened in Nabradia, and at Nalbina. The prince's homeland completely destroyed in seconds, and himself following scant weeks later. And now her father, at the treaty signing that was to save them all."

Ashe fumbles with the sword in her hand, but manages not to drop it. "Father...no..." she whispers, shaking her head. The tears fall silently down her face.

The younger soldier snorts in laughter. "And at the hand of their own Captain! Protecting Dalmascan sovereignty, my arse."

"Yes, well. We've all got our own ideals when it comes to such things." The older soldier sounded completely done with the younger man. "Besides, it's all a little to convenient for me."

"Convenient?" The younger man sounds incredulous. "One of their own witnessed the whole thing, no? He's the one that pointed the finger, so I hear."

"Apparently so," comes the answer.

They continue talking, but Ashe doesn't seem to hear them. She stumbles backwards, all the way to the outer wall of the staircase, and sinks to the floor. She sets the sword across her lap and draws her knees up, encircling her head with her arms as she gives herself over to grief. It's almost impressive how silent she manages to be, even with her body shaking with sobs.

Edited 2015-06-11 20:46 (UTC)

Zelda followed Ashe not even looking at the soldiers behind them. If it needed to be taken care of then they would. For now she would be there for her friend during her time of crisis. She could understand the feeling at a lose of a parent but listening to the men talk was to much. It was cruel for someone to have to hear that.

When Ashe pressed against the wall Zelda knelt beside her. She knew that the princess couldn't see her but she didn't care. She trusted the others to keep a look out. More so with Jade with in their group.

"Asheila, I know you can't hear me but you need to run. You need to run so that you can come back and fight with a greater force. You aren't alone."

"Get ready to follow her," Olivier recommends as she goes back the way they came and listens at a few of the doors for more of the soldiers. At the first quiet room she comes across, Olivier slowly opens a door, just a crack, and then softly shuts it, making just enough noise to hopefully make Ashelia start moving. She knows it's a risk, and she draws her sword as she hustles to rejoin the group.

"Understood," K'pandolu acknowledged with a nod. She glanced back to the stairwell, listening for sounds of soldiers approaching. If there had indeed been treachery from inside, then where could they head? Still, she doubted there was much time to ponder it- all she felt sure she could do was see that Ashe's path was as clear as possible.

Jade was the last to follow Ashe from the store room. There was no moving the wardrobe back now without attracting attention, but he took a moment to quietly pick up a rug and drape it over the edge of the wardrobe, letting it hang over the hidden doorway. With any luck, the soldiers wouldn't notice it immediately when they returned to search.

He caught up with the others quickly enough, just in time to catch the conversation behind the door and Ashe's collapse on the stairway. Sadly, there was no time to let her grieve.

"At least one of us should always move ahead of her. We don't want her walking right into trouble."

Ashe's head jerks up when she hears the door that Olivier closed. She looks around for the moment, almost as if she senses the Heroes around her, but scrambles to her feet quickly enough, sword in hand. She clenches a jaw and narrows her eyes, despite the tears that still fall - a look that may be familiar to some of the observing Heroes, despite how much younger Ashe looks. It doesn't take long for her to begin her descent. She stumbles at first, but as time goes on her steps become more steady.

It takes several minutes for her to reach the bottom of the tower, but she does so without further incident. There is a door leading directly outside. She opens it cautiously, peeking outside. In front of her is a garden, open to the sky but with high walls on all sides. Vines drape artfully over the small paths leading into the surrounding buildings, luscious desert trees leaning heavily to one side or the other. A wide channel of water runs around the perimeter of the garden; water bubbles up in the centre of the space, and at various other points, in mimicry of a real desert oasis. It's truly a sight to behold, and quietly beautiful under the moonlight.

Ashe takes a delicate step outside, keeping her eyes peeled. It's almost impossible to know for sure that she's alone in the garden, with its twisting paths and the trees and vines everywhere.

"There! Is that - ?"

"The princess? Who's that with her-?"

"Get her! Let loose the flare!"

The soldiers, six in total, run towards Ashe and the Heroes. They spread out, seemingly taking the Heroes' presence into consideration - they can indeed see Ashe's companions. One of them, a mage, stands back, dim light dancing around him as he readies some kind of spell.

Ashe takes a step back, bringing her sword up in front of her shakily. She opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. The soldiers advance quickly, brandishing their weapons, swordsmen all.

Zelda followed next to Ashe waiting to jump in front of her should they need to protect her. She didn't want to lead because there was no guarantee that she knew what way Ashe would venture.

When they stepped outside she looked around the garden hoping they would soon be safely to an exit. Though she didn't know if this fight was just in the castle or if the country was unsafe. She stepped in front of Ashe as the figures came into view. Seeing the mage spurred her steps forward though with her blade she couldn't safely stop the soldiers magic. Instead she swung at the nearest soldier hoping that Jade's magic could rival the enemy magician.

From the looks of the garden, Olivier is sure this was a prosperous place before this betrayal started. This can't be a memory Ashelia wants to relive, but there is nothing they can do aside from help her make it through.

Once they see the soldiers, Olivier draws her weapon, then follows Zeldas lead.

Olivier heads for the next closest soldier. She wasn't sure how the magic of this world worked, but she would tackled that man if she needed to. If she learned anything about alchemy it was that concentration was key. If Jade didn't go after him, she would once she finished with the soldier she was getting ready to strike with her blade.

The product of a more peaceful time, indeed… If only they'd the time to appreciate it. K'pandolu drew her claws, glancing over the soldiers- six to their five, including Ashelia. But she appeared less than certain with her sword, and the tactics of the others… was unlike the gladiators she knew of. So, then…

She focused her energies into Fists of Earth, fists glowing for a moment, and moved to tackle the mage first, before slamming her fists down on the earth. It wasn't her strongest attack, but hopefully it would serve her purpose- to draw attention to her. She could hold on for a little while- long enough, with any luck.

The distraction was welcome. While the mage was stumbling back, briefly stunned by K'pandolu's tackle, Jade was doing some casting of his own. He had plenty of artes to fight multiple enemies, but sadly almost all of them either made a lot of noise or created too much light -- both of which would give away their position. This called for something more discreet.

"O Mighty explosion... Energy Blast!" Despite the arte's incantation, the explosion of energy at the mage's position was far from mighty -- but at Jade's level of experience, it was strong enough. More importantly, the spell was relatively quiet, and ideal for picking off a specific target.

The mage is blown back even further by Jade's spell, landing roughly beside a tree. After a moment or two on the ground, he scrambles to his feet, staff once again in hand. After tossing a potion quickly, he moves behind a tree for better cover and once again begins casting.

The soldiers set upon the party, one to each of the Heroes, and two on Jade, as his magick is unlike any they've seen before. "Get that flare off!" comes the command, and the mage begins moving away from the scuffle actively.

Ashe stands her ground as one of the soldiers approaches her. His sword is up, but he moves slowly, cautiously. "Lay down your sword, Princess, and no harm will come to you."

The young woman shakes her head quickly, but does not reply. Instead she charges at the man, sword held high, but her approach is amateur and easily read; the soldier deflects her blow easily and steps into her charge with an armored shoulder in front. She falls to the ground hard, gasping in pain.

Zelda watched the mage as he moved. Once the soldier she had been facing was distracted she moved to get a line of sight with the elusive caster. She was quicker than the soldiers having no armor to hinder her movements.

Once the man was in view she called upon her gifts as the goddess. There was a faint glow in her palm that shifted and formed into a bow made of a pale golden light. She pulled the string back, an arrow forming in her sights, before releasing the arrow at the mage. He would feel the pierce of her arrow and then the light magic that coursed through her shot.

She was able to hit except that now she was left open should a soldier see fit to attack her.

Olivier is good with a sword, and she makes quick work of spotting the weaknesses in the armor the soldier is wearing and when the opportunity presents itself she slides her sword into one of these weaknesses and rather than checking to see if he stays down, she heads back to Ashelia, that thud and gasp didn't bode well.

When she sees her on the ground, Olivier directs a yell at the soldier and charges with her sword intent on distracting him, "You have to go through us to get her."

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