Chapter 9- A Mix of Tribesmen

Citadel First Floor- Medical Wing, Unknown Date (Unknown time)

Nath’aniel-

Nath'aniel had to brace himself. The auras all around him were extremely thick. He wasn't sure if it was because of the closed space he found himself in, or if something was damaged in the Citadel. Then he heard the screaming.

Remembering the tribes' girl with the purple hair from his dream, he ordered the chamber. "Citadel! Emergency release. Get me out of here." Instead of roof and side panels entering into the rest of the sarcophagus, as they had started when he first saw the thing.

The three panels moved and burst out just enough to be out of the way, granting him enough room to squeeze out of the gap created where their corners met, allowing Nath'aniel to squeeze and climb out of the thing. And while it took him some time, he eventually climbed out.

Once free of the metal confines, Nath'aniel saw that only two women of the Tribes of the Land were in the medical wing with him, the one with the purple hair he expected. While the other with her reddish brown hair was new to him. Purple haired one was screaming and holding her head while the other seemed to be attempting to calm the first. The purple haired one wore thick purple and grey padded armor. While the other seemed to only wear a thin layer of red cotton of all things.

‘Father would be here if he was alive, no way he wouldn’t be here. And they are not speaking any tongue I recognize, did we lose the war? How many survived? Are these even an ally?.. Too many unknowns I need to play it safe. But first things first, I cannot be responsible for another person losing their mind because of my eyes. Faraji I am so sorry, I thought you could handle it.’ Nath’aniel thought as he took in his surroundings.

What more surprised him was that the purple-haired one was clearly of the Eastern Tribes, while the redhead was of the Northern Tribes. He ignored the oddity and proceeded to do what was needed.

Nath’aniel rushed forward, placing his own hands on both of hers, he ignored the odd purple energy that his hands went through, his eyes told him they were raw psychic energy, and since he already felt an itch in his head he assumed more psychic energy wouldn’t do too much more to him.

And while the mage saw that the redhead held out her palm to him and dragged forth abyssal energy to reinforce her hand and arm. Nath'aniel trusted the Citadel's defenses to protect him, should she try to attack him.

So he began whispering to the Easterner. "It's all right." He said to her. She seemed to understand him as her eyes stared into his. Seeing the tears forming in her eyes, Nath'aniel began shifting his vision's focus. This was in an attempt to get the higher realms clearer while trying to also blur more than the lower ones. As he did so he continued his whispering. "They can't reach you here. You're safe."

“(What did you do to her?)” The Northern said to him. “(What is that you’re saying?)”

He noted that it wasn’t Central Common that she was using. ‘A problem for later.’ Nath’aniel thought. He noticed that the Easterner had stopped screaming, either because his consul and efforts was helping or she was out of breath.

“There you go, not everything is terrible and horror filled.” Nath’aniel smiled in hopes that she might feel better.

The Northern had stepped away from them, raising both of her arms as she did so. He was surprised to notice that both of her arms were now powered by abyssal energy. But he still wasn't worried. Nath'aniel knew how thorough his father was. Even with having been asleep for nine hundred, and seventy-six years, he doubted that the Citadel could be that impaired.

The Easterner smirked back at him, so he assumed she was focusing on the here and now and not on the outer realms that his eyes could make out. Or his focusing on the higher realms was helping. "See it's all not so bad. Yes, the lower realms are truly barbaric, but the others aren't so bad." Nath'aniel said. Her face was enchanting to him, and he knew he needed to get away. So he added. "So end the spell, before some of the nastier things jump out and scare us again."

“(Spell?)” The Easterner used the same strange language the other woman did.

And yet while Nath'aniel couldn't understand her words, he did somehow understand her intent. The mage had felt something, in his mind when he awoke, and had assumed that their minds were linked. This would explain why meaning and intent were passed over to him. But he felt little else through this link. 'Perhaps she was limiting what she sent.’ He thought. Then the minor itch in the back of his head disappeared. ‘Must have ended her spell.’

He took his hands away and stood up. The Northern was still aiming her palms at him. Purple had fallen back on her rear and was breathing heavily. But he knew she should be safe now that the link was severed.

Nath'aniel would have stepped away, but the Easterner was on his left and the floating stone was behind him so he stood firm. However, a sudden spike of the yellow and green aura distracted him. In less than a second after the distortion, another Northern appeared in the doorway of the medical wing. This one was male and had short white hair and wore a white and grey body glove even thinner than the first Northerner's outfit, as well as some kind of yellow eyewear.

"(Ok naked guy with a six-pack, was not what I had imagined when we heard screaming.)" The newcomer said in the odd clearly common language. "(Should I come back later, give you a couple minutes? Hell if you make it worth my while I might even be willing to try and distract dad for ya.)"

The red-headed Northern turned and unleashed a bolt from her empowered arm at the newcomer. Nath'aniel expected to see extensively serious damage from the raw bolt of abyssal energy hitting someone. Instead, when it hit his body the tribesman seemed to simply absorb it. And while his body easily absorbed it, his body glove had a melted hole just under his right breast.

While the sudden mystery intrigued him, what did cause Nath’aniel worry was that none of the Citadel's defenses triggered from the sudden attack. 'With this systems offline, and their being powered, I must be cautious till I know more.’ He thought.

With most of them not looking at him, he took the risk to cast the Tongues-Above rune in its cantrip level with his right hand and then planned to crush it. But the simple gesture and intent were all that he needed, as it activated immediately.

"(Chill sis, chill)… it's just a joke." The male northern said, the first words still in their new common tongue, the last words however now sounded to Nath'aniel as fluent Magi. The man suddenly snapped his head towards the Mage and asked "Wait, what did you do?" The Northerner was hit by two additional bolts of abyssal energy that had been fired at him, leaving again next to no damage to him. And then he seemed to just appear to be halfway into the room. "Don't you think I didn't notice that? What did you do naked guy? What the fuck happened to your eyes or is that your mutation?"

Again a sudden spike of yellow and green aura appeared around them as the boy moved around. ‘Is he generating time?’ Nath'aniel wondered. But simply held his hands up, trying to not pose a threat.

"Quicksilver!" The female Northern yelled at her male counterpart. "Father said to try to think diplomatically. You acting like an American isn't helping. Check on Psylocke."

The white-haired man walked normally towards the woman on the floor. However, Nath'aniel noticed very slight increases in auras related to time. 'Is he flexing some kind of muscle, which creates time? Is he like the warlord? A bearer of the X-gene?'

The redhead moved closer to the other two, her arms still wrapped in the energy from the abyss. She looked him up and down once before asking. "Did you do something?"

Nath'aniel nodded before saying. "I cast a spell so I can understand you." While he spoke he made exaggerated gestures pointing towards his mouth and ear and again at her mouth.

“What the hell kinda language is that?” The other man asked as he stopped his effort to examine the Easterner.

The female Northerner didn't seem too surprised, but then she had been there when Nath'aniel had been trying to calm the other woman. After a moment she asked, "You did something so you can understand us?"

The Mage nodded but didn't say anything.

Another moment passed before she asked. "Can you do that to one of us?"

Nath'aniel looked the three of them over. He was about to shake his head in the negative when he felt a magical echo coming from the redhead. So he nodded before lowering his arms and pointing towards her.

“You can do it to me?” The female Northern asked. Nath’aniel noted that she didn’t seem surprised by this.

Yellow and green spiked again, as the boy was suddenly standing in the face of the redhead. "Nope, not happening." His nose touching hers, "Dad would kill me if I let this guy brainwash you or something."

Orange and yellow auras suddenly spiked too, as abyssal energy suddenly wrapped around the white-haired man and he flew up into the ceiling. Nath'aniel noted that the boy's body still seemed to be absorbing some of the energy holding him, but not enough to stop him from being held.

"You will not get that close to me!" The redhead said with a snarl on her face. "And you will let me do what is necessary to allow us to continue this conversation. Or I will tell father what you did in Genosha. Understand?"

The Northern on the ceiling simply nodded, instead of answering.

Given the anger she showed, Nath'aniel was surprised she was nice enough to lower the man down before releasing him. The boy was only on the ground for a second, before staring at Nath'aniel for a moment, and then was gone. The spike of yellow and green auras left a trail for him to see, of the Northern moving around the redhead and out the door before the mage could no longer make out where the man went.

The mage gave the woman a moment and looked at the other one. The purple haired woman's eyes were closed and her breathing was, even so, he guessed she was asleep. He also could see that her armor had several signs of impact damage on it, so it wasn't for show. Neither looked very old to him, but then Nath'aniel hadn't spent that much time with the various Tribesmen of Land to really be a judge of age.

The redhead took a deep breath before asking. "Do I need to do anything for this work?"

Even with his eyes not on her, the mage was able to observe her while she stabilized herself. Nath'aniel shook his head and then took a step forward. The range wasn't really an issue, but he hadn't ever cast this spell at the strength to affect another person before, his body before just wouldn't have allowed him to do it.

‘Hope this isn’t a waste of time on my part.' He thought, before holding up his right pointer and index finger. He allowed the astral energy to pool in his fingertips, he noticed her take a stance, so he waited a few seconds to allow her to calm herself. Once calm he wrote the Tongues-Above rune.

“A check mark, attached to a cloud?” she muttered.

With the spell formed, he pushed it toward her, but it was really his will and intent that drove the spell into her. When he didn't feel any backlash, Nath'aniel knew that his spell had taken root in her.

The room was filled with silence, as Nath’aniel want to wait for her to go first.

“I don’t feel any different.” The Northern muttered.

"And you shouldn't. Spells that affect the body may trigger a sensation, but otherwise, most spells, when working properly you shouldn't even notice they're there." Nath'aniel said stately. He watched her reaction as the spell affected her. Her face showed the mage first confusion, then surprise, and in the end resolve.

At which point she spoke again. “You speak Sarkovian?”

"Not only do I not speak that language, but I also have no idea where the land that it comes from is." Nath'aniel answered before explaining. "I cast a comprehension spell on you. This will only affect the spoken word and only living people. And it will translate whatever it is they’re trying to communicate to you in your first or primary language. In your case, whatever that language is. And in mine, Magi."

While he explained he empowered the pointer finger on both of his hands. He had never attempted a dual cast before, his ill body just couldn't muster enough power from them. But now that he was healed, Nath'aniel needed to know what he could do. He cast the same spell twice, hoping his intent would be enough to fulfill his lack of experience. When the spell forms were complete, from nowhere appeared thin air sandals, a loincloth, and a half robe to cover his lower region appeared and covered him.

As he finished he noticed strange markings on his arms. Eight symbols, four on each arm, and none were a duplicate of another. But to his eyes there was more to them than that. 'Yet another problem, for later.’ He thought.

“What spell was that? Oh, that’s some nice ink.” The Northern woman said.

While he had taken the time to examine them, she had moved closer to him. He knew the void-stone used in the flooring of Citadel allowed them to simulate the pull of their planet's rotation, but it also had a tendency to absorb tremendous amounts of sound. Never the less he asked, "Ink?"

She pointed at his arms, before saying. "Your tattoos. I mean they are small and simple, but there is defiantly some high-quality work there though." As he stared at her for a time, she continued. "I don't know a lot, but long flights in the Grey-wing resulted in some odd conversations. And Basilisk went on for like four hours about high and low-quality tattoos. Her dad was an artist but with her skin the way it is. Well, she couldn't get any work done. That and her hands are kind of too thick to hold the needle, poor girl. Yet another dream of hers lost."

Nath’aniel continued to stare at her, even after she had said all that she could on the subject. When she was clearly finished he asked. “What’s a tattoo?”

While they didn't affect any of the auras like the first two Northerners did, Nath'aniel could make out an increase of solar and magnetic energy that announced the newcomers before they stepped into view. Both were Northerners too. The first wore an odd helmet and some purple metal armor. While the second seem to copy the first two Northerners, and wore a simple black body glove.

“I thought Quicksilver said that he was naked.” The armored man said after taking in the room.

“He did.” The other man replied. Nath’aniel noticed that this man was tethered to the light constructs that floated along with them, while this link would be invisible to others he could make out the micro signals the man emitted to them to keep them doing and staying where he wanted them.

The Redhead moved casually to stand between Nath'aniel and the two newcomers. She then stretched her arms and said. "Father, he is the legal owner of this place. If we wanted diplomacy he's the one we need to deal with."

Nath’aniel leaned forward and whispered into her ear. “You said that in your first tongue.”