“Are we getting close?” Metilia quietly asked Hasio, as the three of them crept along toward the location he found yesterday. Hasio had decided he wanted to take a slower approach, and one that didn’t take the exact same path in case someone from the Crow’s Black Feathers elected to follow them. Based on the information Hasio provided, Metilia herself had a working theory that an aura user had infiltrated the mage’s guild, but Tahir had been right when he said that going to the guild about it would have been too risky. Unless they managed to get a private conversation with the Raven himself, and they had no real way of doing that without arousing suspicion. With that in mind, they would seal the rifts and destroy the orbs that sustained them, and then go from there. Whatever retaliation that the perpetrators would take, they could monitor it and respond accordingly while attempting to gather evidence.
“We’re just about there. You should be able to see the tree.” Hasio answered. Sure enough, when Metilia looked up she could see the towering form of the tree. She squinted, but couldn’t see any hint of a planar rift. According to Hasio, it remained invisible to the eye until they got close enough, within 50 or 60 feet in his estimation. The thought of a rift to another plane spewing dangerous creatures out while being almost entirely unseen sent goosebumps across her ash gray skin. Trying not to think of the implications, she remembered that Hasio also told them about the bird that flew out from the rift when he reached for the orb, so she kept an eye out for any similar creatures, but couldn’t see any at this distance.
So she’d wait, until they reached the clearing itself. As they stood around the outskirts, Metilia looked up once again and spotted a couple of bird-like silhouettes. She looked back to Hasio and Theo. “So, what is our plan. I believe only Hasio will be able to properly mask his ascent, but I don’t particularly want you to go up alone.”
“That makes two of us, believe me.” Hasio replied, looking thoughtfully at the tree. “Ironically, being in the tree would help hinder them from just swooping down on us, but we’d have to worry about falling.” He looked between Metilia and Theo. “Well, I’d have to worry about falling.”
“We could get them to focus on us.” Theo suggested, gesturing between herself and Metilia. “While you go up invisible, if you get up to the top while they’re attacking us then you can just get the orb!”
“I admire your enthusiasm and willingness to subject yourself to those talons.” Hasio said, taking another glance between Theo and the tree. “But I can’t think of much else that won’t have us getting to a full fight with those birds before we can get the orb. If we waste too much energy in the fight, the climb becomes a lot harder to deal with.”
After a while of watching the birds to make sure they hadn’t spotted them in their hiding spot, they crept over to the base of the tree. Hasio turned invisible, but kept a hand on Metilia’s shoulder as they reached the tree. “Alright, I’m going up. Give it a couple of seconds and follow after.”
Without any more ceremony, he started climbing, or at least Metilia thought so from the quiet sounds she heard against the tree's bark. She and Theo waited as Hasio directed, and then Theo smiled at Metilia before beginning to climb herself. Metilia sighed. She’d helped cut down trees, she’d helped chop wood, she’d carved and shaped wood into other things before, but she never had the inclination to ever climb a tree. Surely she had Tahir to thank for giving her the aura necessary to facilitate the climb, but she couldn’t do it with the ease that Theo and presumably Hasio scaled it. As she started making her way up, she kept close attention to the nearest branches. When a fight broke out, she would have to secure herself onto one to have any chance to be able to cast her spells without issues.
And so they climbed, and to Metilia’s relief, the climb did get easier once they started reaching the branches. She nearly ran into Theo when she paused, looking up toward the top of the tree, and let out another small sigh at her quiet apology. Following her up, she could see why she stopped, as the rift became visible right as she shifted just high enough. The fact that the rift remained hidden based on distance fascinated her, and it made her wish she could study the orb while it was active, because it had to be the cause. Destroying it took priority, though, as the rift would close soon after.
As they approached the top, the birds, who had likely taken notice as soon as they started climbing, started to become visibly agitated. Metilia kept the nearest branches in mind, and slowed her ascent to see what they could do. They had to get the birds to actually attack and vacate the space, so Hasio could reach the orb. “Theo, get ready.” Settling on a thick branch, Metilia took out her staff and readied it, and waited for Theo to do the same. As Metilia watched, Theo conjured water that swirled around in her hand.
“Go!” She conjured several bolts of magic and sent them off, while Theo fired shards of ice. Personally, Metilia wanted to use the spell she’d recently learned from Zorhe’s spellbook, but the birds would certainly notice the strong flow of mana long before she managed to cast it. It didn’t particularly matter, she had a feeling she’d find the opportune time to cast it soon enough. The birds rapidly leapt from their perches, dodging most of the projectiles, and started to fly down toward them. Getting close, they looked like large hawks with brown and white feathers, but of course large enough to carry a full grown man off with ease. They flew toward them, talons at the ready, but Metilia and Theo were already prepared for retaliation.
There were three of them, two came after Metilia while one went for Theo. Metilia already prepared her next spell, creating a strong panel of magic above her that protected her from the Talons, while Theo raised her shield, warding off the giant hawks’ talons in a shower of sparks as they connected with the mineral-like material. After missing their first attack, the hawks flew away and began swooping around for a second strike. Metilia readied another set of bolts, watching and waiting, and she spotted one coming around the tree from below. As it approached, she fired off her bolts, and watched most of them spear the hawk in several places. At that point, it tried to veer off and possibly escape, but it barely managed to turn before a spike of ice half as long as its wingspan pierced it, and it began to fall.
The second hawk stuck closer to the tree, and tried to strike Theo from above. Theo leaned away, back falling against the branch she steadied herself on. Metilia sent as many bolts as she could conjure on short notice, but only a couple of them grazed it, and she kept watching from the third when she heard a curse from Hasio.
From above, he’d become visible, and from the way he wildly looked around, it wasn’t by choice. He held the orb in his hands, and it crackled with a magical energy. Metilia then spotted the third hawk, it had switched targets and seemed to fly after Hasio. She called out, and he glanced over and noticed it before it could reach him.
To Metilia’s shock, he leapt off of the tree to avoid the hawk, throwing down the orb and letting it fall. Seeing this, Theo jumped down after him, but at least Metilia knew that Theo could break her own fall.
As she moved to the edge of the branch she began conjuring more bolts but felt unsure whether to fire them. Her eyes widened in surprise, though, when she saw the hawk’s wings divested from its body in a single, fluid motion from Hasio. The now wingless drifted off, likely to die on impact with the ground, and Hasio held his two daggers in his hands. He’d used Murabi’s teachings to fling his strikes in mid air. Soon after, a powerful gust of air rose up from the ground beneath him. Not enough to completely stop Hasio’s fall, but enough to make it a negligible hit to his aura pool
Soon after, Metilia spotted the final hawk going after the still airborne Theo. She fired off the bolts she had waiting, and several of them struck true, causing the hawk to cry out. Theo, still lightly floating down from her air magic, turned to look and fired off a bolt of lightning as quickly as she was able. The speedy bolt struck it before it could even think to dodge, and it too crashed to the ground.
Breathing a sigh of relief at the end of the fighting, Metilia glanced up at the rift. She could see it already beginning to destabilize and close, so with that out of way, she started to make her way down the tree. “Is everyone alright?” She asked, once she finally managed to drop down to the ground.
Theo and Hasio stood around the site of the orb, which had shattered into several pieces. “Not a scratch on me!” Theo replied with a grin.
“That landing could have been smoother, but I’ll manage.” Hasio said.
“I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting you to jump as you did.” Metilia said, walking over and leaning down to examine the various shards of the orb.
“Well, I didn’t want to leave the damn thing for the second time, but it was heavier than I expected. Took aura for me to pick it up in a short amount of time, and when it dispersed my camouflage I couldn’t exactly fight with it in my hands. Figure I’d kill two birds with one stone by jumping. Plus I figured one of you would catch me, some kind of way.”
“I wish you had communicated that before your jump, perhaps on the way down.” Metilia said, bringing a hand over the various shards of the orb as she sensed the mana flowing around them - making sure they were safe to touch. “Though I will acquiesce that everything in that moment happened rather quickly. Expertly done with your knifework, all the same.”
“Oh yeah! You’ve gotten pretty good at that.” Theo said. “I wasn’t expecting you to just pull out your daggers and cut its wings off like that.”
Helped that I lured it into a point where it couldn’t really dodge.” Hasio said. “At least, if it wasn’t expecting what I was about to do, which is how I like to take my fights, personally. Anyway, enough about me. What do you make of this thing, Metilia?”
“The construction seems rather complex, magically speaking.” She replied, as she examined and spread the shards. “It certainly wouldn’t be a stretch to assume a mage guild specially created these, but I have a hard time imagining the Crow’s Black Feathers would be behind it, given what we’ve already talked about.”
“Think they’ve got more of them?” Hasio asked. “Hiding in their tents? Maybe sealed some kind of way or inactive, since there’d probably be more obvious rifts in the grove otherwise.”
“It’s possible, but at the same time, something of this construction is not exactly cheap, or easy to make. Which is likely why there have only been three of them placed in the area.”
“Doesn’t that mean they’re gonna be really mad when they find out we’ve broken them?” Theo asked.
“Yes, which is the plan. We’ll have to wait and see how they respond, but I also believe now would be a good time to establish communication with the Raven.” Metilia replied, grabbing a few of the shards and stuffing them into her storage bag.
“Something we’ll have to talk about with Tahir, probably.” Hasio said. “Anyway, let’s get back. We still don’t know how often they’re checking these orbs, and I don’t wanna be here when they find out we’ve destroyed them.”
