Flight. In all her time spent in Revaliir, it was the one thing that that Lucielle had not been able to experience. Sure, there were times where she was teleported from here to there by a friendly deity or made to hop an airship moving between continents, but she had not been able to move through the skies of her own accord. It was what she wanted. More than anything. In her days of silence, she had spent hours watching air creatures zip about the skies like it was a roadway. She has assumed that it was nothing more than a momentary fascination of a new realm, but it had stuck.
Truth be told, she had spent a great deal of time here looking for shreds of her lost memory, and had recently found that the only time the bits and pieces would begin to weave together into something real was when she was experiencing something that was familiar to that old version of her. But they weren’t simply experiences like eating and apple or catching glimpse of a sprite. They were major experiences that elicited proportionate emotions. Like worry. Or selflessness. Or true joy. That had been a big one. A little chuckle had given way to such clear mental images. It had been a break through that had shown her the face of friend (one that she had been rather close to she assumed).
In all reality, that realization is what has brought her to this part of the continent. She had heard from countless travelers that had traversed her lords temple that Kurayo was one of the most dangerous cities in all of this realm; a haven for the polar opposite of beings of light like herself. Her first instinct, as it should have been, was to stay far away. And to only go when she had proper back up. But of course as time went on, and more books on the area fell into her possession, she became more curious to the wiles of the city. It was a major port. It had to have something special beyond an unnatural allure for creatures of the dark. Right?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she reminded herself. She was sure that her light was enough to protect her if she ever had to fight off the creatures of this area. As long as there weren’t too many of them. And she was pretty adamant about avoiding that possibility.
Lucielle pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she stepped into the city. It was dark, as expected, but it was chillier than she had planned for. She was used to port cities being warm. And for all she knew, it was to everyone else, but her light kept sending shivers of warning along her spine. Her very spirit knew that she should not be here.
Ignoring the warnings she pushed deeper into the city. Looking for something, anything that would help her move forward; to move her towards the sky. Maybe there was a vampiric spirit somewhere in the town that had mastered manipulation of air streams. Or a witch that had enchanted a bracelet to allow them to float. There were so many possibilities that she had read about, but they were all so rare. And basic to the eye. How would she know how to find something like that?
She turned another corner faster than she meant to, her nerves beginning to show in her footsteps, and ran directly into the chest of a sailor. It hurt. More than it should have.
”I’m sorry! Are you okay?” she exclaimed as she struggled to regain her balance from the crash.
She looked up at the man with worry in her eyes. She knew that she, by no means, was a brut, but to someone not expecting the collision, she could easily cause some damage.
The man stood solid; unmoving. Slowly, a smile touched his lips. Not a happy smile that could trigger warmth in her chest, but a malicious smile. One that made the glow slowly move to her skin.
”If you are well, then I will be moving on,” she said in her best impersonation of someone who didn’t want to run away screaming at the top of her lungs, and stepped to the side to move past him.
A hand was on her arm before she could even think; throwing her against the brick of the nearest building. It didn’t hurt. But she knew it would later. Both because of the fading rush of shock and the fangs that the stranger now bared at her throat.
Vampire.
She closed her eyes tightly and pulled on her light; remembering one of the many spells that the Northern Light had taught her during her time as his unofficial acolyte. She felt the runes of her magick etch onto the ether as a bright light touched her skin.
Protection. Arcane Empower. It would be enough to keep him away from her, but would it be enough for her to get away? Magick was finite. That was a fact that was all too clear in to her in these moments. She had to think fast before she was tapped out.
Lord Naota, guide me. Oh! Naota!
She reached into her cloak and pulled out the snowflake the god had gifted to the land. It could help. It would drive him away.
The snowflake began to glow impossibly bright; sending the man (using the word loosely) running. It was the gods power. So immense. And familiar. For a moment, she found her mind thinking of him. Was he well? It had been some time since she had moved from the protection of his crystalline temple.
The fact that his magickal gifts were working well, so he had to be well. She reached onto her back and pulled the Sun’s kiss from under her cloak; the dark tourmaline blending in with the night all too well.
One day she knew that she would be able to stand on her own. To face the ravages of the night with her own light. But now, only minutes into her journey, she wanted, more than anything else, to have the Lord of Light at her side.