Halls of the Shaman King[Mila]

[Drei]

They'd made it to the destination. A small hillside with healthy green grass covering it like a fine layer of hairs, over-looking a cemetery upon an even smaller hill in the distance. Atop this hill that Drei currently ascended, was a small wooden shack. It had what looked like a standard normal floor, and a slightly smaller than normal second floor judging from the circular window along the center and to the upper floor. A triangular roof of expertly layered tiling lined the top and gave it a homely look. A single chimney rose from the left side with a smoke-stack coiling upwards in a spiral before vanishing high into the sky.

A faintly burning light indicated further signs of occupation. A good sign indeed. Drei strode upwards, his lavender robes shifting and stirring as he tugged at his cloaks lining to fully envelop his body while a cool autumn wind swept through the hill-side. Chains idly jingled and he felt the weight of his twin tomes jostling about. Then there was the faint clopping sound of his families horse, which followed behind him despite the ashen haired shaman not guiding the steed. It was a noble creature thus far, and hadn't abandon him even when situations of danger had arisen. Truly, the boy was grateful to it. Then...there was his actual human companion.

Mila. The verdite haired female mage had been nothing but a literal blessing along his trip. She had assisted him with both his chronic migraines, as well as helped him with the troubles of travel. Her tea was second to none and her company even more enjoyable. Especially when it came to conversations about magic and monsters. She was exceptionally knowledgeable about both.

Drei moved to the door, before briefly glancing at Mila with a nod of affirmation and thanks. She hadn't had to join him. She'd chosen to, and he felt an undying gratitude towards her for it.

"Welll....here goes nothing."

The quiet shaman lifted a hand and knocked upon the wooden door quietly. Knuckles rapping at the center wooden segment before he heard heavy footsteps. Someone was definitely home, and about to answer. Who ever this person was...they knew his father, and knew him well. At-least he'd imagine so, if his fathers tome would have notes containing its location.

[Mila]

And so the journey had come to an end. Here we are at this charming little house atop a village overlooking a grave yard. Yep this totally isn't ominous. Mila shook her head. What was the voice in her head thinking? Did it forget what the rest of the body does for a living? Outside of walking, talking, eating, and sleeping? It's going out on an adventure and hunting down monsters. Monsters! Monsters that were far more hideous and horrible then a quaint but shady little cabin in the middle of nowhere. Okay, so maybe she was a little tired of the whole two people traveling together thing. Not that she didn't mind Drei's presence.. she was actually relieved to have him around. He was an extra set of eyes to help keep watch at night. A good companion to talk too. Sure, his mind was slowly turning into Swiss cheese as a result of the nether but that didn't stop her from making the best of it. She had learned a great deal about Nether magic through him. She had learned a lot about him by being with him. Like what tea's he liked, what books he liked, when he was tired, irritable, or just needed a hug. The young man was doing wonders to Mila's humanity and empathetic development.

But damn it she knew where the voice was coming from. It was the voice of all of her own irritability with everything. The sarcastic voice in her head that spoke the truth when the mouth stayed shut. And by golly did they have a long trip! Her feet had blisters the size of pebbles. Not small pebbles either. The good kind of rounded pebbles with the flat end that made for skipping across the water. Even poor horsey whom had been Drei's companion from the beginning was tired of all this walking. Hell the poor creature had it worse! Four legs meant four times the foot pain not to mention all the weight it had to carry. Mila sighed softly and gave the creature a pat on side of it's neck.

"Just one more hill. Unless if the stable is hiding around at the bottom. Then no more hills. No more hills ever." She whispered to the horse. Then turned her attention back to the house.

Okay.. lets try that again. This isn't ominus at all. Hell this could be the house of the grave keeper.. and if that's the case then dang. This is a pretty good place. Think of the positives! Yes.. I know we've had a long journey. We need to take a deep breath. Relax. Smell the smoke in the air.. hmm.. smells like oak. She glanced down and saw Drei looking at her for encouragement. Mila held up two thumbed up hands. And she had a warm smile.

"Good luck!"

[Drei]

Drei felt a small swell of encouragement from Mila's gesture. Hands shifted as he turned with a faint rustling of his slightly too large purple robes and lifted a hand to rap his knuckles lightly against the door a few times. There was a silence. Absent and lingering before a loud muffled voice roared out from inside. It boomed. But...it didn't sound harsh.

"Oi! One second, was makin' stew!"

The thuds of heavy footsteps came a few seconds later. Heavy indeed. The door rattled with the sound of grating metal. Latches being undone, before it opened slowly and a large bushy beard became visible, with a nose protruding from it before a pair of large brown eyes distinguished themselves. Bushy black eyebrows like fuzzy caterpillars above them. The man squinted for a moment, before speaking in a quiet tone.


"Drei...? Is that you?"

He opened the door fully. A man of obviously stout nature, taller than both mages and very large framed. Both wide and likely fairly well built. He clearly did not want for food. The man's wide smile broadened and he beamed down at the purple robed shaman before meaty large arms lashed out and pulled him into a tight hug as the man boomed with excitement before laughing loudly.

"Drei! Ha! HAHA! GAHAHA IT IS YOU BOY! SPIRITS ABOVE! I thought you were dead!"

The ashen haired shaman had almost instantly started squirming in the back-cracking embrace as he felt his spine realigning slightly. Faint rippling pops as his body entirely fixed into place by the borderline chiropractic hug, before managing to free himself while sputtering for air. Amber hues turning to gaze at the man curiously, before he fully released the boy and clapped a large hand on his shoulder.

"Gahahaha! It's so good to see ya alive boy! By all means, please. Come inside!"

His gaze instantly fell upon Mila, in the background before he turned to look at the horse as well.

"Ah! Well first I suppose I should tell ya! Got a stable behind the house. By all means, drop your horse off there! But I do insist you come inside! Ahhh good to see you my boy! And your friend! Who might you be lass?"

Drei felt a little overwhelmed in addition to exasperation and confusion. After all, he didn't recall this man who clearly recalled him. Tilting his head, Drei looked with a bemused expression towards Mila. He hadn't even a chance to speak for the excitable man did talking for them it seemed.

[Mila]

Mila heard a voice that said something about stew. And then there was a loud boom presumably the sound of a door being swung open and hitting a wall. The man whom greeted Drei seemed like a jolly sort. A burly man covered in enough hair to rival Perun. Mila secretly wondered if he was also of Ilian decent as it seemed that all folk whom came from the icy north had a few things in common. Bigness, in either generosity, weight, or height. And hair. Well at least the men had the hair. Mila blinked at the big sir who grabbed Drei and pulled him into a bear hug. Mila couldn't help but smile at that. At both the fact that this man seemed like a good person and it was amusing to see the normally reserved shaman be put in such a friendly predicament. At least the man confirmed that he knew Drei and by the tone of it he at least knew the grizzly demise that befell the rest of the poor boy's family. Skies above did Mila know that Drei needed a hug every now and then. And hey if things worked out well here it meant that he still had some family. Maybe that will help with the mind crippling amnesia he had been suffering though. And then the big man turned his attention to Mila. The sage offered him a smile and friendly wave.

"I'm Mila, good sir. It's nice to meet you." She responded in a genuinely happy demeanor. Mila was releived to hear that there was a stable round back. Yay! She gave the horse another pet on the neck.

"No more hills. There's a stable! Lets go ahead and get some hay and water in you." She spoke in a slightly more hushed tone towards the horse. She gently tugged on the reigns and pulled Horsey along to the stables. She found him an empty stall and gingerly removed the animal of it's saddle. She set it aside on a hay bail. She grabbed a few bags from it's saddle pack. Mila left the horse with it's blanket. She did not know what the weather would be like and Horsey didn't seem to mind it. He was smart enough to pull it off or put it on if he wanted too. The sage did a quick check of the water to make sure it was drinkable. The water in the trough was clear. She shoved a few pitchforks full of hay into the stable and filled his feedbag a quarter of the way with oats. As a final gift she fed him an apple she had in her bag. The last one she had left too. Again she petted the horse on the snout and gingerly brushed a hair out of it's eye.

"Alright horsey. You've got food. Water. And a blanket. This stable looks pretty sturdy so you should be ok here for the night. Tomorrow i'll see what I can do about your hooves." She patted the horse lightly before dismissing herself from it's presence. She took with her some essentials from the saddle bag and made her way back towards the entrance of the house. No doubt Drei has probably told him all about her at this point.

[Drei]

Drei would have liked to get a word in. Perhaps within the next year he would. Maybe? No. No that was being too hopeful. In-fact by the time Mila came back from getting the horse taken care of, it'd become abundantly clear that the only thing in the circumstances for the ashen haired shaman that had changed was the location of himself and the burly bear-hugging Lycian man. In-fact Drei's back was still a bit stiff despite the therapeutic nature of the hug originally. However he was now sitting at a small wooden table near the man who was standing on the other side leaning on a cutting counter with burly arms folded over his chest. Speaking in his booming voice still, pausing before continuing when Mila entered.

"I can't say without fibbin' that I'm not surprised! I didn't expect to see ya again, especially since you were so young and didn't really know it was me you were seein'! Though I'm glad you came here! How did you find my home though, if you don't mind me asking?"

This was when Drei finally had a chance to speak. Such a contrast it was for him though. To be trying to speak but unable. Usually it was the contrary. Just him not wanting to speak while people try to goad or prod conversation out of him. So when he slowly clasped the leather bound tome at his hip and brought it to rest atop the table he had been sitting at, he quietly began to turn through it while speaking in a thoughtful tone.

"I...decoded notes that my father wrote. They mentioned this location among a series of others. I figured if I wanted to learn more about the importance of them that would prompt writing in code to begin with, I would have to ask. This happened to be the closest location."


The man furrowed his brow before speaking. A meaty hand clapping down lightly upon the edge of the counter before he spoke up.

"Ah. Well. Good on you to figure out your father's notes. I guess it's fittin' that you'd be the one to crack his code. He was fond of his puzzled and secrets, that one. Well. I guess I should break it to you bluntly. Drei. Your father, helped lead a secret cult of dark magic users that were helpin' keep Elibe safe from death itself. How's that for an answer to your puzzle?"


Drei nearly fell from his chair when he flailed in start. Even his passive visage wasn't unbreachable. The absurdity of the man's statement blatantly flabbergasting him before Drei spoke up quietly.

"Um..what? Care to...what? What...are you talking about?"

[Mila]

Mila was invited into the home. She was relieved to find the quaint little cabin to be rather normal. Granted she didn't really know what to expect. Most of what she knew of Dark magic came from Drei telling her things and the various written things she could remember from Eturia's archives. Most of the Eturian stuff kind of claimed dark magic to be some sort of evil abomination that needed to be outlawed. Lycian texts seemed to paint it in a bit of a different light. It was a powerful source of magic but often at the cost of the caster. She knew this.. as her adoptive uncle had mental issues and struggled with alcoholism in order to cope. But, this man seemed to be in the best of health, and place didn't scream "cult" or "occult". Perhaps he wasn't even a shaman at all and just a regular man living off the land like so many others. She really needed to stop making these pre-made assumptions of people she had never met. She shook her head slightly and found an empty seat.

She could tell that Drei hadn't exactly managed to make any sort of conversation with this man. As he was just standing there doing his usual Drei thing. Letting the other man talk for him. Mila knew the type. And he could keep talking for all she cared. She was tired! She was happy to have a seat and rest her legs but that didn't help with her head. She wanted nothing more then to find a place to put her bed roll and sleep. Sleep for years in order to make up for the loss of sleep she had during the travels. Her own personal demons were keeping her up at night as well as the need to take watch when Drei slept.

She wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. She had zoned the man out and let herself be at the whimsy to her inner thoughts. So. What do we do now? She mused. Would Drei stay here with this man now? Would he continue traveling? Am I going to continue to babysit him forever? What kind of stew would be for dinner? Would there even BE a dinner? Skies above she really hoped there would be. But, then the man said something interesting. Something that left even the usually stoic Drei in a state of disbelief. And if she was in his position she probably would have had a similar reaction. But! There it was! Her assumption proved right! Kinda sorta! Maybe the Eturian books had some sort of truth to them? That all Shamans are part of a secret cult. Drei's dad was apparently in one.. a supposedly GOOD secret cult and now he's dead! Thanks Eturia! The voice in her head muttered in it's usual sarcastic tone.

"Uhm.. What do you mean by death itself?" Physical death? Mental death? Spiritual death? Earth shattering continental death?

[Drei]

The man quietly strode forwards. A large meaty hand rubbing the side of his neck, bristling hairs and beard all adding to the scratchy sound it made as he also scratched at his lower neck. His gruff tone losing some of the mirth filled touch. His gaze darkened and he quietly looked to the candle flickering with a dancing flame alight that sat upon the center of the table Drei was sitting at.

"Aye. So...As it goes. Years back, like, before the scourin' years back, a group o' shamans began working with their magics in ways people didn' quite like. They pushed the boundaries. Limitations. Workin' with far more than anyone in their right mind. The problem is...they knew what the nether liked. See..as you probably know lad..it feeds on life. It's hungry. Those shamans took that hunger to heart. They began to feed...on others souls. may not seem like much at first. You stab a man, and he siphons some o' your well bein' in a way you barely notice while his wound knits up. But when you see one grab a man by the head and siphon his body until he's a withered husk of a corpse...and they just gained all that life an' power..it becomes a bigger concern. So these shamans went around. Stealing power. Gaining might. Consuming more and more and more until they started to become so strong no one man could dare to dream o' fightin em.

Which is where we come in. All those years ago, the first generation o' our group band together. Overwhelming them one at a time through sheer numbers. Powerful shamans. Weak shamans. It didn't matter if you could use the dark arts and had a body to spare. One by one, battering them back and trapping them in tombs. Sealing them off from the light of day. Of-course, those shamans knew they wouldn't live forever. Not natural to. So, they began to quietly spread this story. Of their duty to uphold the good name of shamans and their moral service to Elibe. Keeping it safe where ever they could really.

Generations went by, and tombs went silent. Seals keepin' true. So we started a system. One watcher for each tomb. A group to circle around Elibe checking on them in force in case something happened. In our generation, that was your father. That Circus o' his was a dream, and a duty. Seems now though...only one left is you. So...I suppose boy...that means ya got a truth ahead of ya."


Drei listened intently, quietly, and almost disbelievingly. The entire time, in shock. His gaze squaring over the man before he tried to ponder absently..every detail still clicking into place before the man's words caught his attention again.

"Ya' gotta decide if your gunna be the man your father was buildin' ya' to be, or if your gunna live your life how ya think ya' should. Tain't my place to say one way or another."

[Mila]

Mila sat there and listened to the man's words. She had her hand on her chin and her elbow on the table. She did her best to try and keep an interested expression. But her body was so darn tired that it sort of shifted to a bored expression and she did sorta blank out a bit. But she did somehow get the gist of it. Cult vs cult. One cult was evil stealing the life away from the living. They got their butts kicked and sealed in some tombs. Now they sleep. Waiting for the day they were to rise up again. But the good cult guys would routinely check on those tombs. And this duty would fall upon it's descendants. Drei's dad was one of those descended and the circus was a good cover for the whole thing. Ya know right up until they got into Eturia. Those pesky Eturians. Wait, she was raised by them, so that would also make her a pesky Eturian. She closed her eyes, her head was starting to hurt.

Honestly, if it were up to Mila she'd abandon the whole notion. She as perfectly content being far away from any sort of tomb or underground cavern. And if these seals died down then new heroes would rise up and squash them right? That's usually how these sort of legends go? Mila had other activities to do with her life. Like, write books to educate the people on monsters. And figuring out what makes them tick and why were they cropping up on all corners of Elibe. And WHY were the Vinland monsters so different... and so huge. But, that was her. Right, now this was Drei's moment. Drei's moment to decide if he was going to follow in his dad's footsteps or become someone else entirely different. Mila sincerely hoped she picked the latter. It's never fun to be expected to act like another. Why can't you be more like your brother? The voice of nostalgia rang out in her head further fueling her headache. Please.. make this life altering decision in the morning Drei. After some dinner and some sleep.

(On Hiatus until Drei decides to return to this thread)