Chronicla/3/2 (Lorica)

=Wilderness block=

Chapter 2.1: Flight of the Freed Bird
It is late night; Qura and Tyl stop their walk through the prairie to rest for the night; they had been traveling southward nonstop since morning for 14 hours and had covered 1.8 Md, toting the Loira family's backpack and sleeping bags. Suddenly, Qura and Tyl feel a hot flash; recalling a similar situation in the past, Tyl realizes that this is blood magic summoning them to return to Judicad and Intael. Tyl tells Qura how this works: The blood magic also gave their masters information about their general direction, allowing them to use this scrying ability to hunt them down; the chase was on. Tyl knows that the rest of the Loira family works long continuous hours with their tailoring business at their booth at the village marketplace, so they had only just now begun to realize that the two girls were missing. Through rubbing logs, they start a fire, and begin eating and drinking from canteens. They also have all the family's money they were able to get (50 m. silver, a sum much reduced from paying for Qura's bride-price), so that Judicad and Intael would have no money to use in their pursuit. They feel another hot flash; Qura surmises that the two scries put together could pinpoint their location using parallax; Tyl is certain that the males would give chase even as they realized just how far away they were. Tyl warns Qura that the forest ahead is potentially dangerous, so they will need to bring some form of protection with them - magic. Tyl surmises that grinding would enhance the effects of the faera's magic she had collected, and so begins using her collection. Soon they have developed easy-to-cast spells by mixing the moieta with water inside vials which could then be thrown: throwing potions. Tyl uses this knowledge with her Create-Heat faera to make igniting potions which, from her wilderness experience, can be used to quickly light a stick into a fire that could scare away wild beasts. Satisfied, they go to sleep. The story continues evening of the next day, overcast, with the two deep in the darkening forest. Tyl uses the igniting potions to make themselves some torches, but soon after, the rain starts to fall and their torches are put out. They're not too worried until they hear the sound of wolves - and then Qura panics, as they are totally unprepared for something like this. Before they are able to venture much farther, quick footsteps approach, and Tyl quickly climbs up a nearby tree and proceeds to pull Qura up as well, just as the wolves appear out of the bushes, right below them. The wolf pack, however, is smart enough to take turns watching the tree the girls are stranded on, forcing them to cling to the trees. An hour later, they finally leave, but they are able to sense them and so a moment Tyl gets off the tree, they're back. Tyl only barely gets away in time due to her physical training, and she does get slightly bitten. Tyl quickly feels very weak and needs Qura's support; they come close to falling off as Qura tries to take care of what seems to be a suddenly drunk Tyl; Qura realizes that the wolves are symbiotic with create-ethanol faera. While the wolves are waiting below, Qura frantically tries to imitate what she had seen Tyl doing with her faera collection and creates weak create-light and create-water potions, but none of these could do anything more than make the wolves blink, and the rain continues. Finally, they are able to fall asleep. But when they awake, they find out that the wolves have slept below them as well, with one standing guard. The tree is still soaking wet and so they aren't able to use their weak create-heat potion to ignite a fire; they have no means of escape. Tyl then proceeds to scream for help, though to no avail. Thinking they are done for, Qura vows to herself that should anyone come to save them, she would dedicate her life to that person. Hours pass and nobody comes; meanwhile, Tyl has recovered and used the last of her create-light faera to make a throwing potion. This she activates from as high up as she can safely get to on the tree, using her hand to block off the strong light in regular patterns. Gradually the potion goes dim (having run out of mana) and they return to screaming for help.

Chapter 2.2: Arelta's Governess
A local tramp by the name of Andar Phoenica had been hunting in the region; he sees the flickering light and comes to investigate, hears the girls' screams and quickly shoots down the wolves. Finally the girls are able to get off the tree, and they thank Andar profusely. While Tyl uses a knife to cut into a wolf's mouth and extract the faera, Qura begins to show her dedication to Andar by asking to help him in any way; of course, Andar is too gentlemanly for that. As they head off to Edistel, Qura introduces herself and Tyl to Andar, while Andar introduces himself as a hunter whose home is in Edistel. On the way back Andar teaches the girls how to use a bow for self-defense, picking up arrows along the way. After a few hours, during which Andar introduces Edistel's major attraction (horse-racing), they have reached the town. Tyl notices she's being scried and reminds Qura that they've lost some of their lead on Judicad's expedition. Qura says that they need to be sure Tyl can get a job before they use up all their money. Andar says he has to attend to his own business, but when Qura tries to follow, Andar runs off (which looks shady), and easily shakes her off (since he's so good about evading people). The trio splits, with Tyl finding a job as governess for an accounting family's young boy (Arelta Narea). She is interviewed by Arelta's father Lashya Narea, who gives her several brain-teasers, including a few involving algebra and geometry. While teaching Arelta mathemagic (algebra), Tyl proceeds to read the Narea family's texts on trigonometry to increase her own knowledge. Come evening, she is paid 1.1 m. silver, pursues and catches a thief who had stolen Lashya's ledger; a grateful Lashya gives her a bonus 5.0 m. silver since without the ledger all the gold magic held within it would be useless and the family business would be destroyed. Tyl returns to the place where she and Qura had agreed to meet up. But after waiting for a while, Qura still isn't around, and after fruitlessly searching the most common places (including a marketplace where she buys glass vials, mortar and pestle, and separator-paper), Tyl realizes she's suddenly very alone in an inhospitable world, and weeps in grief, sorry for having brought Qura into this situation to begin with; she would have been better off not running away from home. Going to the edge of town, Tyl tries to find solace in her faera, and makes a few new observations about their feeding habits. Come nighttime, she decides to wait out on the streets on the hopes of finding Qura. Using the paper separators and her knowledge of moieta, Tyl creates a slow-acting warmth potion to keep her comfortable (Lorica being mostly equatorial, it's rather cool year-round). Using a tiny contraption that can raise or lower a film of separator-paper used in a vial, Qura is able to make a light potion that can be turned on or off at will, and attaches it to her bosom, allowing her to see easily at nighttime.

Chapter 2.3: Fall of Innocence
Meanwhile, Qura practices archery at the local range, where all her arrows go way off target. After sever hours of uninterrupted practice, Usairel, a womanizer, comes into the range and because Qura is so beautiful he immediately goes after her. When Qura tells him to back off, Usairel, who thinks he's somebody and wants to punish Qura's insolence, angrily picks up one of Qura's arrows and shoots it at the range's owner, wounding him. (Traditionally, arrows are marked to identify who made a kill, in battles and in hunts.) The owner ascertains via the arrow that Qura had shot her, and Usairel presents himself as a witness, falsely accusing her. The owner calls the two guards standing nearby (one of them being Micalel Curast) to arrest Qura, and she is thrown into the same jail cell as several nasty-looking felons, all of whom ogle over her body. Despite her protests of innocence, the guards tell her that she's stuck there for two weeks no matter what awaiting her trial (after which she knows she'll be caught by the pursuing family). Qura is terrified but is trapped, so she resorts to using her words to get the several men there to fight each other over her. Problem is, the nastiest of them all wins out; she tries to defend herself using her collection of spells but none of them have any effect. Just as she thinks she would get prison-raped, Micalel comes by and sets her free, taking her confiscated bow and quiver, though only after getting Qura's word that she would be his indentured servant. Micalel leads her to one of Edistel's slum houses; when she is brought in she is suddenly stripped and tied face-down to the ground by the nearly complete gang waiting there by orders of the gang's second, Yerin Melia. Micalel gets into an argument with him, saying that their unnamed leader would certainly disapprove but Yerin saying he's the second-in-charge. Qura is kept in this compromised position to wait for the gang's leader to ravage her first; during this time she curses her own weakness, horrible fate, and her own innocence for not knowing that this was coming. When another member, Tegis Oporta, realizes that the bow and arrows are marked with Andar's insignia, they interrogate her for information for what had happened. When Qura tells the truth, and Micalel says she shot the range's owner, the gang doesn't believe her and Yerin has her whipped into tears; Qura starts fabricating a lot of alternate stories, anything to get them to stop, but that doesn't work either. Ultimately, Tegis tells the others to leave her alone. Evening finally arrives and to her surprise, the ringleader turns out to be none other than Andar, who isn't interested in sex at all and quickly orders Micalel to set Qura free and lambasts Yerin for letting his id get the best of him; they all apologize profusely, but a demure Qura, instead of seeking revenge on Yerin, in turn thanks Micalel for at least saving her from the prison. Andar asks why she had been arrested to begin with; Micalel says that Qura was guilty of having used a bow and arrow to shoot the range owner, but Andar laughs it off, saying Qura's aim with the arrow is so bad she couldn't possibly have shot him except at point blank. Andar explains to the others how he had met Qura and Tyl during his hunting expedition earlier, causing the others to gasp in disbelief and look at Qura with sorrow. Andar apologizes to the girls, saying he would never have let them out of his sight had he known something like this would have happened. When Andar then hears that Yerin led the torture-interrogation, he is outraged, and declares that he's replacing Yerin with Micalel as his new second-in-charge. Pissed off and believing he's being treated unfairly, and also wanting to rape Qura, Yerin suddenly takes a knife and puts Qura in a choke-hold, warning the others not to use their bows while trying to get into the next room. Tegis tries to logically reason him out of going through with this, saying if he continues he would be locked up in prison; Andar tells Yerin that their gang, White Wolf, had only lasted so long because they had always been for the most part law-abiding people; he would not allow Yerin's actions to tarnish the gang. Sensing Yerin's will is weakening, Andar minds him that they will forgive this action since it's unpremeditated and that he still had much of a future to look forward to and it would be sad if he ruined it this way. Andar, having always been a man of his word, convinces Yerin to hand over the knife and let Qura go, once again nearly saving her life. Andar then solemnly tells Yerin that the gang can't have someone as mentally unstable as him, and that he'll have to find new friends. Stricken, Yerin flees the house, and as Qura clings tightly to Andar, the gang gets out their food; Andar finally tells Qura the truth as to what his profession is: a vagabond who makes a living on occasional jobs. As they eat, each member tells the others what he had been doing, and what new jobs they've received, with Andar telling them his adventure towards the end. Finally, Qura mentions once again why she's here; she is even more determined than ever to overcome her weaknesses and become a powerful spellcaster who won't be forced to suffer so much for so long at the whims of a nobody. Qura also remembers that she has to go find Tyl (by now it's night-time).

Chapter 2.4: Saphrona's Jewel
Asleep in White Wolf's hideout, Qura's dream continues: The newly married Princess Qura awakes to find herself in a regal bed, and is totally stunned by what had just transpired (in her previous dream), wondering what it's all about. Just then, maidservants come in bearing a variety of gifts by the royal family including countless pieces of jewelry. She is excited with all these gifts and plays around with decorating herself with them, then wanders around the Citadel's various buildings and gardens with the entourage of handmaidens bringing her up to date about the royal family and royal high magic. In this era a worldspell known as Loricae had taken hold, overpowering all other magic to the point of making them nearly meaningless. This magic is completely controlled by the royalty, which is why the empire called Saphrona spans the entire world of Lorica. Intrigued, Qura wants to learn this magic, but as the handmaidens tell her, it's still mostly a male-only field. The next moment, Da summons them and assigns Altair and Qura to Probe the channeling Arcane Academy in Syrragil, offering them a chance to get to know each other without interference from the rest of the Citadel's court officials. They teleport to Syrragil, but Altair doesn't want Qura to get involved; Qura protests to Altair, saying she wants to learn magic, but Altair laughs her off; in anger, Qura runs away from Altair but he easily teleports her back to him. Qura makes life dismal for him by wailing and screaming until he lets her do as she wants. Before she leaves, Altair tells Qura how to be safe (which is another term for a self-teleport spell), though Qura doesn't realize what it does.