Re: Thread II: Toran
The mage raised an eyebrow to Rain Feather's comment, but then nodded and said, with a smile:
"I'll be sure to make them and my brethens proud, don't you worry about that. But I accept your apology, miss; I'll remember your words."
While Valador had seemed content to wait out for the Mangakai to finish their impromptu meeting, Banedon apparently felt the urgency of their task more, as he spoke up, his voice a bit tired:
"Laughing Shark, I think you can continue your discussion on your way up, whatever it is; it's really better not to lose much time anymore."
Then, he turned to the black-eyed man who was playing with the staff and said, his tone now stern:
"I suppose I can trust you to lead them to the Skyrider without provoking them any more than you already have? They are just coming from a long and tiring journey and have a similarly long and tiring one in front of themselves, so they're really not in the best mood for your sniping, which you should really keep for me, anyway. They're not your enemies, and most of them aren't even my allies, just people doing their work; try to respect that."
Valador looked up with a smirk, the bowed deeply, his answer carrying his usual mocking tone.
"Every your wish is an order to me, Guildmaster. I will treat your guests with all the courtesy they deserve."
Banedon put an hand to his forehead, clearly saeeing where such a discussion would go if he tried to continue it, so instead he turned to the group and said, a note of emotion entering his voice:
"Sun Snake, I wish your group the best of luck on your mission... know that I do want to see you succeed. Do your best... I will be waiting for news from you."
He then nodded to Swift Fox, his voice more somber, and added, clearly more steady:
"Swift Fox, I think I've already told you all you needed to know, so all I can say is to remember it, and also remember that I believe in you."
That said, he nodded to the whole group, and then got back into his office, likely to rest a bit.
Valador chuckled, and said, looking to the group:
"It seems like our Guildmaster's age is starting to catch up with him, isn't it? I'm afraid that, pretty soon, he won't be fit anymore for the role... but, let's hope that day is still far away; we'd miss his wise lead."
His chuckle said how much he wasn't worried in the slightest about Banedon's possibly declining healt, and then he made a wide, waving motion with his staff, motioning for the group fo follow, even as he moved past them all and offered his elbow to Laughing Shark.
As they walked through the crystal corridor, Valador, in a tone who showed the amusement he was clearly feeling at the general situation, started to speak, explaining the place to them.
"This crystal you can see, which makes the entirety of the spyre, is one of our greatest creation. We use several different blue gemstones togheter, and our best crafters fuse them with magic to create a material that has the look of a gem, but the versatility of metal. It's also the same material we use to create our pendants. This is more of Wol-Dumar's field of competence, he's our best crafter, but there's a trick I do can show you."
He raised his staff in a careless movement and made it scrape the wall with a skrieching sound; and suddenly, in front of the group, a savage hurricane of lighting unleashed from wall to wall and from the floor to the ceiling, creating a spectacle of deadly beauty. Valador chuckled at the spectacle and said, smiling:
"As you can see, the Spyre has the best security in all of Toran - indeed, I doubt there's anywhere in Magnamund with this powerful a defense. Everyone who's wearing a Crystal Star can unleash this power with but a gesture; inside our own fortress, we're invincible."
He offered an amused smirk to Sun Snake, then continued onwards as they reached a long, ascending staircase, made of the same beautiful crystal as the rest of the tower was. Meanwhile, it seemed like Valador's good mood would remain unmitigated, as he continued to speak.
"You see, putting magic into items is really the basic of all crafting - almost all Brotherhood members can do it, although most of us don't have Wol-Dumar's skill. The entire Spyre, every single yard of its consturction, has been filled with spells to the point of saturation, and not just the lighting hand I showed you; pratically every spell we know is embued in some point of the wall, and we add some new ones every day, to make sure they never ran out. You wouldn't believe how useful it is to be able to fill the conference room with a Sense Evil spell with a thought."
He chuckled to himself, then his expression turned more passionate, his eyes shining with some powerful emotion that made the gaze look enormously intense, as he continued to speak.
"However, I think most of our Brotherhood is losing creativity; there's so much more we could be doing with our magic, and so few people who grasp it. They're content with using just the few spell we know, rather then researching more new things, looking forward and higher, finding way to make our Guild even better, stronger, wiser. That's one of the reasons I'm renowed, you know? I never stop researching; I think I'm the greatest researched in the Brotherhood, only Banedon has done more for enlarging our knowledge of new spells than I have. But he's limited; he restricts himself to deepening the knowledge we have of the Left-Handed path, but I look for way to do more than that. I'm specialized in the study of the other kind of magics we have in Magnamund, Old Kingdom one more than any else, and try to see way to adapt the concept of it to empower our own... there's really so much room for us to grow and be great, and yet nobody has the focus and discipline needed to do it."
His eyes had turned harder at that, and for that brief moment in which his emotions were bare to the Kai Lords, they could see the powerful, frightening intelligence and determination in those black eyes, and they all felt almost a sense of dread on them at the sheer determination that was exuding from Valador, even as blue sparks seemed to spring from the point where his hand was clasping the Guildstaff; there was no doubting how strongly he felt the truth of what he was saying.
As soon as it'd come, the moment passed, and Valador chuckled, smiling to the Kai Lords in a most rascal manner.
"Sorry, I left myself get carried away... it's just, the Brotherhood is stagnating; we're powerful and great, yet stationary, whereas lesser orders grew in strenght and pass us by. But once I'll be Guildmaster, I'll be changing that... I'd like if you all survived to see it, Kai Ladies and Lord Storeman; it will be a spectacle like none you've ever seen."
He twirled the Guildstaff in his hand, clearly enjoying himself; then, the group suddenly walked through an arch into a circular platform open to the sky, and Valador smirked as the Kai took in the spectacle in front of themselves.
The Skyrider was not a big ship by seafaring standards - in dimension, it was more aikin to a riverboat. However, these relatively smaller dimension emphasized the sleek built and agile structure of the craft, clearly built for speed. The hull had been painted in a cerulean colour that made it almost become one with the sky, and this made the sails catching the sunlight look like they were shards of sun. The two most notable ones where those on each side that ran for the entire lenght of the ship - like the fin of a fish or, more appropriatedly, the wings of a bird.
It took a moment for the Kai to notice that the ship wasn't immobile in the air, but rather hovering slightly; the long ropes that anchored it to the platform seemed to be the only thing stopping it from taking away.
Valador seemed amused as he studied the group's reaction, then he raised his staff; the star at the top shined a brigth blue light, and a moment after Valador had waved it, an answer was received from the ship - though it looked like they, at least, were using a mirror - and then a long rope ladder was lowered from the ship, the two metal balls at the end anchoring themselves to the platform the moment they touched it, almost like magic - except it did not felt like it was.
The mage smiled amusedly, then bowed to the group, offering them the precedence in climbing the ladder as he said, his tone corteous and without any trace of mockery this time:
"Ladies..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:24, Tue 10 Apr 2012.
