"Dagger? Can I see it?"

Assuming you show him.

"I see. That is a rather powerful Artifact. You would probably need a Artifact as a sheath for anyone to carry that safely."

You look at Lita's house first and you hear her making dinner.

I do show it to him of course.

”That’s a good point. I’ll have to see if I can locate one or possibly get the smith materials to make one. In the meantime do you have any idea how I might store it safely until then?”

If he has any idea for storage I’ll follow his advice.

——————

I’ll knock on Lita’s door and say, “any chance there’s room at the table for me to join? I kept my promise and returned unharmed”

He thinks for a bit.
"Basically you would need something to hold the handle in place. Like some clay or shaped wood. Then something to cover the blade That is attached to what is holding the handle... or you could stab it into a small piece of wood then bind the handle to the wood."

You work out a carrying method you are comfortable with.

-------------------

Lita answers and is all smiles
(You actually have a few cuts from the fight but they are not really significant.)
"Of course. Please come in Micheal. You are back early. How did the expedition go?"

She invites you in.

I'll go with stabbing the dagger into a piece of wood and binding the wood to the handle.

----------------------

I was figuring I had some cuts, but from something so dangerous I was effectively considering it unharmed.

I open the door and step in, setting down my stuff in the corner before going to hug Lita. "Step one went as well as it could have. I have defeated the vampire that held the nexus of power. In the process she used a lot of time magic, resetting me to having just entered the cave each time I came close to defeating her. It took me too many times being reset before I figured out what was going on. Once I did however I grounded myself temporally, using the essence from the cave, which allowed me to deal the finishing blow.

But it took long enough that I could see the reality spiders angrily clacking about. Kyotsu advised that we leave immediately and give them a week to calm down. I also need to not use magic while the sidereal essence clears from my body. I suspect it'll be clear by tomorrow. That being said, it feels weird to be using absolutely no magic.

But the important thing is I'm both alive and back for a week. It is very good to see you.

The knife is a vicious little thing that tries to go all the way through the wood. But you bind it in place so that it's danger is lessened.

----------

She hugs you back.
"I'm glad you are safe. That must have been a rough fight. Come, Let's go ahead and eat."

She leads you to her table and serves a vegetable and beef stew. Along with some cut fruit.

"What are your plans for the Week?"

I make sure to compliment the meal and thank her while we’re eating, before getting too far into the meal. Where that falls is the conversation isn’t important to me, but making sure to show gratitude at some point is.

”I haven’t formalized many plans yet. I definitely owe my furies some time with their favorite activities, so I might take a hike to various locations for them to spend time there.

And in a few days I’m supposed to re-commune with the earth dragon spirit in the earthen artifact. She has agreed to teach Ursulas and I, but told me to give her a few days to prepare. It should help Ursulas towards physical manifestation.

And I should make sure Leona and Selene know that I’m safe.

Other than those, I was hoping we might spend some time together.”

She is beaming because you liked her food.

She listens to your plans
"Spendingtime with you would be great. Can I join you on your hikes?

I saw Leona earlier today, she said that she found the lair of another Dark Immortal. I think she is planning to assault them tomorrow.

I haven't seen Senene in a while though."

“It would be my pleasure if you were to join me.” And I chuckle slightly when she mentions Leona attacking an immortal. “She promises to be defensive until I return, she’ll be careful she says. Then plans an assault on an immortals lair... how long was I away anyway? Time magic has thrown off my sense of time ironically.”

"Hmm. You where gone for two days. She investigated Yesterday and Today.
Leona has always been a brave one. She probably considers investigating before attacking to be cautious...
What do you think about Leona?"

"I consider Leona to be a good friend. She is very brave, one could say to the point of being borderline foolhardy. She does have an impressive amount of skill though, which just reinforces her bravery since she can often get herself out of a situation she charged into. This world is lucky to have her as one of its stalwart guardians."

I pause for a moment, feigning for that to be my full answer,

"But you weren't asking so much about my professional assessment of Leona's nature and skills, were you?" I say with a smirk "You're not jealous, are you? I thought I made my feelings pretty clear before I left..." and with that, I'll extend my hand to her, and if she takes it I'll pull her in for a deep kiss.

She takes your hand and you pull her in in for a deep kiss. She is very receptive of your advances.
Once you break the kiss she asks while hugging you close.

"I love you Micheal. Would you come with me?"

If you say yes, she practically drags you to her bedroom. Annnnnddd. Fade to black.
It went on for a long while. And you wake up holding her in the morning.

OOC: Well. I have the game rated as mature. Mainly because I don't think I can write that kind of scene well.

I smile warmly, “I love you too Lita. I think it took realizing how much and why I didn’t want to verse out to realize it, but I knew I needed to return to you when I was facing that vampire.”
 And I nod and follow her.

—————

I just rest there for a while in the morning, enjoying lazily waking up with Lita before getting out of bed and making breakfast for the two of us.

ooc: fade to black is my preferred way of handling it. I find romantic entanglements add to stories, but some stuff is left off screen.

You relax for a while with her in your arms. She is soft in some places but has hard muscles in other places.

She stirs a bit when you get up to make breakfast. She sneaks up and hugs you from behind while you where making breakfast.
"It smells good."
She lets you finish. She enjoys the food you made.
"So, what Is your plan for the day? Help Leona with that Vampire? "

I smile when she says it smells good, ”I’m glad. I hope you like it”.

When she asks about helping Leona I focus inwards to check if I still have sidereal essence. I can’t really help if it’s still lingering and I have to avoid all magic.

You inspect yourself and find that you have 56 undifferentiated motes.

“Well, the sidereal essence I used the other day has dissipated, so I think it prudent to help Leona on this. I shouldn’t draw attention of the spiders with the distance from the temporal disturbance and the fact I’m not going to be using sidereal. Will you be joining or are you going to stay in town?”

Hopefully Lita knows where Leona is. Tracking her down in time might prove difficult

She tilts her head to the side a bit.
"Sidereal Essence? What is that?
As for joining you. I would like to, but I have to make sure the undead don't get too close to town and tend the Solar Tree."


Lita thinks Leona will probably be coming out of her house soon. You check and she is just coming out of her house with a white cream on her face, arms and Legs.
She smiles when she sees you. Fangs peek out from her lips and gives oer a bit of a feline quality.

"Micheal? How did the trip go? We where expecting to be out a week."

“It’s the essence of Time, Destiny, and reality alteration. The geomantic nexus I took from the vampire is brimming with it. But too much messing with it angers the reality spiders. Hence me letting them cool down for a week.”

Then I’ll head out to Leona, bringing the artifact dagger with me.

“I only managed the first portion so far. I defeated the vampire that had control of the nexus, but the spiders that tend reality were upset in the process. The vampire had kept sending me back in time when I got close to killing her, and it took a lot of times for me to realize what was happening and temporally grounded myself to be able to deliver a finishing blow. That amount of reality distortion got the spiders agitated, so Kyotsu and I talked that I should give them a week to calm down. So here I am, and with an artifact dagger I thought you might be able to use. It’s attuned to darkness, and I haven’t gotten a chance to get a sheath made yet but it may be valuable in today’s fight. I hear you’re going on the offense against a vampires lair today. Careful though, the blade passes through anything not infused with magic to resist it.”

I set the dagger embedded in the chunk of wood down for her to take.

"I'm Glad you made it back safe. Lita will be happy about that too."

She picks up the Dagger and unbinds it. Her eyes blacken as she examines the dagger.

"This dagger is very dangerous. With this you can do very weird things by cutting concepts. It is also very useful for the same reason. Are you sure you want to give this to me?

I am going after a Vampire today. I even observed it sneakily. So I have a good idea of what it's strength and weaknesses should be. It is a very weird vampire. It's main body is resistant to Sunlight. Probably because it is plant based. I've also found some roots that are from it. They have ridiculous regeneration. You can kill them with normal strikes bit they grow back in a few seconds. But if you hit with Darkness it sears them and they don't grow back for a few hours.

So I am guessing this Immortal is actually weak against Darkness.
Which is really weird. because she has all the other properties of being a vampire.

”If you would find it useful and think you could wield it without it being a danger to you, I think it makes the most sense for you to have it. If you would rather stick with your gun that’s fine too, in which case I’ll hang on to the dagger to study more.

As to the vampire, I don’t have any abilities with darkness, but fire might work well against something that’s plant based. And if nothing else I can act to assist you, perhaps lend you wind motes to push your speed faster. You have my help in whatever manner you want.”

I’ll follow Leona’s lead on this one. I think it’s important that she gets to realize she can still do good, regardless of recent events. It’s also an interesting example of balance, where darkness magic will be able to be used for good.

OOC: She hasn't recovered her solar gun from her Father. I am going to assume that you ment her staff.


"I would probably end up just keeping it here since I haven't fought with it before. So just keep it for now. Or you could leave it at my place for save keeping. It's up to you."

She thinks for a bit.
"The vampire is in the Ruins northeast of town. If you come with me, this should be easy enough. I'm not sure how she will react to fire... I haven't exactly been able to test fire on the roots yet. We can try it out anyway.  If for some reason it doesn't work, then we can switch tactics to ether you helping me in melee with her or magical support... or both."

ooc: yeah, had just forgotten about that. Thanks.

”I’ll put it back with my stuff then, so that if I have time I can study it and work out a sheath.”

I’ll put the dagger back quick and grab the red jade swords while I’m at it. I’ll have both bracers and the red jade swords attuned for this. Then I’ll head out and when I’m back motion that I’m ready to follow. ”I’ll make sure to adapt to support as best as possible, as you say.”

I’m going to be acting as support for Leona in this one, lashing out with the red jade swords at any part of the vampire that gets too close to attacking her. This should give Leona a good opportunity to focus on the vampire itself and stay mostly on the offensive.

You attune to the red jade swords and it takes 3 each to attune. They feel as light as knifes in your hands. (How much did the Bracers and hat cost to attune? I was thinking 4 or 5. If you know off hand, otherwise I'll go back and look it up.)

Also you get the feeling that Vadahf is getting jealous that you are using other weapons.

You go northeast into the ruins she mentioned. The traps have been disabled and you two make short work of the enemies. At one point your path was flooded with a pool of water.
"I found out yesterday that I also inherited the Vampire's weakness to water. It burns me. You will have to swim. I will go over it."

With that her body shrinks and compresses in a way that should be impossible. She turn into a bat that has about a one foot wingspan and flies across.

I assume you just swim over.

After a bit more walking there is a building in front of you that you feel the immortal in. It seems like it is lower down in the basement. You go in and find that there is no floor in the ruined building. Down below you see a massive rose blossom that is easily bigger than a man.

I believe the Red Jade Swords took 8 motes for the pair, it was originally stated that all of the artifacts from the kings in that one crypt required 8 for the compliment (whether that be one weapon or the set). The Bracers and hat were 3 fire motes for attunement.

Vadahf, using another weapon isn't a slight against you. Others get their turn with me using a weapon attuned to the same element as them however, and Fire makes the most sense for this fight. But don't worry, there will be plenty of fights in the future.

I will indeed just swim over, and shake myself off thoroughly on the other side. "Impressive trick, didn't realize you could utilize a bat form."

When we're looking down at the massive rose blossom, "Do you think that the vampire we're looking for? Flying with motes isn't super efficient for me, I may be better off providing range support from here."

Unless she objects to that, I'll take 10 motes of wind and channel them over to orbit around Leona, granting her increased speed and agility.

My thoughts are she'll fly down in bat form and can start attacking. From up here I'll start collecting small rocks and infusing them with 5 fire motes each, but not priming them to be volatile yet. Once she's down there and engaged I'll start grabbing the rocks and putting a 6th mote in that has instructions to prime the others. I'll then throw it down at the enemy, away from where Leona is attacking. Hopefully it's a large enough target that that's not too difficult.

That sounds right so you have 11 motes committed.

You feel like Vadahf is pouting but she listens to you.

Leona says
"It is. It's the form she uses to rest in."

A Boy with white hair appears below


And speaks up to both of you
"You've finally made it all the way here. Enjoying the power of
Darkness? You're half Vampire now, so you haven't mastered the power of
Darkness yet... But you've probably realized how marvelous it is, right? The
very fact that you made it this far is testament to that power. Ha, ha, ha...!!
I haven't introduced myself. I am the true Dark Child, Black Dainn. Leona,
you're one of us now. Only the Immortals can truly save this world now.
Together, we must release this world from the hand of the unforgiven. That
would make your Father, the Vampire Ringo, so proud."

"Hey! How dare you do dropping my name in like that!"

Many bats fly in and come together to form Leona's father



"What the...?! You got your memory back?!"

"Leona, thank goodness you're safe... Your blood... The blood of Mani
within you is what woke me. Now there's no time to lose! This is our chance!
While I'm subduing him, you must destroy the Darkness Tree!"

"Urgh... That fool Count... What a useless Vampire he's
created..."

With that Ringo rushes Black Dainn into the next room down below.
You cast your speed enhancement on Leona And she drops down her scarf briefly becoming winglike to slow her fall.

The Rose Blossom blooms and reveals a girl



"Dark Brother has been playing for too long now... White Sister
is defeated, and Blue Sister will not awaken. We cannot let you continue your
games any further. We must swiftly get rid of harmful pests. The abandoned Dark
City and the Darkness Seed it bore, the seed I nurtured... It took root in me,
and started to sprout. And on the day of the Undeadening... I woke up to my
true self. Dark Brother called to me! I'm not alone anymore! I'm needed! I'm
allowed to stay here! I am the Red Durathror! I am the Earth-ruling Immortal!"

A Few Thorny Plant Tentacles burst from the ground

"...Light attracts Darkness. But your light was too strong. And
that troubles Dark Brother... You don't need light anymore, right? I'll take
you... to a world with no light... to a world where the Sun doesn't rise!"

She Rushes Leona fist whipping out to strike.



But Leona expertly dodges aided by the speed you are granting her.
The Plant girl then burrows into the ground to re appear somewhere else.

She is small and mobile. Are you going to continue with the bomb plan or do something else?