Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Downtown Saint Lemeux

"I'm not exactly sure what she's talking about," Arianne shrugged to the paladin. "If she's trying to get you to arrest me, you may want to remind her why I'm not already in prison." A hint of bluish wispy energy streamed from her fingertips and into the ground. The ground directly beneath the Fabre witch remained completely still, and deathly cold to the touch. Ethereal chains burrowed from the enchanted soil and lunged towards Aoife like hungry vipers, while the witch's focus drifted to the damaged earth. "I'm willing to clean up your little mess, at least for now. Now, are you dense enough to say you lashed out, then immediately say to the same person that you didn't?" She shrugged, "Perhaps there's a reason the breed is dying."
 
The paladin grumbled low, giving equally unamused glares at both the witch and the druid. Their apparent squabble didn’t interest him half as much as the compounding earthquake beneath his feet. If it kept growing at this rate, it would collapse the entire block. Lutetia was an old city - much of its infrastructure was weak and crumbling as it was.

The knight, of course, had no way of knowing that Aoife was actively shaping the earthquake, limiting its power and preventing city-wide destruction. To Savien, this was a real and present threat to the entirety of Saint Lemeux.

“I don’t care who started this quake or why,” he growled, iron in his throat, “I want it stopped. Now.”

Kol reached for a nearby table to steady himself. He seemed to be more conscious of what Aoife was doing than Savien, but he still regarded the druid with a worried look. The frightened looks of the cafe customers filled him with deep regret.
 
"Sir Durandet, the earthquake must release the energy within," the druid said, turning her focus from him back to Arianne. The chains snapped up as if to wrap around Aoife and keep her from doing much else, but as they contacted the aura around her, they slowed, as if sinking through mud. They weren't stopped completely, but there would be some time before they touched her skin directly.

"Oi can stop it, and will, if Arianne here would simply apologize for mucking up things in Lornanine." Aoife's tone of voice had remained calm since Savien had arrived, contrasting the vibrant energy surrounding her. "Oi've realized that she won't be of any use to anyone if things start to go truly south. Why else would she bait me into my aggression, then not stop me from causing the earthquake as Oi did. She's not someone Oi would want fighting beside me, that's for sure."

The druid looked around for a moment, taking a moment to look at the faces of the other patrons as they huddled in fear. Off in the distance, the wailing of sirens could be heard as emergency services got closer and closer. A feeling of remorse suddenly cut through her like she was a sheet of wet paper, her humanity feeling the shock of what it was she was doing. She wasn't defending herself from an insult but was, rather, threatening someone who likely didn't even understand the full breadth of why Aoife was even mad. She was risking the lives of innocents over something minuscule in comparison.

The realization was sobering in the extreme, and the energy surrounding the druid flickered, her distraction causing her focus to start drifting. Mirroring the visual change, a sudden tremor rocked through the ground violently before she could reassert dominance on the stones. She felt her control on the earthquake starting to weaken and she frowned, kneeling.

"Ní chloicheann cloiche thíos ná an scrios a d'iarr mé, ach ina ionad sin tógadh suas le fréamhacha an fhoirgnimh seo. Tabhair amach, chomh maith, colún saibhreas, gur féidir liom aisíoc a dhéanamh ar na rudaí a rinne mé," Aoife said, her voice nearly lost amid the rumbles in the ground as she gently touched the floor beneath her. In a flash, all the light surrounding her vanished, sucked down her arm and into the floor. The chains Arianne had cast snapped through the air once more, hindered no longer, and wrapped around the druid, causing her to groan at the sudden drain in her energy, but as she slumped over to one side, the last rumbles of the quake dissipating, a smaller tremor quickly began and grew in intensity.

Just as it seemed the second series of rumbles would become as bad as before, a foot-wide section of the floor burst apart and through the hole rose a pillar of smoky, translucent crystal. Within it were long, knobbly strands of silvery and golden metals, though what, exactly, they were would be hard to tell considering the color of the stone surrounding them. As the chains sapped away at Aoife, their pull stronger than might be expected, as it pulled from both her magical and natural strength, which within her was a single source, she was able to say one last thing, only to pass out.

"A gift."
 
"I will accept a gift as an apology. If this gift proves, er, harmful, well," Arianne gestured towards the gemstone, "That would be rather rude." She turned away from the druid and began to walk, the earth beneath her feet reforming as long as she tread upon it but returning to its original disarray once she passed. The gift hovered lazily in tow, eventually resting in the palm of the witch's left hand as she gave a dismissive wave to Savien. "I would ask you to bother someone else with matters like these. I have lullabies to sing, after all," the witch's choice of words amused herself, evident by her tone. The chains that gripped Aoife fizzled and dissolved into the air without the will of their master supporting their existence.

Fabre ducked into an alley behind the cafe, and disappeared into the labyrinthine city.
 
"And I, nightmares to end," Savien returned Arianne's coy quip with a rather gruff metaphor of his own. He bounded up the steps to Aoife's collapsing body - but Kol had already caught her before she hit the ground.

"The spell," he looked worriedly at the knight, "it must have drained her."

Savien removed his gauntlet and pushed two fingers into his carotid artery, checking her pulse. His ear came close to her mouth, listening for her breath. "Put her on my bike," he said, "the Monastery's not far from here. We can give her medical attention there."

He stood to address the cafe patrons. "Monsieurs, madames, the situation is under control. You have nothing to fear."

A smattering of applause following the paladin as he exited the restaurant. He mounted his destrier and helped Kol strap the druid into the bike behind him.

"What the hell happened before I arrived?" Savien asked.

"They uh," Kol winced, "didn't get along. Witches and druids. You know how it is."

"I have yet to meet someone who does get a long with a witch." He frowned. "Though something tells me Aoife played a hand in this as well."

"It doesn't matter," Kol replied, "let's just get moving."

They thundered into the city.
 
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