The Kingdom and Its Dark Mage

One moment, you are on a world you know as your own. The next, you find yourself standing beneath a great forest canopy. Underneath your feet are beautiful blue flowers. Like the forest around you, they seem to stretch on endlessly. It is clear that you are somewhere far different than where you remember being last. Even more frightening is the fact that you recognize none of the foliage - the trees, the flowers and even the hues of all the flora seem off.

Fortunately, you are not alone. If you squint and stare far into the horizon, you will see a mysterious cloaked figure making their way through the floral forest floor, a basket in one hand and a fistful of flowers in the other.

Spoiler

The only feature of the mysterious figure that's easy to determine is that he's wearing a cloak that obscures all of his features. Even his age is difficult to determine, though his voice indicates that he's not a child. He's relatively tall, but not by much.

He had slipped out of the castle before the sun rose in the sky, his features concealed underneath one of the old cloaks that had been discarded into the storage room. Anything that could give his identity away had to be avoided during excursions like this. If they weren't, the guards would recognize him and report him leaving the castle to the king. Any alarm that resulted from that would be quickly ended if it was discovered he had been heading into town, but today he had gone the opposite direction.

Something that Kartiel certainly would have objected to, but he needed the flowers for his newest potion, and it wasn't like anyone from outside the kingdom would come to Telorum - and especially not through that route.

Spoiler

This is Princess Calfuray (or Callie, as she always insists on being called). She's very small in stature (just barely 5'0"), and has a faint tinge of blue to her skin, along with colbalt hair and bright blue eyes. Her ears come to a very prominent point, which usually misleads those outside her race to dub her an elf or a faerie. Currently wearing her hair in an intricate updo with wildflowers woven in and a tiara. She's also wearing a detailed white dress that suspiciously looks like a wedding dress.

Calfuray opened her eyes, the familiar panic pressing in on her chest as she remembered the wedding. She had dozed off in her chambers... in her gown- hours before the ceremony was to take place. She half-expected her chambermaids to be pounding on the door to come fuss over her, even though now it seemed her surroundings were unfamiliar. Sitting up delicately, she glanced around in bewilderment. She was sitting in a field of perfumed flowers, in what seemed to be a grove of trees.

Tottering to her feet, she glanced down- still wearing the blasted dress. She pinched her arm and yelped a bit at the sting. As far as she could tell, this wasn't a dream. Which meant... she hardly dared to hope that all of her fervored wishing had actually whisked her away, but a huge smile broke out on her face nonetheless.

"Yes!" She screamed, throwing her tiara off her head. "Oh thank you second moon, thank you!"

Picking up the train of her dress, she ran through the flowers, exilerated. A lone figure stood further in the clearing, collecting flowers, and she ran towards it, planning to thank whoever had sent her here and figure out just how far she was from her kingdom.

Spoiler

Paq is a goblin. She’s green and short, with sharp teeth, claws and large expressive ears. She’s a very resourceful creature, with a strong will to survive. She's wearing a personally tailored cloak over some clothing she's scavenged, along with a bandana as a mask. She carries a small backpack of supplies, a rapier, and a trumpet. She has many, many scars.

Paq found herself standing under a large tree, nearly up to her waist in wildflowers. The flowers were soft and smelled pleasant, but they were unfamiliar. As she looked around, it occurred to Paq that everything — the flowers, the trees, even the sweet-smelling air— was completely foreign to her.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of where she'd been last. There were no trees there, no flowers, no grass. It was as if she'd been transported to another place entirely.

Paq was startled out of her shock by Calfuray's scream. She opened her eyes in alarm, only to to see something shiny and circular flying towards her face. She let out a screech of alarm and rolled backwards to avoid the projectile.

"Hey!" She yelled. "Watch it!"

It took a good minute for the sight to register. He alone was supposed to be in this particular place at this particular time; no one else ever wandered in this direction. Though it was a scenic place, there were countless other places closer to the heart of the kingdom. The only reason someone would come in this direction was if they wanted to collect the flowers for their properties - and he was the only person in the main city who was proficient enough in general magic to do such a thing.

But then he saw the human princess.

At least, that was his first impression of her. The dress and tiara looked like something straight out of one the paintings Kartiel had hanging up around the castle. He was so startled that he dropped his basket, blue flower petals bursting up into the air as it hit the ground with a soft thud. The sight of her running towards him only made his actions grow more startled. He frantically adjusted his hood to make sure it concealed his facial features, and checked his gloves to make sure they were pulled up as far as they could be.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed two things about the rest of the flower field: the princess was something other than a normal human, and there was a short green person who had just barely avoided getting hit by the princess' tiara.

He looked between the two. They apparently didn't know each other, if the lack of acknowledgement from the princess was anything to go off of.

"What are you two doing here?" he finally asked.

Calfuray glanced behind her at what appeared to be a toad-woman sitting in the tree. Then there was the cloaked figure, who seemed very startled as she approached. It didn't take long for her to realize that neither of them had sent her here.

"Sorry, Miss!" She called up into the tree.

Turning to the figure, she walked more calmly to close the remaining distance- at least enough so that she wouldn't have to shout. Her jubilation was now only evident in her expression.

"Well, I was about to get married, but I don't care how I got here now that I don't have to."

Paq crouched down and picked up the tiara. She used the front of her shirt to wipe the dirt and petals off of it, then looped it through her belt. After rearranging the items that adorned the strap of leather, Paq began to follow the princess.

She didn't address the cloaked figure at first, and instead looked them up and down. It was strange, she noted, that she couldn't see their face. Paq placed a hand on her rapier, but didn't yet draw it. She didn't need to escalate things just yet.

"What are you doing here?"

He blinked.

Married...? To who? Kartiel hadn't mentioned any weddings occurring in the neighboring kingdoms-

He tore his gaze and attention away from the princess, the question that was addressed to him finally sinking in. He blinked once again from within the shadows of his cloak. He would have assumed that she would have figured that out when she saw his attire, but, as he gave himself a cursory look-over, he was reminded that not much of his appearance was visible.

"I live here," he answered. His hand went for one of the small vials attached to his belt; uttering a spell now would be too cumbersome when he needed to continue this conversation. "I'm the Dark Mage."

He waited for some sort of response. Surely, these two would run, and then he could forget this whole encounter had ever happened - which would conveniently mean that Kartiel never heard about it.

Spoiler

Uhhh I probably shouldn't be jumping into another RP? But here we go.

Kynan is Kendrik's twin brother. So yeah, they look remarkably similar. Except, as a bipedal hound, Kynan's ears are clipped and his tail is docked, not to mention that he's shorter and looks a bit younger. He wears a green shirt with a black trim and brass buttons, a white undershirt, black pants, black socks, and brown shoes.

Kynan opened his eyes. Darkness edged by light. He felt strange. It was almost like he was facedown on the ground, with his snout bent at a weird angle and sniffing the sweet perfume of flowers and -

Oh, that was exactly what was happening.

The hound pushed himself up. Crossing his legs, he stared up at the canopy of trees stretching over his head. Sure, it was gorgeous. In any other circumstance, it'd be exactly where he wanted to be. The trees and leaves shaded him, the blue flowers reminded him of royal gardens, and the fragrances almost overwhelmed him in their sharp sweetness. But something was wrong. The colors were off; they were either a couple shades too bright or a couple shades too dark. He wondered if that was just his vision, since he'd been told he didn't see colors quite as well as others.

Nah. With the strange hooded man, the lady in the elaborate dress, and the green person all clustered together not far from him, he was pretty sure something else was going on. Something he didn't want to be a part of. He quickly scurried behind a tree, peeking out from one side to watch the spectacle.

Calfuray tilted her head and studied the cloaked figure. He was clearly expecting some sort of reaction that she just couldn't muster from his words alone.

"Mage? As in... magic?" A confused smile flittted to her face. "You must do a trick for me sometime!"

Suddenly stopped, she realized that that came off as rude and commanding, if not a bit condescending.

"I- I mean, pardon me, I only meant that I would be very interested to see what sort of magic you possess, if you are willing. I haven't heard much of mages and wizards from my kingdom."

He noticed the person - though he had no idea what they were - duck behind one of the nearby trees, but made no comment on it. They clearly weren't a spy sent here to collect information on the kingdom; they were too noticeable. And if they were, a little show of illusion magic would easily frighten them away.

And then there was the princess.

Who, bizarrely enough, had never heard of him. Which frankly didn't make the least bit of sense because everyone had heard of Telorum's Dark Mage. Kartiel had told him about it with an almost bemused tone after some of his latest travels. He knew the best way to get these travelers - were they that? - to go was to scare them off, but he wasn't feeling particularly intimidating right now. He was just feeling very, very confused.

"I'm the Dark Mage," he slowly repeated. He peered at her from within the shadowy coils of his cloak. "I work for King Kartiel."

At this point, Calfuray was putting in considerable effort to be diplomat and not to offend this mage. She had never heard the name Kartiel, and in all of her tutoring over monarchs, defininatly had never heard of a king by that name. At least, not from any of the neighboring or alley kingdoms.

"Please forgive my ignorance." the princess settled with bowing her head respectfully. "In my studies, I have never encountered a king of that title. Which is not to say that he is insignificant, merely that my studies are certainly lacking indeed."

Suppressing a sigh, she remained staring at the ground until the mage awknowledged her apology. This really shouldn't annoy her as much as it currently was, she knew- she had come to terms long ago with the fact that diplomacy on her part mostly consisted in grovelling to some extent.

"Where are we, exactly?"

Paq's raspy voice cut through the silence like a knife. She didn't understand why this 'Dark Mage' expected them to know who he or his king were, when they had clearly only just appeared. Because, honestly, who would just take a walk through a forest in their wedding dress?

Paq's gaze flickered between the two people, eyes narrowed as if she expected to be attacked at any second. She didn't take her hand off the hilt of her rapier.

"Uh," he managed to get out. He wasn't sure what else he was supposed to say to that; he was too busy trying to understand how someone could be completely oblivious to one of the core components of Partexian politics. Telorum and its royalty had been a threat for countless centuries to the Rexun Alliance. For someone to not know where this place was and who King Kartiel was implied that they weren't even from this region of Seraphinity.

But if they weren't, how had they gotten here? Humans couldn't easily cross over the geographical features. While none of the people present were like any of the humans he had been studying, he was sure it would have been difficult for them too.

"You're in Telorum," he quietly said, still trying to understand how they could arrived in a place without knowing how they had gotten there in the first place. His gaze remained firmly on the rapier that the green woman was resting her hand on. "It's a kingdom in Partex. If you haven't heard of Kar-I mean, King Kartiel, or me, you're probably not going to recognize anything I just said."

Kynan listened closely, but it didn't help him learn a thing. Telorum? Partex? King Kartiel? Where in Fayne was he? He would have to ask his brother sometime; his brother had seen a whole lot more of the world. But Kendrik wasn't around, so Kynan would have to make do with getting closer, in case it turned out he was mishearing things.

The hound got down on his hands and knees. He resisted the urge to sneeze when he smelled the closest flower. Of course he was allergic. Still, he'd love to take a couple back home. Tristan would like that. But he was getting ahead of himself. He crawled to a tree closer to the hooded man. Hopefully he wouldn't be visible above the flowers, except maybe for his ears. But the hooded man looked distracted enough.