Young Writers Society

Eremia:

"Yes," she replied, shaking Gabriel's hand contentedly. She was at least pleased to see that Laelius had finally left the premises. Eremia wasn't quite sure what he had tried to imply by waving his barbed tail around - she had seen many an individual with a tail, and just about as many of them resorted to flirting as those in the average human population - but she made a mental note to be suspicious of strikingly handsome men with strange tails (which, given how quickly she had grown angry at Laelius, she hoped would not happen again). Especially any that suggested dating her; she already had one possible romantic interest to cope with. "And this is my friend, Taber," she gestured to her companion, who shook hands with Gabriel and nodded.

"So," continued Gabriel after this brief introduction. "I noticed that you called yourself the daughter of a lord before Laelius harassed you. Is that so?"

Eremia replied warily, remembering her previous experience. "Yes, the daughter of the 9th Lord Exedor. Of course, depending on your point of view, he is either a lord or a king, but, for the sake of simplicity, most of the people I know refer to him as a lord."

"Will he be the next lord, then?" noted Gabriel, gesturing towards Taber. "You two seem awfully close."

"It's not like that," explained Eremia hurriedly, blushing in embarrassment. She turned to Taber for some kind of encouragement, but the smirk that grew across his face quickly made her reconsider that idea. "We're just...just...friends...is all. And...I'm...of course....too young to marry."

"I can't help you there," replied Taber, seeing Eremia's constant glancing in his direction. With his typical stern expression, he said to Gabriel, "At best, I'd call it an awkward romance. At least one of us is not willing to admit it exists. I'm sure that she would be able to find a more politically advantageous union, but she has never been much for romance in general."

"Yes, that's very nice, please do continue to tell about every aspect of my personal life," she whispered into Taber's ear. He smirked again.

Gabriel was about to respond to his exchange, but the voice of Jothar, the owner of the massive castle and the lands surrounding it, rang out over the gathering. Eremia and Taber, who'd been too distracted by these recent events to eat the rest of their food, ignored it and stood up as he announced that they would finally be heading to the place the duo had intended to go to earlier - the garden.

Eremia breathed a sigh of relief. Which was quickly stifled when Laelius took the lead of the gathering and began to direct it through the garden. But at least she didn't have to carry on with her awkward discussion. Waving Gabriel goodbye, she grabbed Taber's hand and pulled him into the crowd assembling by the entrances to the garden. He didn't resist, but did manage to call back to him with, "Don't mind her, she's only a tad shy."

"What is wrong with you today?" whispered Eremia in a displeased tone to Taber as they began to walk among the neatly-arranged corridors of the garden, in tune and pace to everyone else ahead of and behind them. "What are you trying to make me look like?"

"I suppose it's your energetic and free spirit catching up to me," he replied casually as he ran a hand along the neatly-trimmed hedges, only to pull it back when he realized a few of them had thorns. Sighing at the small cuts that formed on his hand, which were now beginning to bleed, he looked at her and finished. "And yes, I did that on purpose."

"I suspected as much," replied Eremia angrily, as she stared down at the almost eerie perfection of cobblestone steps that composed the path through the meticulously arranged garden. "Nothing is an accident where you're concerned."

Suddenly, Taber clasped her hand with his non-bloody one. "Now, come on. It was simply one little statement. At most, he likely just thinks you're in denial." She glared at him, but that didn't desist him in the slightest. "Besides, I wanted to motivate you to leave. We still have a garden to visit."

"Are you sure?" she whispered in a concerned voice. "Remember what happened last time? If this Jothar person is as observant as he was then..."

"And do you have a better idea?" he laughed quietly, hoping to not catch anyone else's attention. They stood still to allow everyone else to walk ahead of them. Given the beauty of the garden, with its articulate marble statues and beautifully organized design. "You wanted to start a tour of your own, and this one is proceeding a tad too slowly. Especially with Laelius at the front. Besides, Jothar's got too many people to keep an eye on right now. What's the worst that could happen if two of them were to magically disappear?"

Eremia pondered this for a few seconds. "Alright," she said at last, smiling. "I can't help but admit you have a point. I'll lead first, if you wouldn't mind."

And, with that, holding hands, she turned onto the nearest branching path, and they vanished from everyone else's view.

Winter

Honestly I should have still be home on Illusedra helping with the war effort. Well instead here I was- "taking a vacation" because "as a war hero I deserve it," to be quite frank, I didn't need to rest until there was nothing to worry about back home thank you very much. Apparently this war had been going on for hundreds of years and me staying wasn't going to end it any faster.

Well, the garden was pretty. I liked spending time alone in places while other people were eating- after all, since when does a ghost need sustenance? This place was gigantic, I wondered how much of it I could see in the time I had here. I wondered if there was a library- I needed to study war strategy.

The garden started flooding with people- I did my best to stay out of the way, but I'm fairly certain that I walked through a few people. Oh well- I just needed to find out where the library was.

"Excuse me? Would any of you happen to be able to point me towards the library?" I called to anyone willing to hear.

Eremia:

The garden was, of course, as beautiful as she'd hoped. If not more so.

Freed from the slow tour of the area, the couple traveled randomly among the mass of criss-crossing paths that highlighted the variety of statues and structures giving the garden that feeling of a faraway energy. Definitely a magical one, as it seemed to hum to an almost unnatural tune wherever they stepped, which made this landscape all the more curious and bizarre. Eremia was usually adjusted to large bursts of spontaneous magic, rather than an entire area with such a tiny, yet surprisingly, consistent dosage. The landscape was of mostly the same height, although some courtyard areas, with articulately carved fountains in the center and flanked by rows of trees and hedges, dipped slightly below this standard, and they had to walk down a small flight of stairs to arrive at these places.

Naturally, neither regretted their decision to leave. They were inseparable, holding hands as they strolled and pointed at the various statues of brave heroes, mythological couples, or beautifully carved animals roaming through fields of their own. Eremia still wasn't quite willing to admit that this was any part of a romance; she was merely excited that she was in a peaceful and tranquil environment for a change, rather than anyone trying to kill her every time she turned her back. The music that was the energy provided some form of comfort and wonder, drowning out the eerie quiet that would've otherwise been a component of their surroundings. After all, save for them, this place was strangely abandoned. The birds were not chirping, there were no signs of animals romping about, and they had certainly strayed far away from the beaten path. And they treasured it.

Taber was pleased. Eremia wasn't normally like this. As he'd known her, ever since he met her, she was a good and reliable friend, but always strict and authoritarian. As a military strategist, she affirmed an almost desperate mentality of trying to comprehend as much about her situations as possible and find a solution for them. And information was constantly changing as the people around her did, which left her a frustrated wreck. Not to mention an emotionally distant or flattened personality dominated her much of the time. And now? She had nothing to worry about. She could be happy, excited, angry, anything her teenage mind had been seeking for all these years, rather than being trapped in an adult's mindset, and she was taking full advantage of that. Which was fun to watch. Especially when he considered that, deep down, she was likely debating the romantic nature of this excursion. That, to him, was the point. She might not be sure about their relationship, but he absolutely was. He knew she had to deal with the rigors of it, of course, and that would take time. But, for now, he would at least help push her in the right direction.

After about a half-hour of this leisurely stroll, they finally arrived at a particularly large marble statue towering above their heads. The hedges barely climbed up to the pedestal upon which the graceful monument lay. The statue itself depicted a handsome man with huge muscles in a suit of armor that would've gleamed golden had it not been made of marble. The duo gawked at how its' sword caught the light of the sun as the man prepared to strike a gigantic stone snake whose tail curled down from the pedestal onto the ground below, demonstrating its sheer size in the way that its mouth appeared to be capable of swallowing either the boy or the girl whole. One of the man's feet was prepared to come crashing down on a crab whose claws were outstretched, a pitiful display of strength against the towering, manly, adventurous-to-a-fault grace that seemed to make even the hedges quiver.

"Ah," breathed Eremia in what was, undoubtedly, awe. "If only the army was that man, and our enemies the crab. Of course, golden armor would be a tad inconvenient, and he seems to have more strength than any mortal could possibly possess, and this is likely widely unrealistic, but it is a marvel of construction and symbolism..." she would've carried on much longer, if not for the fact that Taber was frowning at the statue.

"Those bushes are moving," said Taber with suspicion, stopping momentarily to address Eremia's curiosity before returning to glare at the pedestal. "And there isn't any wind at all." It was then that she realized that she could feel the humming now. It was stronger, more noticeable, and seemed to be climbing, for whatever reason. She quickly concluded that it had to be coming from that magnificent statue; there was simply nothing else that could produce such a strong physical sensation, beyond just an emotional one. The hedges and cobblestone were also suspect, but, in that case, they would've felt such energy long beforehand. Perhaps all the statues were imbued with that same energy? But, in that case, this was particularly unique. And eerie, to be honest, as though the statue would pop out from its stillness and descend upon them in a wave of blows.

"I wouldn't advise..." began Eremia, who was beginning to feel anxiety creep up over her in a wave of goosebumps. She was dismayed; she had hoped for some facet of peace, especially in the place where it was promised. The threat of violence, which she was by now long used to, though she still didn't like it, wasn't supposed to appear here. That was why she'd come, wasn't it? Taber didn't heed her suggestion, given that he stepped across the space up to the pedestal of the statue. Despite it reaching up to his head, he raised a hand, partly coated in a small layer of dried blood, up and gently rubbed the surface.

And recoiled sharply in pain after the sound of a snapping noise, like the crab's claw had suddenly come down.

Suddenly, the statue began to move. Taber ran back, clutching his now profusely bleeding hand, as the massive sculpture began to change. A hissing sound rose from the towering snake, whose head shifted, with a large amount of creaking and scraping, in their direction, although the movement rapidly became fluid. Its tongue rose out and hovered in the air as its eyes locked onto the couple, causing the both of them to pale at the threat its humongous fangs posed. The crab clicked its pincers a few times, as though trying to grasp the air it was evidently not entirely not used to, and leaped off from the pedestal, clicking in an intimidating fashion as it scuttled side to side in front of the place where it had formerly sat.

"And who dares to interrupt my slumber and enter my domain?" bellowed the worst threat of all - the gigantic stone man, whose sword lowered away from the snake and pointed towards the hapless duo. All of these movements shook large amounts of done, which creaked and spilled out dust as the trio of marble assembled themselves, the man changing his viewing position so that his great gray-and-black eyes, lacking pupils, peered down at them. His imposing helmet was topped with that same bright light again, almost blinding Eremia as she tried to stare upwards at him, the suit of armor seemingly gaining the luster of gold. Amazingly, this statue seemed wholly and unmistakably living. Perhaps a mechanical contraption, but the level of its intelligence so far suggested the contrary, especially given the magical energy that seemed to be pouring from it. And that was downright paralyzing, as this man seemed all but immortal.

"I...I...we...I mean...we didn't mean..." stammered Eremia in what had formerly been awe, but was now terror. She yelped in surprise as Taber tackled her onto the ground, the massive stone sword of the sculpture swinging only a few feet from their heads. Grunting in pain from her impacting the stone, Eremia could feel her shoulder aching. She recognized she may have dislocated something. On the other hand, he'd saved her from losing her head, and for that she was grateful.

"Ah, no one familiar to me," growled the man in a deep, and incredibly dramatic, voice in anger. "So you must be trespassers, then!"

"Not at all!" shouted Eremia. But the sword swung over her head again. Her back felt sticky, and she realized that it was Taber's bloody hand. He was definitely injured if it was still bleeding, perhaps severely so. Although she couldn't see his face, she knew he was in pain, and needed some medical attention as well. And she also knew that the statue would not be listening to reason.

Particles of snow and ice began to crackle around her hands as she pulled away Taber's hands from her own. Realizing what she was planning, Taber began to rise up alongside the now upright girl, whose hands were forming steadily increasing balls of ice. Wind began to pick up and blow the hedges around them as Eremia conjured one of her magic spells, while Taber used his non-bleeding hand to unsheathe one of the smaller swords, rather than the double-handed one that he wouldn't be able to use, for obvious reasons. He wasn't quite sure what such a weapon could do against a stone statue, but his hand continued to bleed, staining some of the cobblestone red, and his mind was addled and fear-ridden.

"Alright," bellowed Eremia, in what was surprisingly a now much deeper voice. Steel had covered her heart once again, and her old persona was shining through. Had Taber not been injured himself, he would've been disappointed. But, against these odds, he needed all the help he can get. "If you're not going to listen to reason, let me give you mine."

"If you're here to fight us, come on then. We're armed!"

Winter

I may not always pay the most attention, but I'd like to think that I have an ear for commotion. Needless to say I followed the sound to it's source- about time something happened. I don't know what I'd do if there was peace- some warriors are meant to fight and don't know what to do when the war is over. I guessed that I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, but right now I was going to see what was going on.

The hedges began moving as I drifted closer to the sound... Fascinating. I shivered- I'd dealt with some shady plants in my time, but I had a feeling that these weren't actually a threat. However, after walking through one of them I saw a particularly odd anomaly.

There was a moving statue; couldn't say I'd seen many of those before. There was a boy with a sword in one hand and his other hand was bloody- and a girl who seemed to be conjuring ice crystals. It seemed like the statue was about to fight these people, so I did what I probably would have done anyway- I drew one of my knives and threw it at the statue.

Petrichor

"Fascinating!" Petrichor exclaimed, to Soul. "I would not have found your statements unbelievable, until the part where you said you have feelings."

He was walking briskly now, as excited thoughts began to whirl about his head, like possessed clockwork without its maker.

"Where I come from, magical constructs are not unheard of. Mages build golems to serve them: they have a set of operating principles which they obey, like 'serve your master', but they are capable of processing a wide range of tasks, if they do not stray from their operating principle. They can even understand intuitively if a situation would lead to something that would jeopardize their principles."

Soul, keeping up with him effortlessly, was nodding. Petrichor could see the engrossment from behind the armor, which pleased him.

"And yet you have no operating principles."

Soul shook his head. "Not to my knowledge."

"And you say you feel -- you can react to situations irrationally?"

Soul paused. "I... think so."

"Fascinating! Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. You must allow me to take you apart. I have spent decades studying artifice of all manner, but this is a challenge new to me. I wonder if this castle has a laboratory."

Soul began to say something, but a loud CRASH drowned him out. There were more dull thumps in quick succession, like masonry hitting the ground. Petrichor had heard this noise often, and his head immediately snapped towards the left, the source of the noise.

"Guests! Please come to order!" Jothan's voice resounded, deep and powerful. His body almost snapped a salute involuntarily. Each chocolaty syllable was infused with magic, he could tell now.

"The tour must halt momentarily, as something has come up."

There was another loud crack.

"Our staff will take care of you. You will come to no harm. Indeed, I will be back in just a few minutes. I apologize for the inconvenience."

Petrichor stood on tiptoes, but he couldn't see where Jothan had gone. He cursed. Athletics weren't exactly his strong suit.

He bent his legs, tensing, and with an inhuman burst of strength, vaulted over the hedge, as gracefully as a stupefied troll. Petrichor then turned behind him.

"Soul! Come on then, what are you waiting for?"

The suit of armor shrugged and walked through the hedge, nonchalantly dismantling what was probably weeks of gardening.

After a few minutes, the unlikely duo reached a clearing in the garden, where Petrichor beheld an even unlikelier scene.

There were four humanoid figures in the clearing. Two humans, a male and a female, bruised and bleeding. Petrichor had seen them at brunch. The ghost of a human, likely also engaged in battle.

The fourth figure was Jothan. He was loudly yelling at three statues, who were doing their best to murder the other three. The ground was cut up and marred by magic. The air smelled of churned grass.

"Atlas!" Jothan bellowed. "Very good! You're still going strong! Now please stop trying to kill my guests!"

Eremia:

And, at this, the stone man raised his sword behind his head and sent it crashing down on the ground in front of her. Cobblestone was ripped from the earth by the impact of the blow, a shockwave rippling down the courtyard as grass was flung into the air and the meticulously arranged and fashioned hedges were knocked about ferociously, spilling leaves across the landscape. Eremia had barely any time to launch forward a large icy sphere at the outstretched weapon before the force of the blow knocked her off of her feet, sending her spiraling upwards into the air. Taber shouted something incoherent as he tried to fend off the massive stone snake, which had now chosen to attack him, with his sword, but, in the midst of the ferocious winds and carnage, she hadn't a clue what he was saying. And now that her mind was reeling, she hadn't an idea of what to think. Fear consumed her and drowned out her other emotions.

The statue struggled to pull his sword from the earth. Eremia's attack, though it drained plenty of the energy from her, had had the beneficial effect of encasing the massive weapon in ice, making it way far more than the brick it already was, and causing it to stick to the frozen earth around it. Groaning from the effort of trying to lift the blade, the statue, gasping between words, as though it was breathing, echoed, "Ah, a worthy challenger indeed!"

The stone hydra, in contrast, was an idiot, and easy enough to distract without having to force it to stop. Taber waved his sword enigmatically in front of the snake's face, watching as it weaved and bobbed its head to the swishing of the blade in front of it. Casting it aside, he momentarily watched as the serpent slithered towards the weapon before pulling out his second sword, dashing over to where he'd last seen Eremia flying. He wasn't sure what he was attempting to do - he'd hurt himself sorely if he were to try to catch Eremia, especially considering the speed at which she was traveling. On the other hand, if she were to fall onto the cobblestone...well, he'd rather not think of it. For that reason, he couldn't stand there and do nothing; he had to save her, however he could.

Of course, she didn't need any saving. As she flew straight towards a tree, last-minute reflexes activated her senses. Placing the palms of her hands behind her, she cast a quick spell, thrusting wind in the opposite direction of her. Eremia didn't have the time or the willingness to cast the full spell, as such force in a complete reversal of direction would likely break her neck, but she did allow it to help cushion her fall as she crashed into the mass of tree branches, which scraped her body, neck, and face. Running across the larger branches towards the center of the tree, she could feel them batter her arms and legs, forming bruises across the surface of her skin. Grimacing, knowing how much the sores would hurt in the morning, she was at least pleased to see that they slowed her down enough to come to a halt before she rammed into the main trunk of the tree, which would've surely ended her relatively short life. Though it didn't diminish the pain that crawled and spiked across her body, not to mention the warm blood that trickled down above one of her eyes and down her arms. She felt like she'd been hit a thousand times by her brother and his wooden sword in their practice duels, except she'd had someone to heal her then. Now? Not so much.

"Eremia!" Taber screamed, yanking a foot upwards as the crab threatened to snap it as it'd done to his hand. Sprinting furiously ahead, he easily outpaced the tiny creature as he dashed towards the tree where he'd seen Eremia land, it creaking and shaking exceptionally. He yelped in surprise when a loud crash, the shattering of large quantities of ice, indicated that the statue had finally broken free his sword from the trap. Gaining second wind, he avoided the fragments of ice that flew like daggers about him, ripping up the earth further and spearing leaves and branches from the trees. Willing himself to transform, albiet slightly, claws formed on Taber's hands, allowing him to grasp the rough bark of the tree he'd determined was his destination. Taber threw aside his sword; he had no need for it now. He propelled himself upwards, drowning out all other warning signs beyond finding Eremia and getting her out of there as soon as possible.

"Silly girl," chided the statue as Eremia, dizzy and bleeding, blinked furiously to regain her now-addled senses. Her vision was blurry, ears deaf from the barrage of loud noises pestering her, foremost among them the statue's booming voice. Her muscles groaned and ached as she tried to gain footing upon the large branch she'd stumbled upon, amazingly upright. Eremia's perspective changed constantly, rolling and swaying as the tree did, the only sign of Taber's existence being the sudden gray blob that materialized at the corner of her eye, ferociously ripping his way up the tree and thrusting himself on a large branch beside her when he saw she was safe. "A noble attempt, although futile. And now...this is your end!"

Eremia prepared an attack, assuming that the strange figure next to her was the snake, coiling its head and rearing to strike. Taber groaned when he recognized this, but only briefly; he knew they had to leave the tree as soon as possible. Running into and grabbing her, he thrust the both of them off of the structure as the statue's sword slashed through the trunk, splitting wood and branches in a score of audible snapping sounds. He only hoped that his claws wouldn't hurt her too much. He didn't rue the decision, of course - it had been the only possible way he could've climbed up the tree in time.

Distracted by the sudden movement, Eremia's spell was broken, and she screamed as the duo crashed onto the grass, pieces of splintered wood flying all about them as she fell atop Taber, whose air was knocked out of his lungs. Both gasping furiously, Eremia cast a small blast of wind upon the crab now scuttling rapidly towards them, sending it flying in the air. Rapidly regaining her senses, her vision now becoming more focused and recognizing of her surroundings, she almost felt something coincidental about this situation. But, of course, she disregarded it; she was fighting for her death. Why should she care about coincidences?

Quickly, Eremia's vision whirling less and less about her, she realized that they were no longer alone in this chaotic battlefield, which was now a ruined mess of smashed cobblestone, churned grass, and the sensations of magic wafting around from every possible corner in an almost overwhelming horde. A pale blue, seemingly ghostlike figure was trying to thrust knifes at the statue, which was deflecting them and providing his own sarcastic commentary, although the loudness of the voice assured his chatter was nothing but an endless drone in the girl's ears. Pale blue? Ghostlike? Eremia wasn't sure if she wasn't just hallucinating, or if this was actually the case, but she could've sworn that the figure's body was transparent in places, making it seem as though it was a ghost. She almost panicked; had she died and risen? But...she did still feel pain, and a lot of it. How could she hurt if she was dead?

And such fears disappeared when she saw Jothar, who was now arguing intensely with the statue. The crab had landed, and had joined the snake as they hovered around the statue. Both were staring intently at the duo, but neither attacked. Sighing in relief, Eremia realized that their host must've heard them, and had finally come to their aid. Of course, sighting the snake made her instantly realize that the struggling and squirming figure underneath her was Taber, and she jumped upwards in surprise. Yanking him upwards with both her hands as he rasped deeply, ignoring the scratch marks that were forming on her arms as his claws gripped onto her compulsively, Eremia called out to the people who were beginning to assemble in the courtyard.

"Standing there? Help, we have a man injured here!"

Soul Error Arwitch:

He rushed over to the two upon hearing the girl's plea for help. Petrichor followed him, most likely curious about what he was going to do. Though he knew the girl couldn't see it, he gave her a warm smile. "I can help," he informed her.

"Thank you," the girl said.

He didn't reply. Until he healed the man, he wouldn't consider himself worthy of her gratitude. As he looked the man over to assess his injuries, Soul was shocked to see claws on his hands.

"You need to look me in the eyes," he told the squirming man. In order to heal, he needed a connection. There was only three ways. The most effective was embracing the person in need of healing. Holding hands was the next most effective way to create a connection. The third was the least effective - locking eyes with the individual in need of healing. The stronger and more effective the connection, the easier and quicker it was to heal.

It had taken Soul several years to understand this. The books on healing never seemed to apply to him, and there was no one he could turn to as a teacher.

He could feel the Sin begin to flow through him from where a human's heart would be. He channeled it to his hands, and, keeping eye contact with the man, began to let it envelop the injured man's body.

"Amazing," Petrichor managed to get out. "I can feel it, and I'm not the one being healed."

Soul continued to look the man in the eyes. It was alright if the man blinked - which he did - because the connection wouldn't be interrupted by something as small as that. "Zogin says it feels warm, and fills her with energy she didn't know she was missing..." Though they didn't say anything for fear of the girl and her companion overhearing, both understood how odd it was for Soul to possess healing abilities. It made sense that he would be able to somewhat control electricity - it helped to power him, after all. But Soul knew it should be impossible for him to do anything else.

He finally finished healing the man. His gaze turned to the girl. "You look injured," Soul commented. "Do you want me to heal you as well?"

Lee:

Tall, willowy, thirteen years old. (She became eligible as a hero by an accident. It may be revealed later.) She has almond shaped hazel eyes. She usually wears ripped jeans and old T-shirts, and wears her waist length vivid red hair in unique boho-ish hair styles. The only hints that she's a hero are her sturdy leather boots, and the sword she wears tucked inside a leather belt fastened around her waist. (No, it's not even a legit sword holder, it's literally a leather belt.)