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OLDHAMMER SMITHY - EVENING
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Ashform has been going about business as usual, strangely enough, completing orders and finding most folks agreeable. Granted, a lower variety of customers have been entering, and one hooded figure of a familiar height has appeared making a wide array of seemingly unrelated orders. Either way, though, the elemental was happy to continue their work with Melia's common company. Into the evening, the ashform works on, stoking the furnace in preparation to load in some crucibles of ore.
Elizabeth walks towards the Smithy, wearing a long dark hooded dress, covering her from head to tail. The skunk has grown tired of waiting for some opportunity that never seems to manifest, and decided to take matters into her own claws. Manifesting her purple magic around her hands for a brief bit before making it disappear for the moment, she peeks around the doorway: "Hello? Is the smith present?"
Ashform sets a shovelful of coke into the forge before turning toward the door with a nod. The body it has shifted to is that of a scrawny deer; a customer it had seen days before that the ashform admired for a rather well polished rack of antlers. The core of it's copy of those antlers glows with hot coal. "Yes, I am. Good day, how may I serve you?"
Elizabeth blinks at the sight of the deer, though instantly notices it's relatively elemental-ness as well. She gives a well-practiced polite-but-not-too-polite smile: "Ah yes. Actually, I was actually mostly just curious who takes care of this place, these days. I have been away, as it were."
Ashform hums, puffing a stream of wispy smoke from it's nostrils. "I've tended this forge for a few months now. It isn't mine, but I can't just leave it cold, so I'm tending it until the owner comes back to claim it." The elemental tilts it's head the other way. "Were you a customer before?"
Elizabeth nods: "Of sorts." Her expression sharpens as she reaches inward to her magic, dropping any pretense of politeness as she's certain they are alone: "You, however, are made of my magic. I am going to need that magic back."
Ashform feels a spike of familiar power from where Elizabeth stands just as she speaks, taking a step back. "Ah... So I am. I was warned about you..." It takes another step back toward the forge. "You created me and sister, then?"
Elizabeth nods, frowning darkly: "By accident. You were never meant to be. A costly mistake I would prefer to fix right now." She reaches her magic towards the elemental, getting a feel on how to grasp at what is hers and meant to be hers only.
Ashform senses the magic, similar to how Melia had prodded at it, though clearly with the opposite intent. Still, it's quite familiar, that bit within the elemental seeming to want to connect back to the source. "Ah... An accident. That is sort of cruel for a mother to say, hmm?" The ashform's legs bump against the forge mantle.
Elizabeth frowns and pauses for a brief second: "Mother?" She shakes her head: "That's not right, and I will not be dissuaded. Do not try to distract me." She reaches forward with her magic again, tugging at Ashform's magical aspects.
Ashform flinches at the words, as well as the pull. "Sorry, I don't mean to make this harder for you... But I like it here." A different, warm orange lick of magic twists from the ashform and clings around that of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth hmms as she continues her efforts: "I don't mean to make this harder either. Yield, and the pain will be over quickly..."
Narrator: A green bolt of magic hits Ashform from the side, jolting a burst of energy into him, strengthening his efforts.
Ashform flinches from Melia's sudden effort, though it pulls at and converts her magic into that which it can use. "Strange, mother. I don't feel any pain." The orange magic wraps further around Elizabeth's, pumped full of energy from Melia.
Elizabeth pauses visibly at the sight of Ashform's magic growing stronger: "What...? You are stronger than I thought." She starts pushing towards Ashform with all her might, intent on draining him dry, grace be damned. "Your magic is mine...!"
Ashform turns partway away from Elizabeth, letting out a sigh. It reaches a hand toward the entwined magic, the ashes forming that arm crumbling away the nearer it gets. "And you... Are getting it. But you can't handle it, or we wouldn't have it." He glares toward her, the other hand curling around a glowing hot iron rod within the forge, turning the foot long resource into a spinning projectile aimed vaguely for Elizabeth's legs.
Elizabeth is about to argue against what the elemental is saying, but is interrupted by a painful thwack of metal onto her leg despite the thick dress somewhat softening the blow. She lets out a silent scream and glares at the fiery being with at least as fiery a glare: "You will regret that."
Melia steps into view from the shadows to the side, her arms crossed in front of her: "Maybe not just yet." The nature elemental's usual cheer is nowhere to be seen as she glares at the witch.
Ashform returns her glare, understanding the expression immediately. "Maybe never." The creature Elizabeth is fighting 'steps' further toward the forge, the legs beneath it crumbling to the floor in a pile against the front of the forge. It tugs at the magic between the two, beginning to draw on the consuming force in the core of the forge. The coals within it's antlers begin glowing hotter even as those that make up it's eyes start to crack along their surface.
Elizabeth stumbles forward against her will, realizing she is against something stronger than she suspected. She glances at the nature elemental standing to the side, causing her to stumble another step. "You..." Her efforts are mostly directed at the magical forces, although in her mind she's laying down more than a few expletives.
Phoebe is pressed against the wall outside, having arrived moments before and hearing voices, conflict. It's made her cautious, she's not the kind to blunder into a fight. The voice of 'Cavro' is amongst them. Melia's too. The third she doesn't recognize. She doesn't have any weapons, assuming this would be a simple look-in to see if Melia's words had been true, now, she spies into the door, the skunk. That's the one Melia was afraid of. She sneaks in, behind the skunk, and does the last thing a mage would want to happen in a struggle of spells. Phoebe raises her arms and lowers both fists sharply to deliver a surprise crack to the skunk's head.
Melia is about to reach towards Elizabeth with whatever magic she can muster inside with no vegetation, but pauses upon seeing Phoebe behind the witch.
Ashform sinks further into the core of the forge with each step that Elizabeth gives up. It's cracking eyes start to shimmer with the surface-consuming heat as flames lick out of the antlers. While free of pupils, the ashform's gaze follows Phoebe as she sneaks in, not relenting on it's pull.
Elizabeth unf's hard as she is hit, stumbling a lot harder now and losing grasp on her magic though she is still pulled forward even as she falls to her knees, then down to the floor. Her focus lost, she finds herself on the floor, staring forward in stunned surprise, just sort of conscious.
Ashform lets out a short cough of a laugh, retaining it's grip on her magic just in case as it looks from the skunk to Phoebe. "Your timing is good, Phoebe. Your knives are finished, by the way, if you're here to collect them."
Melia looks at the downed skunk, then gives Phoebe a small smile: "Timing, yes." She steps closer to the skunk, frowning, feeling with her magic: "Still conscious, if barely."
Phoebe 's fangs are bared in rage, claws out, she drops down to apply pressure to the mage, ensuring her arms are pinned. She glances from Melia to the Forge, "...Cavro? Melia. My... knives? I just came back to see if you were... were still alive." She glances down at Elizabeth, snarling, "Want me to fix that?"
Ashform shakes it's head. "She is linked... We share a common power." It looks toward Melia. "With her as well." Looking back to Phoebe, "If we die she may get her power back... But if she dies, I don't know what happens."
Elizabeth gives a soft groan as she is pinned down: "This wasn't... I didn't..." She groans, the rest of her magic puffing away and back into her as she tips in and out of consciousness.
Phoebe snorts. "Alright... no killing, then. You're lucky I didn't have my knives when I got here, skunk."
Melia looks at Ashform and nods: "It is true... we don't know what might happen." She sighs softly: "We need her alive." She's mostly relieved upon realizing this, although her expression still darkens as she glances at Elizabeth.
Ashform looks up at the mention of the knives. "Sorry that I couldn't deliver them, Phoebe. We were quite busy recently." The tnedrils of magic that were clinging to Elizabeth's fade away into nothing without something to feed on.
Elizabeth gives Ashform one more frowning glare, but then she is out. For better or for worse, she is at the mercy of those around her. Her last conscious thought is a mental chuckle at the bitter irony of being in this sort of situation again.
Phoebe is still focused on Elizabeth, slowly letting off the pressure once the skunk passes out, "Got anything to bind her? Gag her? Don't know if you can trust the local guards with her." She suddenly sighs, glancing at Cavro, "I... I thought I kill... or... I don't know. I didn't mean to... I... I'm sorry."
Melia gives Phoebe a shrugging smile: "You may have saved us from something a whole lot worse. Thank you."
Ashform takes a few moments to get what Phoebe is saying, shaking it's head as it 'steps' out of the forge again, pausing to reform each leg. On leaving the hot forge, the charcoal antlers slowly extinguish, returning to their original more subtle glow over the next few minutes. "Forgiven... You opened my eyes. I mean, you did it very bluntly, but that worked out fine, I think."
Phoebe stands back up, stepping back from Elizabeth's form and glancing away awkwardly, "Blunt is... yeah, that's me. This is the skunk that was hunting you, Melia? Common power?"
Ashform: "Mother."
Melia nods with a soft sigh, glancing from Elizabeth to Phoebe: "Yes. She tried to... drain me, and was trying to do it to..." She tilts her head towards Ashform: "I do not think we can trust her." She blinks and pauses again at the other elemental's words: "...mother?"
Ashform shrugs. "Cavro's memories... Are very fond of his parents. I am not fond of our mother. What else would she be, though?" It sighs out a puff of smoke, glaring down at Elizabeth. "Could the guards arrest her for what she's tried? Aren't you close with one of them, Melia?"
Phoebe: "Seems like attempted murder to me. I'll vouch for it too, if you need me." She crosses her arms. "No clue what the guard would do about all this. There's that one trying to... I dunno, 'fix' this whole mess, right?"
Melia nods: "Nesseth. But I think he's out of town right now. Regardless..." She shakes her head, then vanishes in a puff of green magic, swirling out of the door.
Ashform watches Melia vanish, looking toward Phoebe. It holds for a few seconds before speaking. "I would have killed her. If you didn't come... If she didn't give up first. Would have dragged her into the heart of the forge. Thank you for showing up."
Phoebe is slightly startled by Melia's disappearance, but has seen it before, so it's not that weird, she guesses. She bows her head to Cavro, "I didn't know what was happening, but heard enough. I'd have killed her too, if I'd been armed. Guess I'll have to be careful with those knives, hm? I've done a lot of bad things in my short time, but never killed before."
Melia walks back in, her arms full of vines of varying sizes and gnarliness: "Let's tie her up before anything else happens."
Ashform is about to reassure Phoebe before the other elemental reappears. It looks to Melia and her vines, nodding. "A good idea. Hopefully she can't destroy them with her magic. That said... We wont keep her here after tying her. She doesn't need another chance to take her magic back."
Melia shakes her head: "Definitely not. Take her to the Guard I think... they'll at least hold her until... well, until something is decided I guess." She shrugs with a soft sigh: "It didn't have to come to this..."
Phoebe takes some of the vines from Melia, testing their strength and surprised by the suppleness of the seemingly fresh vegetation. She struggles to lift Elizabeth up and into a seated position and begins tying her up with an unnerving degree of knowledge of knots and ropes. "Some folks just aren't content with what they're given." There's probably some irony of that coming from a repeat offender thief, but Phoebe's not exactly had a good upbringing. Or any upbringing.
Ashform doesn't dare touch the vines for more than a few seconds, knowing that it's magic doesn't mesh well with Melia's as the plants start to shrivel from the heat in it's grasp. "Agreed..."
Melia nods at Ashform with a smile, before grabbing some of the vines and half-tying them, half-willing-them-to-tie-themselves, making Elizabeth a neat little package for Guard to pick up. She sighs as she gets back up: "I guess we now inform the Guard and... well, I don't know what they'll do."
Phoebe nods, finishing her work as the rest of the vines do their own thing at Melia's command. "Hell if I know. But if I see her free again, next time, I won't be unarmed, and I'll introduce her to your craftsmanship firsthand, Cavro."
Ashform nods, taking a few steps back, knowing that Melia is uncomfortable so close to it. "Hopefully something. We'll have to hope she has less influence than us, in any case." The ashform oh's at Phoebe's words, turning back to a shelf and drawing two sheathed knives from their outbox. It pauses as it turns toward Phoebe. "Cavro is not my name... And you can have these free for helping us. As long as you don't use them right now."
Phoebe carefully takes the knives from the box, hefting them each respectfully. "You're the boss, C-err... so what do I call you, then?"
Melia takes a step back from the situation, nodding: "Your help was invaluable and well-timed." She looks down at the skunk, sighing.
Ashform shrugs. "I am nameless for now, I guess." It nods in affirmation to Phoebe, the smile it wears shedding some ashes. "I hope you enjoy those." The ashform looks down to Elizabeth, sighing as well.
Phoebe carefully places the knives into her belt, making note to find some high quality sheaths. "Folks like us have to stick together."
Ashform: "Like us..."
Melia smiles lopsidedly: "I would prefer if everyone stuck together, but..." She nods at Elizabeth's unconscious form: "...I will go find a Guard to help us, get the word out." She starts stepping out, giving Ashform a smile as she walks past him.
Ashform smiles back at Melia before moving to sit on the mantle of the forge. "I will gladly help you any way I can, Phoebe. It's the least I can do."
Phoebe smirks at Melia, "I meant more like, we gotta watch out for one another, help each other. What uh, he says. I'll do what I can for both of you, too."
Melia giggles softly despite the relative grimness of the situation: "I think I got you, Phoebe. You are a good friend." With that, she shakes her head and attempts to locate a Guard who's about to have extra on their shift tonight...