06-14-2017, 03:37 AM
Quote:The Park => Central Hallway
Eavesdropping was something that was at best frowned upon by most, and Hyrule was no exception. That was why Malon made no secret of that she listened to the conversation between Tearen and the man that her new ally addressed as the "Humble Sage", and treated like a long-time acquaintance or friend. She looked at them both, though neither noticed - or if they did, they didn't care.
There was no doubt left in her mind that Tearen was someone with far more time in this world than her. Years, maybe decades? And the Humble Sage was speaking to him like to a high-standing or important individual, a leader figure. And what did they speak about? The Underverse? A warning? She stood up and followed them while simultaneously attaching the leather bag to her belt. Her curiosity was roused, and she'd learned to trust her instinct with bad feelings. The way that the other man had pronounced "Underverse" sounded like he was speaking of some terrible place, though at face value sounded like a sort of underground cave network. What could be so big that Tearen had taken it upon himself to warn them all about it?
As they entered the hallway and began speaking of other individuals Malon observed from the park area, always staying at least five steps behind them. "Illidan Stormrage"... another name to remember. From the way Tearen's head was turned she presumed it to be the purple-skinned being that was talking to a tall man with an arm made of metal. For a moment he glanced her way, or maybe it was just her imagination? A shudder went through her body. She felt even more out of place than before, realizing that the roster of participants for whatever event she had stumbled into was far more... diverse than she had thought. This place was nothing like Hyrule after all. After her meeting with Anderson and the vampire she had suspected it already, but then she had met the Silverhand bandits which were all humans. And now this? It looked like figures of all kinds of fairy-tales had sprung from their books and were gathering in one place.
Then Tearen changed his appearance completely and Malon nearly stumbled backwards with surprise, before catching herself and returning to the corner where the door between the central hallway and the park linked the two areas together. The dynamics that went on between the contestants, between Tearen and the Sage, between the middle-aged man that she had noted earlier and Tearen who was approaching him, reminded her how little she knew about this world. Her friend seemed to know everyone around here! He had information and even names on a number of the participants it would seem, and the way he confidently approached them all was confirming her belief that he was someone with experience in this world.
You've hit the jackpot, haven't you? Assassin asked smugly. You were approached by the best possible person and they offered you an alliance. And to top it off he's a shapeshifter, it would seem.
A shapeshifter? Could it be that he was a Skinwalker like herself?
That's unlikely. I cannot sense the magic in him that I surrounded myself with when changing my looks. Besides, there's other types of shapeshifters than Skinwalkers. He might've used a catalyst, also. With his back turned to us we couldn't see what he was doing.
You stood right next to him when he did it though. Couldn't you see if he did anything with his hands?
How many times do I need to remind you? I'm not real. I'm just a manifestation of memories of a past incarnation of you. This body you're looking at is just your mind's way of dealing with it. These eyes can't see anything that you can't see with your own pair.
Malon's head was spinning and she had to lean against a wall even though that meant that she could not follow the ongoings for a while. Well yes, Assassin was right, she SHOULD know. But for someone who had only been a simple farmer girl until a handful of weeks back, whose biggest goal was to escape an abusive stable-hand and who barely knew about magic beyond that it existed in the world, two or three days to adjust to the thought that there were multiple Malons, each with their own memories and history, all inside her head, manifesting as illusions around her and influencing her... well, it was a lot. She was trying to deal with it by separating the other Malons from herself by picturing them as their own personalities, but when Assassin-Malon brought up that they were actually one and the same person it reminded her that this view was wrong.
Assassin sighed and vanished, leaving her to her own thoughts for a while as Malon took heavy breaths and pushed the thoughts back into a corner of her mind for now. She could not spend more time thinking about... that subject right now. Other, more important things were going on in the corridor, around Tearen and the other people, and she wanted to know what it was. If she let this opportunity slip by, she had a feeling that she may never have it again.