A Perplexing Trio

[Tarius]

As the golden knight, the orc, and the child passed through the portal into Camelot, Tarius had a disturbing thought; the three of them were all new primes, and anyone who glimpsed upon them would have only their imaginations to determine their intentions. It would make for an awkward situation if for some reason they were seen as a threat, a situation that Tarius would rather avoid. He had noticed a few mounted people, but they all kept their distance from the group.

Rather than dwell on such negative thoughts, Tarius began to admire the new landscape that had met them. The bleak whiteness of the Nexus had been replaced by blue sky and green grass, and they found themselves travelling a worn down road that seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see.

After a while of travel, they came to a fork in the road. The main path continued on, while something that could barely be called a road veered off to the left towards what looked like a small village. Tarius thought that it might be a good idea to go to it, as it could give the group some valued information as to where exactly they were and what was going on. He said, "Let's visit that town, the people there might be able to tell us about the strange world we have been so nicely 'invited' to." Deimōs just shrugged and said, "Alright," while Nanako said, "I will go wherever you two go." The decision made, they started moving towards the village.

As they neared the village, it became obvious that something was not quite right. No one could be seen from the road into the town, and they found a hanging town sign suspended crookedly by only one of the two chains that were supposed to support it. It read, "Sanctuary -- Safest place around!"

"How safe can a place be if the sign is in this condition," Tarius questioned grimly. Deimōs looked around, a worried expression on his face. "Even for such a small town, it's too quiet. There should be people on the main street... We should go in and investigate," Deimōs suggested. "Agreed, though keep your guard up, we don't know what is going on here. And Nanako, stay in our sight at all times. It may be dangerous in there," Tarius said. Nanako only nodded in response while tightly gripping Deimōs' waist.

Once inside the village, things just went from bad to worse. Wagons and barrels were smashed, leaving only piles of wood. The buildings were in terrible condition with broken down doors and shattered windows, but the condition of the buildings paled in comparison to the blood. There was blood everywhere, and most of it was still wet, yet even more disturbing was the fact that there were no bodies to be seen. All of this had happened recently, and it seemed that whoever had done it was trying to clean up the mess they made.

The travelers silently dismounted and returned their steeds to Omnilium, as it was possible that those responsible for all the bloodshed could still be there. Just as they finished, they heard voices nearing them from around the corner of a building. Deimōs grabbed Nanako and the three ducked into the building as quickly as they could while still remaining silent. As the people passed, the three were able to hear their conversation. 

"Why do the six of us have to stay here and clean up the remnants of these fucking savages? They're not even human! No one gives a damn what happens to them," one voice complained. "Just shut the hell up and do as you're told," the other commanded.

As the voices faded away, the three left the house that had hid them. As soon as they stepped out, a startled shout was heard. There was another man that they hadn't heard, and that man had noticed them. "GUYS! COME QUICK, WE MISSED SOME, AND THIS ONE HAS A CHILD! I NEED HELP," he shouted. 

The chance to silently figure out what happened was gone. The three would have to stand and fight as they quickly became surrounded by six angry men.

[Deimōs]

Deimōs looked around at the men, pulling Nanako close to him. He was silently seething at the act of senseless violence, though the look on his face was as impassive as he could manage. As much as he wanted to lay into the men with magic, he didn't have his staff, not like he could effectively use it and still keep Nanako near to him. He glanced sideways to Tarius, looking for some kind of help. The thought occurred to him that Tarius knew what to do only about as much as he did, which was to say not at all. He knew they likely wouldn't win a fight against six opponents, especially while unarmed and attempting to protect a child, so he attempted at a diplomatic option.

He turned to Tarius, putting on a veneer of uncertainty before speaking.
"Master, them scaring you daughter. Me kill?," he grunted out uncertainly, as though struggling to find the words. Hoping he'd set up a convincing act of being Tarius' dumb orc servant, he could only wait to see if Tarius would get the hint and play along. He figured it would at least hold them off from immediately attacking. Calling Nanako Tarius' daughter would at least tell them that Tarius was human, and the servant act would probably stop them from trying to kill him just yet. He at least figured they wouldn't want to kill the servant of a huge knight in full armor, though the men surrounding them didn't seem the type to actually think about issues they encountered given the slaughter of the seemingly harmless village.

[Nanako Dojima]

Nanako watches as Deimōs goes through with his plan. She knows that Tairus isn't her father, obviously. She is wondering what is wrong with the other humans. They seem aggressive and capable of actually hurting the group. Of course, the men already implied that they did. She isn't prepared to fight. That's what men are for. She looks at Deimōs and quickly turns her head back to Tairus, hoping he is catching onto the plan as well. "Dad, they are scaring me." She says to Tairus, tightening her grip on Deimōs. She isn't lying. Nanako is very nervous and her new friend's courage seems to have rubbed off on her. The group of men start to raise eyebrows as Nanako asks the question. She tries to tear up as much as she can, making whimpering noises to make it all the more convincing.

[Tarius]

They hadn't even been in Camelot for a day and they were already faced with racism. How typical. Tarius wanted nothing more than to stand and fight, but they were cornered and fighting would put Nanako in danger. At first he was confused by Deimōs' slow and dumb sounding speech, but he caught on quick enough to look at him and shout, "Don't you remember what happened last time you spoke without permission?! You're lucky I don't beat you where you stand... And you lot get these weapons out of my daughter's face!" 

The men looked to each other, a combination of fear and confusion in their faces. After a while one timidly spoke out, "You... you managed to enslave this beast? How can we trust you?!" The others re-centered their weapons while another challenged, "Yeah... how do we know he's really your slave?" 

Tarius looked at them and coldly retorted, "Maybe by the fact that all of you are still here breathing. This savage would easily be able to take you all out with, even with your makeshift weapons, but that hasn't happened, has it? I control every action this beast takes, now get these damn weapons out of our faces before I make him take one that none of you will like, you all are scaring my precious daughter!" Tarius hoped that he would be able to play on their fear of Deimōs in order to dissuade them from attacking, and it seemed to be working.

The men lowered their weapons, though still looked at Deimōs with a mix of fear and hate. The man who appeared to be their leader said, "Fine... Come on men, we need to finish up and get out of here. As for you three, get the hell out of this village and don't come back. This is no place for a child." The group around them dispersed and allowed the three to leave the village. None of them spoke until they were safely out of the village.

"It seems that wherever you go you can't escape hate... I apologize for what I had to say, I didn't mean any of it," Tarius said, ashamed at how he had treated Deimōs.

[Deimōs]

Deimōs did his best to look intimidating as Tarius spoke, glad he caught on to the ruse. He crossed his arms over his chest, flexing a little as he leveled a glare at their leader. He rolled his eyes at his own act after they'd turned around, dropping his arms back to his sides and turning to Tarius. He was a little confused by the apology, as he didn't really think it necessary.
"It's alright, though perhaps next time there's talk of domination, it could be in a different setting, perhaps one with a bed" he said with a wink, deflecting the conversation away from the issue of racism. He grinned at the confused look Tarius gave him, chuckling a little bit at his expression. Not dwelling on the remark, he moved the conversation forward to the more pressing business at hand.
"So, what should we do now? We've had such a warm welcome, I worry to think what it might be like further into this 'verse' without some kind of political immunity to the people that inhabit it. Perhaps we should go to a more populated area, do something to build up a better reputation than angry knight, scared child, and dumb orc. Though first I imagine we'll need more to actually protect ourselves if someone were to aggress upon us again," he speculated. "Give me a moment to summon my staff, I'll need it should we actually need to fight," he stated before stepping back a bit and summoning omnilium to his hands again. He focused on a mental image of his staff, sleek, made of gleaming blightsilver, and as long as he was tall. The staff slowly materialized in front of him, and dropped into his hands as it finished forming. He whipped the staff to rest diagonally across his back for a moment. He spun it around his body and twirled once with it, moving to twirl it on the tips of his fingers above head, magic flowing and sparking purple through his hands and staff, glowing bright. The staff dropped back into his hand and he slammed the head of the staff downward into the ground, stopping its momentum and causing a bright purple magic circle to burst to life at its base, the magic he had channeled flaring to life out of it and releasing harmlessly into the surroundings.
He grinned as he looked up to them as the circle dissipated. "Oh, it feels good to have this back!" he exclaimed. "I could cast without it, but it's so limiting to not have something to focus the magic through," he explained, relief at having the staff back evident in his voice. "So, in case we actually have to fight, it'd probably be good to know what each of us is capable of. What is it that both of you can do?"

[Tarius]

Tarius watched intently as Deimōs summoned his staff. He thought it curious that someone as large as Deimōs would be adept in the magical arts; it looked as if Deimōs could just as easily crush someone between his hands. He also noted the strange purple appearance of the magic, wondering where it originated and what Deimōs could do with it. 

"I see you make use of both physical prowess and magic, just as I do," Tarius said as he channeled bright yellow lightning between his hands. He clapped his hands together, watching as the lightning diffused along his armor. Tarius returned his gaze to the other two, saying, "Give me a moment to summon my weapon." He formed the image of the Dragonslayer Spear in his mind, and within a few minutes held the giant golden spear by his side.

Upon seeing the spear, Deimōs grinned and joked, "So... You also like rods?" Tarius glanced at Deimōs, misunderstanding the innuendo, and retorted, "What? No, this is a spear. Anyways, I haven't shown you my other trick." As he said this he twirled his spear around so that the blade stood only inches away from the ground. He chuckled and grinned as he planned his display. He slammed the spear into the ground and used his immense speed to seemingly vanish before the eyes of Nanako and Deimōs. They watched his abandoned spear for a few seconds before he finally asked from behind them, "Why are you two still staring at my spear? I'm right here." He laughed as Deimōs seemed confused by his sudden disappearance. 

Returning to his spear Tarius asked Deimōs, "I noticed that your sparks were purple, what sort of magic have you been trained in?"

[Deimōs]

Deimōs flinched back slightly at the lightning, surprised by its unheralded appearance. Normally he could feel The Aura crackle and bend when magic was about to be used. Perhaps, he theorized, Tarius's magic simply didn't use The Aura, but another source. Perhaps this "Omniverse" he found himself in didn't even have The Aura, but that possibility raised the question of where his magic came from.

Soon enough, though, Tarius was continuing his display of ability, suddenly vanishing from before him.
'Well,' Deimōs thought, 'that wasn't exactly what I expected. Invisibility? Maybe elemental auto-dispersion? Simply teleportation? Maybe he's just incredibly fast, I can't really afford to rule out anything here.'
His musings were interrupted by Tarius' voice behind him, causing him to redirect his attention in its direction. Tarius was simply standing there, so that ruled out invisibility, there wouldn't have been any point in moving if his absence was the point of the display.

Upon hearing Tarius' question, he wondered how to best describe his training. People often didn't take kindly to the statement of 'Oh, I can manipulate and destroy people's minds, snuff out light with ease, and manipulate shadows and darkness as well as imbue them with powerful magic.' Generally that garnered a hostile response, though in this situation, he decided it would likely be best to be bluntly honest from the start.

"Well, I was trained by the Contùrbatiæ," he stated, giving a nebulous explanation at first. "We were a militarized faction of mages in Pavoria. We have a general magical training in a variety of magical arts, but we're known across our home world for our prowess in Pavorian magic. Or rather, infamous for it, I supposed, as we're the only ones that actually practice it. Most places have outlawed its practice under penalty of execution, so not many mages perform it. Essentially, we train in the darkest aspects of mind-magic. Specifically, we learn how to control or strongly affect the minds of others or ourselves with our magic. We can cause panic, turn people against their own, or even, uh, overload or destroy people's minds. We also control shadows and the night, and are trained primarily to fight at close range in the middle of the fight where we can best utilize our powers. The reasons people don't take kindly to our magic are painfully justified, though we don't go around casting whenever we feel like it," he elaborated. He prepared for a negative reaction, though he hoped Tarius wouldn't act out with hostility. Deimōs didn't fancy the idea of a fight with him, especially with the risk of Nanako potentially getting caught in the crossfire.

[Tarius]

Tarius was troubled by Deimōs' description. He didn't think that controlling another man's actions was possible through magic, and if it were, it seemed that only the most wretched people would dare to take on that art. From the way he spoke, Deimōs knew that what he knew was wrong, and he had been nothing but kind since they had met, so why did he still practice such dark magic? 

"You talk as if you don't agree with the methods of your magic, yet you are adept at it, why is that?" he asked Deimōs. "I'm also sure that you could have easily taken over the minds of those angry villagers and make them slaughter each other, but you didn't. That proves that there is good in you. I do not necessarily agree with what you are able to do, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as you use your knowledge for good."

Tarius looked down to Nanako, curious as to what she could do. Both he and Deimōs were skilled fighters, so it would make sense if she had some sort of power too. She had been quiet this whole time just observing the two of them. 

"Well, we know about each others abilities, but what are you able to do Nanako? It seems each of us were brought here with some form of combat knowledge, and it is strange to me that a little girl would also be included."