In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
Boons: - +25% spell speed and range to attack creation spells - Naturally able to ignore 5 points of the enemy’s abilities durability, increasing to 10 points at Grand rank.
Weaknesses: - If an object or structure is magically backed then it will be lowered by a single-tier on a successful clash. - Lose 5 mana per post while in combat on top of their sustain. This effect stops once the player's mana has reached 20% of their max mana. This effect increases to 35% at Senior Rank, then 50% at Grand Rank. (This replaces your normal mana regen and cannot be negated with mana regen perks).
Dive Specific Perks: - +15 Power - Players can create a personal mana zone for their element while in phase - Attack Creation spells gain +10 Power when clashing with another spell
Appearance: The whispering dagger's demon dive, named Ultrin Sargtlin, alters Gawain's form in two ways. The first and arguably most notable change is the fact that he gains a second pair of arms, greatly increasing his martial prowess. The second is that the tips of his hair darken and two large strands of hair stand and curve upwards like a pair of small goat-like horns.
The nameless blade, the whispering dagger. A weapon with quite the story to tell, if those that held it before were to be believed. None know when it was created, none know for whom or by whom it was forged. All of this was quite odd when considering that the first person that found it in recent times was an archaeologist that went through the ruins of some long since destroyed elven stronghold city of Qenya. It was a place that wasn’t all that well known, not to most of the people alive today, even being on the down low with most modern day scholars. But to Gawain, it held some familial relevance due to the fact that, in ages past, one of his ancestors hailed from this city. At the time, the elf and his dwarven wife had been saved when a large white wolf guided them through the forests and away from the war that caused the city to fall.
And while no one really knew what had happened, recent events to do with the demon attacks on Clover led some people to assume that this wasn’t the first time the underworld had tried to take over. But beyond that, he hadn’t been able to find out anything, least of all if things were related. But to go on with the story, after the archaeologist brought the handle with him, he apparently brought it home with him in an attempt at changing his fortune around. For as it were, the man belonged to a noble family that had fallen on hard times, which was exactly why he had brought it to an auctioneer to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. For this man, it could be said that the handle of the dagger had indeed been a lucky find as the relic of ancient times brought up a lot of money. Unfortunately for Gawain however, the auctioneer was not willing to tell him anything more than that, least of all who the man was that had sold the item off.
But the boy understood that much as it was something to do with customer confidentiality. And at the time, it wasn’t all that important, as Gawain just wished to know more about the dagger so that he might be able to figure out what had happened to Taiyo. Had he pushed harder and approached it as a magic knight, he might have been able to get more out of the man, but what happened happened. What he could tell him was that before the handle got to Taiyo, the person that had bought it had died relatively quickly after said purchase. Not a whole lot of details could be given due to confidentially, though Gawain had been able to push a bit harder this time around due to the fact that the man in question was already died. As such, said confidentiality more or less went out of the window, as it wasn’t something a dead person would be able to do a whole lot with.
For where the seller had managed to change his life around, it seemed that the one who had bought the dagger hilt in the auction had his life and that of his entire family fall into disrepair. For what little the man could tell him, it turned out that his relatives had returned to the auction to find the auctioneer and ask him what he knew of the handle, which was exactly nothing. Claiming that the dagger had ‘possessed’ its new owner, the guy had become suspicious, distancing himself from everyone and behaving strangely. Normally being a kind and quiet man, he was no longer anything like the way he had been some weeks before obtaining the relic. In the end, it had only taken a few months before the man had met his end, dying in a dark alley when a bunch of brigands had tried to take his prized bauble from him. After that point, the dagger disappeared for a bit.
How exactly it had fallen into the hands of Taiyo after that point was not something Gawain knew, all he knew was what some of his squad members had said. They said that he had been behaving strangely, finding it easier to take lives while in the field as well as growing more and more distant from those around him. And the story beyond that point in time was all too well known to the ashen-haired youth, as he had lived through a good portion of it. Taiyo had gone after the master vampire of Kiten, found himself beaten and ensnared before becoming the target of a whole slew of rituals and surgical undertakings. Passing from Taiyo to the vampire lord Aronil, he too had begun craving odd things, even gaining the determination to stop hiding in the shadows, as he had done for centuries, to act in the light and claim the things he wished to have for himself. But in the end, he too met his end at the hands of Gawain, the new owner of the blade.
To say that the blade had quite a few deaths attributed to it was an undeniable fact, it was simply too much for anyone to consider as mere coincidence. There was something about the weapon, something that went back all the way to the moment it was crafted that had something to do with it, it had to be. Because when Gawain held the blade the first time, he could hear faint whispers that were outright impossible to decipher, though they were unmistakably there. Before that point in time, he never heard things as his senses worked incredibly well, and his mental state was ridiculously controlled when going off of his upbringing. Most people that had gone through the same things he had gone through more than likely would have had a myriad of mental issues working against them, but Gawain maintained a very solid level of composure.
But curious as he was, especially after he had learned more about how the weapon functioned and how incredibly useful and powerful it had proven to be, he wished to learn more about why the weapon had this shady past clinging to it. He needed to know why the weapon somehow managed to whisper to him. Because when Taiyo was still alive, the whispers were incredibly faint, which was likely why the vampire Aronil had been incapable of using it himself. At least not to its fullest potential, which explained why his grand design might have flopped the way it did in such a wondrous fashion. But it wasn’t until what remained of Taiyo died at the edge of the dagger that the whispers became more coherent. When he held the handle, especially when the blade was activated, he could hear a voice that spoke to him as if he knew him. And if there was something the boy refused to trust, it was a disembodied voice speaking to him as if he were an old friend.
So for a long time, he kept the handle in his pocket, only using the blade when he needed to as he did not really care any other forms of weaponry. And whenever he did, the voice was there. Quite recently, Gawain had been on a mission to take care of an issue in the forest above Hage, only to find out that the problem was being caused by werewolves. When Gawain used the blade to defend himself against the claws of the abomination, all it did was tell him to slice it up, to get in close and take off its head. And in the end, he did. He took the werewolf’s head clean off with a single strike, which seemed to sit rather well with the blade. Because ever since that time, the voice had been getting louder, likely believing that Gawain had decided to listen to its advice. The fact of the matter being that the wolfman had to die to secure the balance of the forest, though that didn’t seem to matter.
From that point on, the voice came to him whenever he as much as grazed against the handle, asking him to be used to fight, to kill. And as of quite recently, a figure even came to him in his dreams. While it wasn’t something with a definitive shape, Gawain recognized it as the voice of the dagger. Often coming to him after he had a rough day, such as when he had tried to talk to the members of the Silver Eagles in order to have everyone do better and try harder as a team, only to be told off by the only person that bothered to come, Freyr. When he devalued everything Gawain took great pride in down to nothing more than an ego trip, the voice came to him in the night, telling him that arranging an accident on a mission to get rid of the guy would be easy enough for someone like Gawain. He told him that he was strong, far stronger than the vast majority of the magic knights in the country, and possessed the potential of becoming the strongest of all.
Forcibly waking himself up and going for a walk, he ended up walking all the way up to the lake near the town of Silva where he found himself by the water, looking across the lake underneath the light of the moon. He remembered how silent it had been that time, and how easy it had been for him to access his deeper thoughts for once. He realized that he could have thrown the dagger into the water, tossing it as far into the lake as his hands could fling it, which was honestly incredibly far, and he would likely never have to see it again. But that was when he remembered that, when the voice spoke to him in his sleep, he didn’t even have the dagger on his person. This had made him wonder if maybe he had been cursed, and that the residual presence within the dagger had latched onto him. Though this was nothing more than a gut feeling at this point, it prompted him to start looking into people that might be able to shed light upon it.
At this point in time however, he was quite well aware of the fact that anything that had something to do with potential demonic presences was likely going to end up being confiscated or disposed off entirely, as he had come to know that the church supposedly had a massive vault where items such as these disappeared to. Never to be seen again. But as it were, the amount of training he had been doing to unlock the potential of this weapon was perhaps greater than the misfortune posed by the dagger speaking to him at inopportune moments in time. Just as he had done back on Skjaergard, the dagger had once again become his weapon of choice, one that was easy to fight with, and easier to kill with. But the abilities of the dagger that he still had not tapped into much yet were starting to reveal themselves as time went on.
Because aside from the whispers, the dagger possessed other abilities of the magical type. It was something that would come to the surface once he trained more, that much was for certain. The issue being that the more he dug into the weapon, the more he might end up getting besieged by the voices. Which was what pushed him to the first of his two stops, a location in Kiten. A building where someone hailing from a notable family that originally came from the land of the rising sun practiced something called ‘meditation’. It was not a concept he was familiar with, as it was the antithesis to what he was. He was mobility, he was action, he was forward motion, he wasn’t the kind that would sit down quietly and peaceful to just mull things over before clearing his head and moving forward with a clear mind.
It simply did not work like that for him, and it never had. But given how this whole thing worked, and how potentially demonic activity was in on things, there was no way for him to just pretend like he could go on as he always had. No, for this all to work, he would need to try and open himself up to something else, or he would end up far worse off than he had been before he had found the dagger. That much at least, he knew for certain. Because something about it had changed since he had taken it from Taiyo, or rather from the vampire that had taken it first. It was growing restless and more out of control. So without really thinking too much about it, Gawain signed up for a one on one lesson in meditation. Explaining the issue he was dealing with to some degree, the man looked at him funny while clearly weighing his options.
On the one hand, you had the fact that Gawain had become a fairly well known name throughout the kingdom as a knight of some renown. On the other hand, the man was clearly not that hyped on the idea of bringing ghosts into his place of business as he seemed to be under the impression that Gawain was being haunted by something. As luck would have it, the former magic knight was not going to turn him away, instead being one who praised honor above self-preservation, a trait which the young eagle treasured quite a bit. So as the two sat down, the boy was to make an attempt at clearing his mind. To push all thought from his mind and just focus on his breathing. Apparently being something a lot of people learned to do in the land of the rising sun, the fact that the inhabitants of Clover were so unfamiliar with this concept had initially been strange to the man.
But as Gawain tried to clear his mind, he soon learned that this was easier said than done. Realizing the difficulty the boy was having, the man told him to try and take it a step back by practicing something called ‘mindfulness’. He told Gawain to keep his eyes closed, his mind empty, but just focus on waving his hands around in a repeated pattern. That way, if he could just keep his mind focused on the movement of his arms, he would be mindful of himself and his actions, which was a stepping stone leading towards meditation as a whole. So while this process still took hours, took a lot of weaving about of his arms and a lot of frustrated sighs, he eventually managed to push out most thought from his mind and keep himself grounded. This was clearly just the start of it though, as now that he was capable of getting this far, it was time to bring the dagger into it and see how that would go.
Reaching into his pocket and taking out the handle, he kept his mind clear as much as he could, though the voices were quickly coming into his head now. Far more quickly than they usually would, as the regular blockades had been stripped away, allowing for a one way street at this point. And while he had hoped that one way street would be from him to it, it turned out to be the exact opposite of that. Trying to sift through the whispers that told him to get out there and get stronger, to beat his competition and rivals and claim the things he wanted through force, he began seeing images. He was saw appeared as though he was there, looking through someone else’s eyes as they were hammering away at a piece of hot steel over an anvil. Beating it again and again, trying to get the weapon to take shape before cooling it and hammering it yet again.
He didn’t recognize the surroundings, nor could he, as it was a place he had never seen before. More than that, the way the place looked, he was rather confident that such a place had existed quite a long time ago. They didn’t seem to have a lot of the advancements they had in Clover, so it was either in a far more poor region than even the forsaken realm, or this vision was one from a distant past. Unfortunately, all he could see was the same thing the owner of the eyes he was looking through saw, and they seemed to be singularly focused on their blacksmithing work. The hands he was looking at seemed rather raw, singed and were almost more calloused than they showed any skin, which just went to show the levels this person had been going to in order to perfect their craft. This much was quite admirable.
With every few strikes, the hammer he used to iron out the impurities glowed with a sharp blue light, seemingly infusing the steel with mana as the final strike hit into it right before he quenched the blade in water and went back to re-heating the metal. Even as Gawain looked through the eyes of this individual, it was as if he could hear thoughts that weren’t his own, pushing himself to create the finest blade anyone had ever seen, even if it killed him. And just like that, the vision faded to black. Returning to the present, the boy looked around to see that the man teaching him how to meditate was keeping a close eye on him. Asking him whether or not he had been able to meditate properly this time as it seemed as though he had left his body for a while, the ashen-haired mage did not really know what to say to the man, as any detail he shared might be one too many.
Gawain did not wish to run the risk of the man calling someone to look into Gawain and potentially strip him of his dagger after all. But from what he could tell, the guy did not seem to be all that afraid of there being a potential spirit or ghost or demon inside of the boy, as long as he could contain it. Though it was through that openness the man showed the boy that he in turn revealed the handle of the dagger, after a sincerely long period of mulling it over. Explaining that he had wanted to explore the possibilities of tapping into the weapon to see if he could come into contact with the spirit that inhabited it, the man took a few steps back after spotting the thing. As it turned out, the man was rather well versed when it came to reading mana, being leagues beyond what Gawain himself was capable of as he knew quite well that this was one of his weaker areas where expertise was lacking.
Introducing himself for the first time as Yunji, the man claimed that during his time as a magic knight, he had seen a lot of bad things. He had seen the war with the Diamond kingdom, he had been around for the attacks caused by demons on locations throughout Clover and had only just retired when the archdemons made their move in the wake of all of that misery. Yunji made it quite clear that he had seen demons, and he fought some lesser demons as well, and that the vibe he was getting off of this dagger did not come from any kind of spirit, but from a denizen of the underworld. But if that were to be true, Gawain didn’t understand why he was seeing visions of someone that seemed human enough, hammering away at an anvil. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him, so the point didn’t quite hit home yet.
But he had faced a demon before, one calling itself a demon prince. Not really being into royalty that much, he figured that must have meant something in the underworld as he commanded a few underlings. But as fate would have it, Gawain ended up blowing him away with a single spell, and rather effortlessly at that. Because of that, demons never really scared him a whole lot, at least nowhere near as much as they perhaps should, given how the majority of them were evil incarnate. The more the two spoke about the matter, the more concepts like the Church were being brought to the table, though Gawain would not hear of it. He knew that the Church was not the kind of organization that really cared a whole lot for anything outside of their own, so if they saw a magic knight with a demon dagger, chances were that they’d end up pulling out all the stops just to take it from him and lock it up in a vault. And that was no bueno.
Making it clear that he was under no condition going to meet up with the Church to have a talk, as he did not trust them to make a decision that worked for him, Yunji thought deeply. It was clear that there was something that he was not telling him, that he knew something that could potentially help. What his reasons were for keeping it to himself however, he did not know. But just like that, the man told Gawain that the best thing he could do now was to return home and continue with his meditation practice. If he could learn how to better quiet his mind during meditation, he might also be able to apply said practice to quieting the whispering from the dagger. Maybe it would never go away completely, but he could at the very least learn how to weaken its volume and influence as much as possible.
Strangely enough, Yunji also asked Gawain where he lived. Though an odd question at first, Gawain let it be known that he spent a lot of time within the Silver Eagles headquarters, but that his home was near lake Sivert. Seemingly knowing all that he needed to know, the man bid him farewell after once again expressing the belief that the boy should rid himself of the dagger once and for all. Disregarding the warnings yet again, the boy did what he believed to be the right thing for now and headed home. He had been doing a lot of missions lately, raking in a lot of stars for his squad and outright doing his best to make the country better for everyone, so he had earned some time on the farm. So as he left the town behind and ventured back to the lakeside property, he made a quick detour through the foothills, stopping by the place from which he had reclaimed the dagger.
Walking past the filled up sinkholes that had formed when the underground laboratory crumbled and caved in on itself, there was no way for anyone to ever get down there again, not unless they brought in an entire digging crew that was willing to work for a month or two straight. Even though the outside world would never know what happened here, he for one had lived through all of the horrors, through having to kill what remained of the magic knight Taiyo. And now the curse he bore was his, or maybe it had been meant to be Gawain’s from the start and the Vermillion had only been an intermediary. Whatever the case, he felt a strange bond to it. By the time he returned to his home, the boy did some helping around the farm after letting everyone know that he was back for a bit. Having a shared dinner with the workers and the majordomo, he eventually retreated to his quarters.
There, he tried meditating on the dagger again, trying to figure out if there was anything else that he could learn through it. Knowing how to get into it a bit after the last session he had done with Yunji, things went a little bit different this time. At first, he was again seeing images through the eyes of another. But unlike last time, he did not see a peaceful city where a man just worked the forge to try and create a weapon. No, instead of seeing the blacksmithing work going down, he saw a city on fire. Warriors fighting in the street wearing ornate armors and beautifully crafted swords. Spells being flung from atop walls and towers, as well as a large amount of fleshy dark wings blotting out the sun. Demons. This city, wherever it was or had been, it was being besieged by demons. The warriors, pointy ears and all showing them to be elven pure bloods, were being killed by hulking monstrosities and capable demonic fighters.
With explosions and cries of battle resounding throughout, he heard one of the warriors shouting “For Qeny-“ right before his guts came spilling out as a claw lacerated his belly and tore it open. Just like that, he saw how the person who’s eyes he looked through was fending off a demon with his forge hammer and a weapon had partially completed. Knocking it down and crushing its skull with a hammer, a dark figure appeared before him. Though he could not experience anything through someone else, Gawain could see how this individual was far different from the other demons around here. He was far different from the demonic prince he had slain, though the man carried himself with a similar gravitas. After a moment of speaking to the blacksmith using words he could not make out perfectly, there was one sentence he heard quite well, likely having made some impact on the blacksmith.
He was asked to join him as one of his warriors, having seen his skill as a blacksmith and a fighter. He was promised the chance to excel and keep exceeding beyond his limitations, and to prove to everyone that he was superior. Extending his hand to him, after a moment of pondering, the blacksmith took the demon’s hand, causing blackened waves of mana to pour from their gripped hands and move up his body. But just like it happened in his vision, so did Gawain feel a strange sensation in his arm. Snapping out of his meditation, he watched as black mana came up his arm, leaving strange markings in its wake as it continued to move upwards. In complete and utter shock at the sight of it, he let go of the dagger, though the mana continued to rise up further and further until it had almost reached his shoulder.
Putting his other hand on his shoulder and using his own large quantities of mana in an attempt at pushing against it and forcing it out, Gawain managed to halt the spread of the darkness as it began to gradually recede. Pushing back even harder, the marking on his arm began to fade as even the slightest tingle faded away along with the foreign mana. Sitting on the ground, completely dumbfounded as to what had just happened and breathing heavily, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, the boy was left entirely clueless. Hearing whispers was one thing. Allowing himself to see fragments of memories was another. But having a foreign source of mana invading his body felt a lot more like the kind of corrupting influence Yunji was afraid of. And quite frankly, Gawain had no idea what all of this meant, and what might happen to him if he let his guard down.
That night, for reasons that should have been obvious, Gawain did not get a whole lot of sleep. Wondering what might have happened if he hadn’t forced the mana to recede but had let it go, wandering if maybe this night would bring further trouble once he fell asleep. All these thoughts about possibilities and potential outcomes were keeping him awake until he fell asleep shortly before the sun came up. Something about having made it through the night gave him the confidence to fall asleep, even though his rest would be relatively short lived. He was a magic knight after all, so he was not often afforded the luxury of sleeping in. Sleeping in until halfway morning, the boy was awakened by a knock at the door. It was his majordomo, having received a letter that was intended for the boy’s eyes only. Taking it in and opening the envelope, he began reading the odd letter that didn’t carry the name of a sender.
From reading it, it seemed as though whoever sent it was aware of his problem with potential underworld activity after having been spoken to be a contact. Claiming that dabbling in such things could be incredibly dangerous for himself and everyone around him, which was something he had started to understand after last night’s affair, it was said that ‘they’ might be able to help him out. Telling him to come to a meeting spot of their choosing if he wanted to receive aid, Gawain was skittish at first. He did not want to run the risk of this being some kind of Church setup, risking capture and having his weapon taken from him, thus robbing him of his adventure. On the other hand, if the Church was involved and they wanted to take his dagger from him that badly, they would more than likely have sent a bunch of spears to his location, rather than sending him a letter to request his attendance at some place or another.
Continuing to ponder on the matter for a good while longer, the fact that something had crept into him from the dagger pushed him to throw caution to the wind. He did not want to risk having his body invaded by something against his will again, so he needed to learn more about this weapon and about where it had come from. Because when dealing with something that would not and could not respond to force, the only power one had was in knowledge. And if this individual, or these individuals had said knowledge that could potentially be of use to him in this whole undertaking, then he owed it to himself to find out. One odd thing however was that since he had been feeling the odd mana in his own body and experienced some of these strange visions, the whispers themselves had receded a bit, becoming far softer and at times hardly being noticeable at all.
Having made his way back over to Kiten as the letter requested, he did not venture into town fully certain of things playing out well. Told to meet in the foothills, their point of meeting was relatively close to where he had killed the vampire lord, destroyed his base of operations and put an end to what remained of Taiyo Vermillion. One could say that it was a place that drew quite a bit of darkness to it, since all it had exuded for years was just that: Darkness. Now that it was no longer that, Gawain had hoped that the place could finally heal and be reclaimed by nature fully. For now though, the boy did not have the luxury to concern himself with the natural world, as he had to keep his wits about him while traveling through the foothills. They were a good deal removed from Kiten, small bits of forest here and there.
Perfect spots for ambushes, in case the people that had sent him that letter were in fact trying to take the weapon from him by force. But if push came to shove, they would soon find out that Gawain could shove quite well for someone his height. He would kill anybody that would come at him with the intent to bring him down, those hailing from the Church even more so. But as it turned out, no such thing as an ambush or a setup seemed to be afoot. Instead, it appeared as though he was the first to arrive. While he was no stranger to being the first on the scene, maybe him expecting the worst had been the sole reason as to why it came as a surprise this time. It didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be a whole lot longer before they reached the agreed upon time and the individual that had sent him the letter would arrive.
It just meant that he would need to be patient for a little bit longer. But out here in the foothills, most people never bothered showing up. There was nothing out here aside from wolves and a stray bear, but nothing of value unless on collected rocks and nice leaves.
Post by Mior Delothosin on May 15, 2024 17:46:58 GMT -5
It had been in the early hours of the morning that she had been awakened, it wasn't something that ordinarily happened unless it was something of importance. One of her personal servants entered silently and held out a black tray with a letter on top of it, moving her hand she took the letter and broke the wax seal reading what was within it "What amatures." she said her voice showing clear irritation "They are like god damn children playing with things they don't understand." her voice was sharp, she hated when people tried to mess with things that were daemon touched or the occult "Ask my sister to have a portal open to Kiten in thirty minutes." she wasn't about to let this stand, anything to do with daemons were dangerous especially if handled by a person who had no clue on what they were doing.
She moved to get washed and dressed quickly with the help of her maids before leaving her room to find Elenor in the middle of the grand hall of their home within their enclave. "Good morning sister." Elenor said calmly "Well it would be a good morning if I wasn't woken up over something like a daemonic relic." she said her tone was softer but still held a hint of irritation to her tone. "It is something that is going to happen sister you know this." she said her tone remaining calm "Doesn't mean I have to like it." the other woman stated making Elenor nod. "Do you know where in Kiten you would like to go?" she asked wanting to make sure she was at the place. "The foothills." she said calmly "And your escort?" she would ask knowing that her sister couldn't leave without one.
"I apologise for my tardiness." A young man with black hair, blue eyes and olive complexion moved up bowing. "You are fine, now come along." Mior stated watching as Elenor opened the portal "Please be safe." she said watching as the pair walked through the portal. Appearing in a little ways away from Gawain "I believe you are the one I am here to see." She stood at five foot five inches tall. She seemed to be quite lethe wearing a black and red gothic dress, on her right side was an ornate rapier, her long white hair tied back though seemed to almost be wearing a partial black crown with roses at the side, her eyes glowing an eerie red. "Now, please hand me that piece of daemonic equipment you have so I might inspect it." she moved her hand out expecting him to hand it to her without question. It was clear she wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible.
Watching as a portal just popped up out of nowhere in the middle of the clearing, Gawain took a few steps back. While he wouldn’t show it in terms of body language, he was wholly prepared for a bunch of church spears to come popping out and force him to hand over his relic. If that were to be the case, he wouldn’t have hesitated to jump right through the portal and take down as many people as he could after causing as much wanton destruction as possible. Because in his eyes, the church very much deserved a proper beating. But when a woman stepped out dressed in black and red finery, it became quite clear to him that there was no such foulness intended here. Whoever this odd appearance was, it made sense to him that they likely meant well, and knew some of what they claimed to be able to help with.
Not addressing him by name, just stating that they had come here to meet up with him, they did not really skip a beat in asking him to see the relic. For obvious reasons, this did not trigger him into just handing over. In fact, he was hesitant, because he didn’t know if anyone was going to end up taking it with them through the portal or if they might otherwise try to damage it. That said though, it was a handle of a broken weapon, so there was arguably not a whole lot left for someone to break. Whatever the case though, as much as he wasn’t trustful of the situation, he was in need of people helping him out with this thing as he could not just get through it all on his own anymore. Walking over to the woman and placing the relic in her hand, he took a step back as he waited for what she might do with it. Surely she couldn’t get much of a fix from it just by holding it and looking it over.
Then again, he was hardly an expert when it came to these kinds of things.
“I found this thing near here, though it originally belonged to someone else. The original owner was a Vermillion, but they died. When I took this thing into my care, I began hearing voices, but I don’t feel like they’re specifically aimed at me.”
It was true, it felt as though many of the statements the voice made were not aimed at him specifically, they just became more prominent whenever he felt wronged or neglected. But the voice had never called him by name, it just adjusted to these poor situations and said the words he didn’t want to hear most of the time. Whether that information was in any way going to be valuable for the woman or not remained to be seen, but he figured not sharing it wouldn’t help anyone either.
Post by Mior Delothosin on May 16, 2024 17:45:40 GMT -5
The woman would watch him as she exited the portal, she made no movement towards him. Given what he was holding he likely thought she was a member of the church and at one point that may have been possible but she was merely a civilian. After requesting the dagger she said nothing more, she expected him to be hesitant it was a powerful item and she was a stranger to him. The man who exited the portal with her remained at a respectful distance behind her. She had made her request and she wouldn't issue it a second time, if he had no intention of giving it to her she would just return home and let him fumble in the dark for a few days before the church found out. Eventually, however, he moved towards her with the dagger and moved to give it to her but her escort got in the way accepting it on her behalf and handing it to her.
"Princess." he muttered holding it out his tone respectful and completely obedient to the woman. She moved her hand out which looked to be covered in a black glove that almost looked like claws. As she brought it up to her eyes she took in every detail, she heard the whispers but they didn't seem to phase her at all. "You have a very strong bond with this blade, ordinarily that would be a good thing but that makes this blade a little more dangerous." she commented looking over it still. "I have heard of the idiocy that was young lord Vermilion and such a fate couldn't have befallen a worse person even if the spirits had planned it." she wasn't the type to sugarcoat things she meant every word she said.
She brought the dagger down and looked at the young man in front of her "From the letter I received not so long ago, you have requested aid and so I will be the one that will help you navigate this relic safely..." she began showing she was willing to help him get to the hidden strength he couldn't reach by himself. "I am honestly surprised you managed to get this far without it sending you insane, corrupting you or making you kill someone so on that you have my praise." she said her tone calm and sharp "That being said, if you wish my aid you must never speak of what happened here or who helped you. It's just easier for both sides you understand." she commented hoping he understood the implications of being found with such a blade on his person in this kingdom. "If you agree, then I can introduce myself and I can help you further but that is entirely on you." she said showing if he didn't agree she'd just walk away.
Not really getting why someone was taking the handle from him before handing it over to the person Gawain had initially intended to give it to, he wondered if it was a thing about distrust or maybe a status thing where he was not worthy of handing things to someone directly. Regardless, it was clear that there was some kind of nobility thing going on here when the word “princess” was being used. Wondering who these people were, the fact that they were nobility of a degree that denoted the use of such terms as princesses and princes, they must have been quite something. This made him wonder why they were so eager to help someone like him out, who was effectively a nobody in the noble scene, being nothing more than an up and coming magic knight that had been stopping at next to nothing when it came to getting more powerful.
When the woman began looking over the ornate hilt, it made him wonder what it was that she was looking for, or what exactly she was seeing as there was clearly something there. Something he himself had been failing to pick up on, apparently. Still finding it odd that there were three of them here, with one of them seemingly just behaving like a servant, the woman began speaking to him about how the dagger had become bonded to Gawain quite a bit. Not skipping a beat in claiming how this could pose rather problematic, the ‘idiocy’ of Taiyo was also brought up. At this point, Gawain still had the body stashed away at a local morgue so the body could be embalmed and prepared for the journey to the Vermillion estate. Given the state the body had been in, he could only hope that they could make it somewhat presentable… or recognizable.
But that wasn’t something to really be concerned about. He had done his part in locating the body, defeating those that had brought harm to it, and nearly lost his own life in the process getting buried under various tons of rubble and earth. Not quite sure what the woman meant when she brought up how his fate could not have befallen a worse person, he wondered if maybe he should ask. Then again, he had never met the man, and knowing what had happened to him or why would not really change a whole lot about his own situation. He was dead after all, nothing to be done about that, and no real lessons to be learned from it aside from not dying the way he had. It wasn’t until the moment when he got praised for not losing his mind or killing anyone over what the dagger whispered to him that it made him wonder. What if maybe Taiyo had done something bad due to the influence of the dagger?
When it came to Gawain, he had seen his fair share of death, misery and sorrow at an early age. With his father and grandparents dying during a Skjaergardian raid, his mother and him being taken off of the mainland and to the isles with the survivors to live and work as slaves. Most of the people he knew dying due to the harsh living conditions, his mother dying to an infected wound from a swamp creature. The sheer amount of people he had been forced to kill with a rusty knife and hatchet just so his master would afford him rest and mostly unspoiled food. All in all, his mind was a lot stronger than that of most, or he would not have been able to get through all that he had done and still come out as a mostly functional magic knight aiming to make this country better through hard work and determination. The way he saw it, no talking dagger, ghost or demon was going to change him or influence him into doing anything he did not want to do. Though the question remained.
“I appreciate the kind words, though I have to ask. What happened to Taiyo that makes this handle into such a dangerous relic? Because I get the fact that it speaking in obnoxious riddles and unsettling peptalks can be considered annoying at times, especially at night when you’re trying to sleep, but what about it made things this bad for the guy?”
It was an earnest question, as he felt like he should be in the know about the answer. If she knew something about Taiyo and what had happened to him leading up to the borderline suicidal mission that had cost him his life, he believed that he should know about it. There was a lesson to be pulled from death after all. For when someone made a mistake, or a series of mistakes, those that knew of them could strive not to repeat those mistakes. At least that was his reasoning for asking. As for the conditions that came with him getting the help of these strange nobles, that he did not need to think about for all that long. Quite frankly, he didn’t care either way. They seemed to not be diabolical monsters in disguise, they seemed to want to help him, but they wanted to do so by being able to remain in the shadows. While he wasn’t sure if he could respect that decision, he could at the very least agree to it.
“As for your conditions, I can agree to that. I don’t really mind knowing who helped me, and I don’t mind if other people know who helped me, so if you’d prefer I keep all of these things to myself, you can even go as far as keeping your name to yourself in return. The less I know, the more difficult it’ll be to spoil your secrecy. I just want to know how this thing works and how I can make it work for me, that is all.”
Being as honest as could be, he spoke true about how they could keep their names to themselves if they didn’t outright trust him. And even if they did trust him, if they believed it best to keep themselves as hidden as possible, he would not urge them into speaking their names. The one and only thing he wanted was for him to take his victory in making this dagger work for him as a part of his arsenal. He wanted to know how this thing could make his job easier, and to see if maybe he could use it to get that much closer to his goal of becoming the strongest.
Post by Mior Delothosin on May 26, 2024 15:07:04 GMT -5
Mior watched the white-haired youth as she took the relic from her servant, she understood it wouldn't be something that he would understand but her family was very particular about how things were done, but she wasn't about to explain this to someone who didn't need to know such information. She continued looking over the blade carefully as if she were studying unseen details within its design. Her eyes raised above the blade and looked at the relic's owner as he spoke to her, he was wishing for information on the previous owner and she saw no reason as to why he shouldn't know. "Taiyo Vermilion was seen as quite the laughing stock within the noble circles as his then-girlfriend walked around as if leading him by the nose. She had said many times that she had a Vermilion pet." she informed him some of the backstory.
"He took part in a lottery of a noble family that had gone into sharp decline financially in recent years and won one of two relics they were auctioning. Amaya Ravencrest won the staff and he won this." she said activating the dagger and watching as it floated above her hand the blade fully active and able to be seen. "It is said that shortly after obtaining this dagger the former owner's fortune turned around for the better and Taiyo Vermilion lost his mind." she said thoughtfully "As rumours go when Amaya Ravencrest wished to break up with him she marched into the Vermilion estate and right into his office and he allowed her to do it with no backlash whatsoever." she said watching him through the openings of the moving aura blade. "It was then that he found out he wasn't truly the heir to the Vermilion family but just standing in for his wayward sister." she continued.
"He believed that it was his birthright being a male of the family, but that means nothing in some families as you likely know. Well, continuing with the rumours he challenged his father to a duel where he promptly decapitated the man while smirking, he threatened his own mother twice and de-tongued a maid to give a warning to others." she said as she moved to touch the blade once more with her hand "It quickly got out and were the Vermilion didn't fall they did take a hefty dent to their reputation while Taiyo Vermilion himself was disowned." she explained, "It's not known what happened after that but it seems he ended up dead, so he didn't live up to the dagger's expectations for its owner it seems." she finished deactivating the blade. "Is that what you truly think?" she shook her head.
"My earlier words about us keeping everything done here private is for a reason." she said hovering the deactivated blade above her hand "This is a daemonic relic and as with their spiritual counterparts they are stronger than the average relic but daemonic relics as you can imagine are a little more taboo." she stated looking at him "So, you really don't want the church to know you are holding it or there is going to be all sorts of issues coming your way and not just from this dagger." she said her tone serious on the matter. "Now, you are likely wondering what makes daemonic and spiritual relics stronger than the everyday ones and that is a simple question to answer, they have the lingering memories of the first owner and where not even semi-sentient can influence the ones that own them. Admittedly demonic more than spiritual." she explained.
"It would seem that the original owner of this particular relic didn't have a good upbringing and so wanted to prove himself, he didn't allow anyone to stop him from achieving what he wanted or obtaining what he wanted." she said looking as if she was listening to unspoken words. "It seems that althiough you do agree it's not fully given how you are speaking and without that full agreement I can't help you any further as it would be a liability to my family and I do not take risks." she stated handing the dagger back to her servant who moved to offer it back to Gawain. "If at any point you wish to fully agree to my request for complete confidentiality for both our sakes leave a black envelope with a silver and purple seal inside the royal archives and I will find you at the location you have requested." she stated turning and walking away from him "Until then, good luck." it was clear if she didn't trust him completely to keep this secret then she wouldn't be teaching him anything, it truly just was that simple.
Hearing all of the stories that revolved around this magic knight more or less had him thinking differently about how he had been treating his body up until this point. He had been quite careful with it and went through the effort of having it seen to at a morgue. But if he had known of all of the things this guy had done beforehand, he would have treated the body like the sack of shit that it was. For all of the stories he had heard about the Vermilions, it seemed that there were a lot of shitty people flocking to it. First there was Leonard who had caused him to drop an ongoing mission, invited him to his home and then never bothered to show up for their sparring session. The reasoning behind it was odd, as often these things were, though the fact that no attempt had been made at clearing the air or fixing the situation left Gawain to believe the guy was just a piece of shit as well. No more, no less.
And then there was this Taiyo person, someone he had heard very little of before setting out to claim his corpse in an attempt at bringing it back home. Gawain believed that the guy had his intentions coming from a right and proper place, but to learn that this asshole murdered his own father, tore out someone’s tongue to set an example while repeatedly threatening his own mother. As someone who had seen everyone around him die and had no parents or relatives left, behavior such as this was gross to a fault. Had he not set his mind to returning the rotting remains to the estate so that the body could be burned, he would have destroyed it the moment he returned. Watching it burn was likely going to be a fairly satisfying undertaking as well, or so he hoped as it was the only proper course of action in his mind. No need in stooping beneath himself.
“Birthright… Birthright is for those who grew up expecting the world to be handed to them on a silver platter. No one is owed everything in exchange for nothing. Only someone who starts out with nothing can truly understand that, though I imagine any normal person could at the very least fathom it.”
Continuing up on the story however, it seemed that there had been some level of misunderstanding, or maybe his words had been taken out of context. He did not have any issues with keeping this whole undertaking and meeting to himself, not in the slightest. Whenever he went to someone for help or training, like when he had been asking Valo to teach him how martial arts worked, he wouldn’t go around claiming he was self-taught. He believed that credit was owed where it was due, so having to pretend that he had learned how to master this knife felt like a lie. However, if it was a lie he needed to tell the world instead of claiming some incognito individual had helped him out, then that was something he would have to live with. And who knows, maybe after some time passed, he just might start believing in the lie himself.
“It seems there may have been a misunderstanding. You don’t need to worry about me talking about who you are, as I have no intention of sharing this information with anyone. There is nothing gained or lost in doing so, so if the deal is that you help me if I don’t speak about this, then I can live with the terms.”
Post by Mior Delothosin on Jun 2, 2024 12:10:04 GMT -5
The woman started to walk away allowing her servant to deal with Gawain, she didn't know what he thought of the previous owner or even his standing with the Vermilion in general, even if she did she wouldn't have cared as it had nothing to do with her. She stopped hearing his words on birthright and tilted her head a little, she had to admit she was rather amused at how he articulated his thoughts on the subject. "You are wrong." she said simply standing with her chin resting between her thumb and index finger of her left hand while her right hand went around her waist "It doesn't matter if you are the lowest commoner out there or the highest royal, everyone has a birthright." she said as if in thought her glowing ruby red eyes looking at him "It isn't something exclusive to nobles and royals alone." she stated.
"Let me explain, most if not all families have traditions, secrets and items that are passed from one generation to the next with the expectations that they will not be forgotten or lost. Some families choose heirs. Heirs may be required to be of a certain gender or show to carry a certain attribute or marking." she said with a sigh "But you are correct a person shouldn't believe they are entitled to something, because truly they are not but this is just how some brats tend to think due to being sheltered, coddled and spoiled." she said bringing her hands back to her side. "You are also wrong that only a person starting with nothing can understand and grasp the concept, just being a somewhat decent person should help you understand the simple concept that if you wish for something you should work to obtain it but again spoiled entitled children are a thing." she said with a light chuckle.
"Sometimes these spoiled entitled children never grow up and turn out to be the biggest pains you will ever meet." she forewarned him. "A misunderstanding you say?" she questioned walking forward holding her hand to instruct her servant to not hand over the dagger just yet. He took a few steps back and watched her approach. "Holding one of these items is dangerous to your survival as the church attempts to lock them away." she informed him "And my knowledge, well, I would rather it not get out because I don't want to be hunted you understand." she said putting her hand out and the servant gave her the dagger without hesitation as she walked to stand before Gawain her eyes not exactly showing malice but there was ill intent. It was clear whatever she was about to say should be taken seriously because she wasn't going to be fooling around.
"Let me make this very clear, I do not care if you are tortured or under the threat of being killed my name and what happens here will never cross your lips or I will make you suffer. Understood?" Her voice was stern on the matter "I do not care if you take full credit for being able to master this item or if you wish to merely say that you gained aid from a mentor who wishes to remain unnamed, hell, give me a fake name if it makes it easier to keep the secret." she said her voice though calm did hold an authority to it, though it wasn't egotistical or demeaning because she was a noble and he was a commoner it was more like a teacher and a student. "My name is Mior." she felt like she didn't have to add the Delothosin part given her appearance.
She hovered the blade above her hand and watched as it activated, moving her empty hand to its blade as she whispered something silently glyphs appearing around her hand as she put it into the pure aura that made the blade "Now, let's see what the memories of this blade can teach shall we?" she spoke this more to herself than to those around her as her eyes closed. The red glow behind her eyelids seemed to brighten to the point any subtle movement they made could be seen but eventually, it faded as quickly as it brightened and she opened her eyes. "The creator of this blade was called Sargtlin and he didn't have the kindest upbringing it would seem." she said watching as the blade started almost to be encased in a darkened ring of glyphs. "This pushed him and eventually this is why he ended up on the archdaemon Aamon's radar." she said filling in some of the blanks.
"Now, I told you daemonic and spiritual relics are stronger than your everyday relics due to the fact they hold memories of the first owner, what I didn't tell you is due to this they also possess a special ability that the owner had. In this case, the blade allows you to have a stabilization phase with Sargtlin." she informed him, her voice was calm but it was clear she was concentrating on the blade itself "It is likely going to be a little bit harder as Sargtlin isn't here to create a pact with, but I am sure I can make it work nonetheless." she said the darkened ring cracking and fading away. "Ah, yes, I forgot you might not understand what I am meaning by 'stabilization phase' as daemonic pacts aren't really spoken about in Clover." she said lightly embarrassed as she forgot she wasn't speaking to a member of her family for a momnent.
"So if we were to make a comparison to what the spirits do with their partners, a stabilization phase is the equivelent of a partial spirit dive." she informed him so he knew what she was talking about without needing to be asked, she was under the believe that both of their time was important and leaving out information would just waste that time as the question would need likely still be asked and require an answer. "That being said I must caution you with a warning, if you progress gaining the stabilization and fail to meet Sargtlin's standards any point thereafter, there is a chance that the memories will overtake your body and he can be reborn that way." her voice showed concern as he now knew if he went forward with tapping into the hidden ability of this daemonic dagger his life would be on the line.
"I urge you to take some time and think about the path you wish to take, even the 'kindest' or 'selfless' daemon plays for keeps as unlike their spirit counterparts who have their own form they are a parasite that requires a host to remain in this world." she informed him. The male servant would create a seat behind her as she moved to sit down and helped her to do so. "If you require more time just let me know and we can reconvene at a later date and time." she said showing she would wait as long as required for him to make this decision, it was one with risks and consequences. "If you wish to throw caution to the wind then we can begin now Gawain." she said showing she knew exactly who he was and that all decisions going forward he would need to decide, it also was clear she wouldn't judge him regardless of his decision.
