KARMA: The Return of Magic [Story Thread]

[griever_tantalus]

[I'll post the episodes to this thread as I make them. Comments are very welcome, but please post them in the "New Project: Karma" thread at http://www.magicalsailorfuku.net/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=6290]

Scene 1: Drip. Drip.

Your breath is harsh in your ears, rasping into your lungs as if you were gulping glass, not air. Your eyes are red, curtained with ichor, and fatigue unfocuses your gaze.

But your hand is firm, your blade steady.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip - goes the blood of the beast, slain at your hand, now vanquished at your feet, lying separated head from neck. And at the beasts side, in turn, your prize, her delicate knees sheathed in crimson, her pale hands clawing through matted fur.

Then he eyes, no longer bright but drowned in fierce dispair, boring into your own, the last things you'll ever see, and the last words you'll ever hear...

"What have you done?!? What have you done?!? What have you- "

* * *

"- been up to Mr. Sanchez?"

Garland Sanchez, Lan to his friends, gulped and stepped back a pace, at the sound of the deceptively mild sounding voice. Natsumi Ichinoya stood in the doorway, her hands positioned demurely before her, a pleasant expression on her face. Most everyone in his class at the Agora High School - Lan included - found Natsumi to be the ideal of feminine decorum and grace, but Lan couldn't seem to shake the feeling that if he ever crossed her, his life was forfeit. Roven and Neo thought he was being paranoid, but then they were smitten by the brown-haired beauty. Maybe it was her exoticly fine features, even in as culturally diverse a town as the international free-trade zone of Garon, but there was just something about her that made all men weak in the knees - Lan's for different reasons however.

"I'm sure you weren't trying to sneak out of clean-up duty," Natsumi said, smiling ever so sweetly.

~Why does it send chills up my spine then?~

"Ah, no no," Lan quickly explained, "Just ah, had to go to the little boys room." Lan didnt really feel that Natsumi would be the type who'd understand if he said he went up to the roof for a smoke. Thank gods for mints.

"Fair enough Mr. Sanchez," Natsumi replied, stepping back to let him in the classroom. It was a sunny enough day that most of the students had decided to take their lunch outside - a blessing, since that meant less to clean.

The pair made quick progress, putting tables in order and mopping up the floor, making random small talk. As Lan was wiping the blackboard, Natsumi's tone of voice changed subtly.

"How is your throat?"

Lan was proud of the fact that his arm didn't stop moving across the board, and that he was able to reply in an even voice. "Well enough I suppose. No singing for awhile - but, heh, that's no great loss to humanity."

He stopped when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. There was an awkward silence, then he shrugged off the hand casually. .

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Natsumi eyed him steadily, and he found he couldn't quite look her in the eye.

Luckily she didn't press the matter. "Go on then - I can take it from here."

"Eh?" Lan protested, "I can't have you do that alone!"

Natsumi laughed. "It's just closing and locking the doors Mr. Sanchez. I think even a weak female like me can handle this," she smiled at him pleasantly. "Besides - don't you have band practice?"

Lan did a double take, then smiled in gratitude. "Alright - I owe you one Miss Ichinoya."

"And I'll be sure to collect Mr. Sanchez," she smiled, then made a shooing motion with her hands. "Off with you."

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Two: Holding the Fort

[Elsewhere...]

In a darkened room, a solid thud was heard, as a cube-shaped object was placed upon a wooden table. A snap and a click later, a lid swung open, to reveal a monitor that flickered to life in a burst of static and light.

"...can...zzzt...ear..zzzt...aul..."

A gloved hand shot out and whapped the cube solidly.

"...hear me now Paul?"

"Loud and clear ma'am," said the young man sitting before the screen, clad in shimmering black leather.. He appeared to be around 16 years old, of an Amerindian descent, with long black hair bound in a ponytail.

In contrast the figure on-screen was that of a striking middle-aged woman, paired grey streaks running through the middle of fiery red hair. Unseeing eyes crinkled in mirth as she chukled.

"Good old Order," she said, "Even their third-rate hand me downs still get the job done, with the right incentive - sort of like us eh Paul?"

"Yes Doctor Morgana."

The woman sighed dramatically. "Ah well. No room for wishes and fantasies inthe lands of Science. Might as well give me your report then eh?"

"Third sattelite sweep raised no anomalies Doctor," Paul begn, reading from a clipboard. "We were constrained to use a cold-war era Russian sat for the sweep though, so..."

"So even if a Kraken had popped up in the middle of the harbor, we'd stilll have a 60% chance of missing it," Morgana sighed, ""Stupid Soviet prim-tech..."

"We supplemented the sweep with walkabout patrols, but the only ping on the Arcandar turned out to be a trace of a poltergeist along sector H29-R57. Should we report it to Regional?"

Morgana waved her hands dismissively. "Leave the poor thing alone. We've got bigger fish to fry..." the woman left her statement hanging expectantly.

"I apologize Doctor, no reading anywhere near a level indicative of an Incarnation."

The woman on screen sighed, but her dispiritedness lasted but a moment. "Well, keep at it. I don't know how long Regional is going to keep me tied up in this conference, but I'll trust i to you to maintain vigilance." Morgana's voice crept down to an intense whisper. "Something big is coming - I can feel it."

"Yes ma'am," Paul replied with conviction,, despite having heard that promise a hundred times before. "You can count on me."

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Three: Cavalry's End

"So this is how it ends then?"

Lan sat at the table, in the little studio he and his band had been renting out for the semester, his gaze fixed on the ceiling, his face expressionless.

"What did you expect?," replied Dominic Salinger with a shrug, as he slung his guitar over his shoulder, and brushed back his auburn hair. He was taller than Lan and athletic where Lan was slim, but their souls were more alike than the blue-haired boy himself would comfortably admit. It was Lan and Dominic who had started the band, and while Dom was hardly the... Easiest person to get along with, he had worked hard and was a demon on guitars. They'd made quite a team... Until that aftrnoon.

Dominic didn't look at Lan, and Lan didn't look at him, but it was clear to anyone watching that a battle of wills was taking place. It was certainly evident to Harrington "Neo" Chen and Roven Blas - the final two members of the band called the Cavalry - or rather, from the way things were going, the "former" band called Cavalry. Short and tall, Asian and American respectively and as different in personality as night and day, both were united in anxiety as their gazes flitted from one to another awaiting the outcome of the invisible battle. Roven however, had one hand perched on Neo's shoulder, to prevent the smaller boy from doing anything rash. While Dominic had earned their somewhat grudging respect, Lan was their friend, and if Dominic made one more callous remark about Lan's condition... Well, Roven was afraid Neo would lose it, and the small boy was no match for the redheaded star of the Karate club.

Luckily perhaps, Dom made no further comment, turning instead and heading to the door and pulling it open with a decisive tug, stepping over the threshold without a backward glance at the group with whom he had toiled for the past 2 years.

He did, however, leave a few choice parting words:

"I'd wish you luck, but it wouldn’t do you much good would it?"

The door slammed behind him with the dull sound of finality.

And that was the end of Cavalry.

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Four: Maple and Stone

After Dom's dramatic exit (and after Roven had kept Neo from running him through with a leg of his keyboard stand), Lan's two friends left - not due to insensitivity to his feelings, but rather the opposite: they knew their erstwhile band leader and knew he would want to deal with them alone.

And deal he did, in his own inimitable way.

His own guitar perched on his back, the midnight hour found Lan marched down the dimly lit back streets of the town of Garon, weaving drunkenly to and fro and singing at the top of his lungs. Or at least, attempting to. For a few seconds, ten or twelve if he were lucky, Lan would belt out lines in the clear, powerful voice that had almost made him a star - then cough and hack painfully as his throat constricted and his vocal chords spasmed. But then, undeterred, he'd but start anew, hoping perhaps that this time, the result would be different.

But it never was.

At the corner of Maple and Stone street, Lan paused in his meanderings and considered the merits of calling his big sister - the family should be in Singapore this time of year - and pouring out his sorrows, when he realized, rather confusedly, that it seemed to be rather bright for midnight.

Lan blinked and stared up rather blearily at the moon noting that, aside from a golden haze that may or may not have been the alcohol, it seemed the same as usual. Puzzled he turned his eyes back downwards - and saw a shaft of light issuing forth from an alley between a candy store and a bakery.

With the fearless curiosity of a mind sopped with liquor, Lan approached the light. It seemed to be coming straight up from the floor. The boy crouched down and blinked, wondering at how a light so intense could be so gentle on the eyes. He crept closer, strangely drawn - there seemed to be a symbol on the floor, an insignia of some sort: a scroll, a gem, a dragon... And embracing them all -

- but then the stone gave way beneath him, and all Lan could see was black.

[Sierra_Rune]

I like it so far. You have a good way of tying the scenes together.

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Five: Maiden of Magic

"Ouch... Ouch... Ouch..."

Lan gingerly fingered the back of his head as he rose from the rubble, coughing as his movement sent dust flying from the gem tiled floors and the walls etched with vivid mosaics.

~Waitaminute...~

Startled, Lan did a double take. He remembered the light in the alley, the weird symbol, the floor giving way - but wherever he was now, it was certainly no sewer. It seemed, if anything, like the inside of some egyptian pyramid - or rather, how the insides would have looked like during the ages where the people who made them had actually been around. The floor was some sort of sand stone, tiled in what seemed to be large squared-off precious gems. The walls were of a lighter hue, made of a smooth, ivory-like material, fileld to the roof with row after row of colorful mosaics.

Lan pinched himself, then banged his head against a nearby wall. No use - he was still there.

"Okay... Resolution #1: No more beer."

In a daze Lan walked down the corridor, his eyes taking in the beautiful scenes on the walls. They were a strange mix of disparate styles and common elements. While equally beautiful each seemed to be done not only by a different artist, but in completely different styles - some in two dimensions, some in three, others which seemed almost to move when viewed from the corner of the eye.

As different as they were however, each repeated the same images, albeit in different contexts: a Dragon circling the sky, waves of light or power filling the air, and at the center of it all, one hand clutching a scroll while the other held a gem - a girl, young and of surpassing beauty.

Lan drew close to one scene, where the girl was drawn large and lower to the ground. Around her were creatures, human and otherwise, who appeared to be bowing down in worship - even the dragon. Her beautiful face bore an expression of joyful rapture, her hands holding out the gem and scroll as if gifting them to the heavens, golden hair flowing like a river in an invisible wind.

~A Goddess...~ he thought to himself. She could be nothing else. For a moment he was lost in her beauty, a dream within a fantasy...

And then he heard the soft, low, breathing, echoing down the empty hall.

Slowly he turned. Somehow he knew what he would see, and his desire slowed his movements, as if worried his certainty was unfouned. Yet there she was, floating in a globe of light that hovered over a clear pool, her arms outstretched as if in welcome.

Beautiful...

Immaculate...

Real...

(And, he couldn't but notice - quite naked)

Without conscious thought, Lan found himself before her, reaching out to match his skin to hers. His fingers touched the light...

And power exploded outwards in a blast of pure and unadulterarted...

Magic.

* * *

Six blocks away, Paul's eyes widened as every instrument he possesed went wild.

"By the Final Theory... She's here.

The Maiden has returned."

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Six: First Impressions

Lan blinked.

The boy was confused. One second he was reaching out towards the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, his very own Sleeping Beauty - and the next, he was staring at empty air.

Had it all been a dream? But no - he still stood in the strange hallway, with its gems and mosaics. But the light and the girl it had cradled had both disappeared.

That was when he noticed another light - streaming from a blade of crackling energy which was currently being held to his neck.

He heard her breath, coming in short and rapid gaps, felt the air she expelled tickling his back. Her voice was high and melodious, but the words she used were harsh and alien to his ears. But regardless of the language, his mind somehow knew exactly what she was saying.

*Which do you serve? L'muria? Toredor? Or are you one of Set's filthy dogs?*

Before Lan could answer, the girl cleared her throat violently and continued.

*My voice...* Another clearing of the throat. *What have you done to me you Ril'kn coward?!? Where is the Maiden? Answer me dog - Have you any idea who I am?*

With that the girl's slim hand snaked around Lan's throat and pulled him closer to her - and in the process, squashing her ample breasts against Lan's back.

A second passed. Then two. Then just as Lan felt his head was about to explode the girl pushed him away with a startled shout. He stumbled forward, and turned to find the girl crouched low, Sword held parallel to the ground, snarling at him like a cornered animal.

Her hair was black as a raven's, unlike any of the mosaics Lan had seen, but her face was just as beautiful, even with the pencil-thin scar running down her left cheek, even when her expression was contorted in incredulous anger.

*Fekt! Fekt! Ru'fekat! What was that?* her mental voice sounded panic. *What by the Waves was that?!?*

Unsure of quite how to answer that, Lan stepped back and motioned surreptitiously to the crystal clear pool.

She glanced at him suspiciously, then scrambled forward quickly, almost desperately - until she saw her reflection.

Lan would not have believed it possible for anyone who behold such beauty, to react with such revulsion.

The girl screamed - not shouted, but screamed - and clutched violently at her full breasts, as if to rip them off. Then her hands shot to her groin and she screamed again, louder Than before if that was possible. She stumbled away from the pool, staggering as if dealt a fatal blow, her eyes wide in horror.

*She did it... She... She really...*

With that her eyes rolled up in her head, and Lan was barely able to catch her before her head hit the floor -

- the floor of the Garon back alley where Lan had first seen the strange light.

Lan blinked again, as he found himself back in the alley, the light having disappeared, with no indication that the entire evening had been anything but a dream.

No indication that is, except for the beautiful (and naked) black haired girl lying in his arms.

"Oh boy..."

* * *

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Seven: Prince and Servant

In his sleep, he tossed and turned, tormented by strange half-dreams, memories of things that had never been, but may yet be, searching, groping for some shred of hope, some hint of –

Light, seen through half opened eyes. He blinked himself blearily awake, and the rest of the world came slowly into focus. Yet it was like no world he had ever seen.

There was, a halo of light above him, encased in glass, spilling unearthly radiance around it, illuminating a ceiling which was… quite pink. And that was not the only thing that was strange. He felt the soft yielding of a mattress beneath him, of unnatural softness, and the smoothness of the satin sheets which wrapped themselves around his arms, his legs, his br…

Adran ip' Zuvarios screamed like the girl he had become.

Immediately a doorway banged open, and a young man stepped n, carrying a tray of food and drink. Adran clutched the covers tightly around herself in a strangely automatic motion, and pushed with her legs until her back was to the bedpost. Faint flashes of recent memory slipped through her frantic panic, and she realized she had seen this boy – possibly a servant – before.

“You… Who are you? Where am I? I demand that you answer!â€

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Eight: Used to Be

Lan had just witnessed what might just be the most potent above ground manifestation of magic in centuries. He was aware that his jaw should be about as slack as it could get, at the sight of a girl learning language in an instant, and throwing fireballs - fireballs! -at him. It was, in truth more than a young college student should have to take in during a single evening. Perhaps that's why his mind fixated on a rather more trivial detail in the entire incident.

"Prince?"

"Yes," she answered haughtily, her arms folded under her breasts.

"You mean Princess," Lan prodded her.

The beautiful nose flared and the doe-like eyes narrowed in anger. "I said Prince, did I not?"

Lan blinked. Maybe that translation thinga-ma-jig she'd done had some bugs in it. "Well, it's just that - well, when we say Prince, we mean a male, and you seem quite, uhm..." Lan's gaze went from her beautiful face, to the curves barely visible behind the blanket (of which he had gotten quite an eyeful earlier) and back to the top of her raven-locked head.

"...quite, female." Lan completed, his throat suddenly dry.

The girl - Adran was it? - looked at him with wide eyes, and her mouth opened and shut several times, as if she was at a loss for words. Then her face flushed deep red - and the next thing he knew his face was being ground into the floor, his arm twisted painfully behind his back.

"OoOoW!" he protested, "What the he-"

"You base cur!" she snarled in a not-quite-so-cute voice, "I have never been so - so -" She stuttered, then took a deep breath, "You shall not gaze at me with those disgusting eyes!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just you're a very pretty gi- YeOw, OW, leggo -!"

"I'm a man!!!" she screamed.

Silence descended on Lan's room like a wet blanket.

Yep, Lan thought to himself, definitely an error in translation.

"At least..." she continued, in a subdued voice, almost a whisper, "I used to be."

[griever_tantalus]

Scene Nine: Adrift

[Adran's POV]

Adran sat atop the bed, clutching the sheet tightly to herself, her mind's eye looking elsewhere - and elsewhen. She hardly noticed when the young man left, but soon after she felt cloth laid upon her shoulders. Adran looked up to see the boy looking at her, and offering what looked to be a loose tunic..

"Look uhm... Adran?" the boy asked, "I don't pretend I have any clue as to what was going on, but... well, if you tell me about it, maybe I can help."

The Prince looked up at the strange young man, and felt more than a brush of appreciation, but this was quickly fought down. Why wouldn't he help her? Was she not his liege? Was she not his better?

She was about to pull on the tunic when she suddenly did a double take. She looked up at the boy, who looked right back at her expectantly. They stayed that way for a good few seconds before, flushing slightly, Adran scowled at him.

"Well? Turn away you letch!," she commanded, and after blinking a few times,. the boy went red as well and turned his back. Mutterig about the need to instruct servants on how to do their job, Adran pulled the odd tunic about herself and felt the strangeness of cloth upon her new flesh.

For the first time Adran looked around herself, and noticed how strange, how alien her surroundings were, from the shape of its furnishings, to the source and color of its light.

"What generation is this?"

"Excuse me?"

She gripped the boy's clothes and turned him around to face her.

"How many generations has it been? Since the Founding? Surely even a servant would know!"

The boy's face clouded. "Look I'm no- "

"Please," she interrupted, a desparate twinge in her voice, "I need to know how long its been. since..." Then as she saw his confused expression, she stopped. "I'm... I'm not in Ad'lanten am I?"