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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goblyns Hoard" data-source="post: 1743539" data-attributes="member: 19970">Thoughts on a wedding day morningKrysteel stared at the grey-haired woman before her, looking hard at the blue eyes and rather plain face.  No, nothing different there.  It seemed odd that nothing seemed to have changed in the past two weeks.  Given how much else had gone on, surely something must have happened.  She smirked briefly at the idea of her hair turning black from shock, or going red in her old age.She picked up the brush and worked it through her hair once more.  It didn’t need it, but as always she fussed over hair fastidiously.  Normally it was her fervently denied attempt to make up for the colour, today she had a better excuse, today it was for her friend’s wedding.  Always a bridesmaid, never a bride… well maybe her new robe would change that.Nine days had seen such change in the world.  After the failed ambush on the Mt. Fire caravan who would have expected them to be able to just order it to turn around.  Everything had happened so fast since they had approached Crane’s Palace nine days ago.  The rather mysterious Leopold had wanted to enter the palace in a field of anti-magic, so Krysteel and Tarquin had returned to Gaxmor to find the warrior Xiang, and Cailin.  She would have been little help within the anti-magic field, so she waited outside with the elven mage, Elaith, his quiet friend Thran, and Tarquin, the priest that attended upon Leopold.  The others must have got to where Ling-Da was imprisoned in the stasis field, as Krysteel was suddenly pulled onto the Astral plane along with the others and told that within moments she would be deposited in Warmaster Kung’s crown room.As the astral plane swirled around them there was a flurry of spell-casting, and Krysteel prepared herself for the upcoming battle with a few choice incantations.  Krysteel held off from summoning an elemental guardian, afterall it would be of little use here on the Astral Plane when she crossed over.As soon as she found herself in the room she hurriedly began the summoning ritual that would bring an elemental to her side.  She watched as lightning bolds hammered into Kung and Ling-Wa, and Leopold threw up a Wall of Force to cut off some of the room.  Xiang now stood at twice his height thanks to Elaith’s magic, and he charged passed her toward the Warmaster, but again Lightning arced round the room and Leopold’s necromancy seemed to suck the very life out of half the people in the room.  Sometimes she wished she hadn’t taken the decision to focus all her efforts in conjuration.Suddenly she realised that she was visible once more, just as a crowd of bodyguards surged into the room behind her.  Almost surrounded she was thankful for having armoured herself in stone whilst she waited outside Crane’s Palace.  She finished the incantation and bathed in the light and warmth of the huge fire elemental that now stood behind the soldiers.  As they felt the heat on their backs she took a step away and levelled her staff in their direction.  But once more Leopold’s necromantic magic surged around the room and the guards dropped dead around her.It was over before it began.  The desiccated and scorched bodies of Kung and Ling-Wa lay where they had stood, they had barely even moved before they died.  The giant Xiang stood over the body of a half-ogre that had been slain as it knelt in submission.  Krysteel grimaced at the thought of so ruthless a man now taking control of Mt. Fire.  Better than the demon-obsessed Kung no doubt, but what way would this new Warmaster take this strange western kingdom.  There was a single survivor in the room, a darkclad shadowy figure knelt before Cailin, clearly out of his element in the light cast by the fire elemental towering over him.  Krysteel reined in the elemental, and Cailin twisted him round and put a knife to his throat.  But it was clear he knew where to throw his lot – of the seven that had arrived in the room, only Krysteel had been injured – a minor scratch from a soldier’s sword that had penetrated her magic.  His surrender was gracefully accepted – unlike that of the half-ogre.The next two days were a whirlwind.  Xiang imposed himself as the new Warmaster, Ling-Li revealed that it was her time to leave this plane and that someone called Cho would be raised to the Ladyship of Hawk Palace, though there was some indication that another should have been chosen.  Krysteel had spent some time with Cailin, and together they had swept the Witch-Queen Marena from Kung's dungeons to safety in Gaxmoor.  It had seemed better to ensure it was done than to wait to see how Xiang would decide, and how long it would take him to learn of it.  His priorities seemed to lie elsewhere.  No doubt he would claim to have been willing, but Krysteel felt it was more important to ensure it was done than to worry about the sensibilities of so clearly ambitious a man.  Krysteel was permitted to accompany the Witch-Queen to Beskarn, and spent a brief day in the great forests.  One day she intended to return and learn more of the how the witch’s magic differed from her own.  But one day was not now… how she longed for the time to just return to her precious library with a new tome.  Politics was definitely not her forte, everything happened too fast.  She had been called back from Beskarn by Zalindra, and requested to take Cailin with her.  Oh to return to her studies and learn the ritual for summoning Elder elementals.And for now she had other tasks.  She would spend the day waiting upon her friend, as is the responsibility of a bridesmaid.  She would help ensure that everything flowed smoothly around Zalindra on this, her special day, keeping away the uncouth and the drunk, ensuring no one tried to take up too much of her friend’s time, afterall there would be hundreds of guests.  She once again looked into the mirror… yes the hair would have to do, afterall it would not be right to try and outshine the bride.She rose and gestured for her gown, floating it across the room from where it lay.  As she used her magic to do up the elaborate ties her hands couldn’t reach, her mind drifted to the impeding threat on the Mongali horde.  Cailin had indicated that the invasion was in fact the dream of their High Hakoman Omazad, wanting to rebirth the vast Mongali Empire.  No doubt they would have to turn their attentions to him all too soon.But that wasn’t important right now.  No first she had to find that evoker that was responsible for the fireworks this evening and ensure he was ready.  Then she would have to prepare for the summoning of the air elementals that would ensure Zalindra’s hair and gown flowed around her as she entered the grand hall for the wedding… and she had to ensure that the cook had finally finished the cake.  Odd that the cook seemed so familiar, what was his name again?  Oh yes, that was it… Leo.</blockquote>

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