Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

You take several deep breaths as you keep your eyes firmly on her. She was still being incredibly submissive, but it could be some sort of trap. You doubted it, but it never hurt to be safe. Slowly, you let go of the little part of her magic you had taken a hold of, returning yours to just under your skin. Not overtly threatening, but ready to jump into action at any time. Letting her magic go seems to have been the right decision, as you see her slowly calm down from her silent panic.

"I'm sorry for being so rough with you, I just wanted to be sure of your intentions." You let her take in your words, it takes her a while, she is still recovering from whatever it was she felt earlier. Still, eventually she nods slowly and her breathing starts to even out slightly though she is still on edge. "I am going to ask you several questions, then I will decide what I will do with you. At the moment I have no intentions of harming you, so long as you remain honest and answer all of my questions to the best of your ability, it will remain so. Do you understand?"

She takes a shaky breath as she nods this time, her magic clamped down inside her tightly. "I understand. I will answer any question you ask to the best of my ability so long as they do not encroach upon any oath I have taken previously." Oh? You aren't sure how you should react to that, but you suppose it was fair. Even in a situation like this you would never tell an enemy about your sister.

Still, she was speaking very formally, maybe it was her way of dealing with high stress scenarios? Irrelevant. Most important first. "How did you know how to find me?"

"I felt a large amount of magic in this direction earlier in the day. I followed the traces to this clearing." Fair enough, you would need to find some way to disperse or hide magic at range like that in the future. You nod to her.

"You may ask one question for each answer given. I will answer most so long as they do not encroach on certain subjects." You didn't want to fight with her and you felt kind of bad for bullying her like you did. Trying to establish some sort of rapport with her seemed like the most sensible option, considering that she apparently knows a great deal more about magic than you.

She looks at you for a long moment after your statement before nodding slightly. "If it does not offend you. What is your race?"

The question confuses you, is she asking about your skin colour? Can't be, she can see you in the light. Does she not think you aren't human? The thought makes you frown as you look at her. She cringes back slightly at your expression but doesn't refute it.

"I am human, just like you." She looks a little speechless at that, you don't know why. Maybe it is some magic thing?

"Why don't you think I'm human?" A bad use of a question, but it was bothering you.

"Ahh. I'm sorry." She dips her head in apology but her magic writhes slightly in her hold, perhaps a more honest statement than her words. "I have never encountered a human of your strength before, the closest things I have felt have been some very powerful and very old magical beasts." You... aren't sure how to take that. For now you just put the thought aside and wait for her next question.

"Is there any way to avoid conflict with you?" Mmm, an interesting question. She sounds like she expects you to want to fight her.

"I have no intention of harming you in any way so long as you are civil and remain friendly." She lets out a long breath at that and slumps down, all of the tension in her body seeming to seep away. Why does she believe me completely when I say that? I could be lying.

"What were you doing in this area? Investigating a town?"

"Yes, I felt that there was a great deal of magic being used there and wanted to investigate." Mmm.

She looks around the clearing. "Have you seen anything strange or magical in your territory?"

You take a breath. "I have seen several strange or magical things in the area recently." She pouts slightly as you stretch out the question, but she looks more impressed than annoyed.

"How long have you had magic?" She looks at you strangely.

"I have had magic for my entire life. I was born with it." It seems like she expected you to already know that.

"Please list all of the strange or magical things that have occurred in the area recently." A much more specific question, much better.

"A strange creature is living in the water, I believe that it attacks anyone who swims to far or deep. There have been frequent military patrols through the area as a result of a town to the south being attacked by a demon. The spirit of the land has been helpfully talkative." She nods at the first point and the second before she does a double take as you mention the demon, her eyes grow even wider as you mention the spirit of the land. You see her stare at you for a while before she starts muttering to herself just loud enough for you to hear. "Oh, I am soooo glad I don't have to fight you."

Eventually she gathers her wits together for your next question. "Please explain the basics of any and all magical communities that you know of." She purses her lips as she looks at you this time.

"There is no formal magical community here in the United States. There is a large European community that is based out of France, though they have moved to England lately. There are a small number of disconnected groups in the middle east. There is a scattered group in Asia and Japan has an old and large community." She knows a lot, unless this stuff is common knowledge.

She looks like she wants to ask you about this, but lets it go in favour of asking more important questions. "Would you share all information you have on the demon that attacked the town to the south." She sounds slightly alarmed as she says this, demons were bad news, probably. The one you fought certainly was.

"I do not know where it came from, but it killed all it found as it moved through the town before I killed it." No need for her to know that you did it almost entirely by accident.

She stares at you slightly disbelievingly at your words, but you feel a slight wiggling for her magic before she starts to look more accepting. Maybe she can feel how strong you are? You don't actually know how strong you are but compared to her. Maybe she is really weak?

"If I let you join me in my camp, will you talk civilly?" You'd gotten a pretty good read on her by this point, and you felt kind of bad for pressing her like this. She seemed like a fairly nice girl. Still, when you asked this question, you press against her magic with your own, a quiet threat. She pales drastically as she takes a deep breath, looking over to the small hole you had come from slightly worriedly. Eventually she slowly nodded and you let up on the pressure.

You were pretty confident in your estimation of her character, enough that you felt that you could stop the question for question exchange for something more normal. Even if not, you felt that you could just smother her with your magic if she got threatening. The two of you make your way over to the hole and you turn the flashlight off. Before she can say anything, you start letting out a slight glow. Dimmer than the flashlight but much more comfortable on the eyes and able to light up a room.

You drop down first, keeping a careful eye on her as you motion Una over behind you. A second later she drops down the hole and starts peering around. It really was rather bare, just your tent and an almost empty cave. She tenses up when she sees someone other than you but after looking at your sister for a moment she lets out a sigh and has a small smile on her face.

"Ahh man, you thought I was threatening your daughter?" She runs a hand through her hair and shakes her head, continuing before you can rectify her mistake. "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to worry you like that. I should have waited for daytime before politely visiting. I hadn't thought anyone would still be here. This is my mistake"

You... aren't quite sure how to respond to that. "She's uhh, not my daughter. She's my sister." The way her eyes widen as she looks between the two of you is really funny, while you control yourself you feel Una giggling into your back. You didn't look that old did you?

Still, the tension that was in the air is gone now, even if you were carefully watching her actions and magic like a hawk. She sits down at the far end of the cave as you sit on the other, on the bottom of your tent rather than the cold stone floor. "Ok, this entire encounter has been a huge mistake." She smiles as she says this. "Lets start over. My name is Morgan, yours?"

You squint at her, thinking over your choice.

Conversation...
[] Tell her your name, try and be friendly
[] Tell her your name, remain cautious
[] Don't tell her your name