Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

You quietly wake Una and go about cleaning up your camp, it only takes a couple of minutes before you are ready to go and are left with the task of waking Morgan from her sleep. This time, you call up to her more gently and she slowly wakes from her sleep. As amusing as it was to see her fall out of the tree, she could have gotten seriously hurt. Still, once the three of you were up, you finished off the last of the beaver, the meal still tasting good cold and start on your way.

After a while of walking you prompt a question. "Morgan, don't you have anything that you need to be doing? Is it ok for you to just... run off with us like this?"

"Not really. Our family doesn't have a house or anything and I don't have any responsibilities. It's freeing, being able to just go wherever you want without having to worry about anything." She stretches afterwards and lets out a satisfied sigh. "You are somewhat similar yeah?"

"Yes, I guess you could say that." It's not really something you want to talk about.

With that, you fall back into silence as you continue your walk. Morgan takes the time to show you several different magical plants as you pass them by and explain them. Who knew that there were bushes that made you grow hair wherever they touched? "Weird."

She laughs. "They aren't natural, they are some botanists escaped subject. I should probably let someone know about that and get them removed. Can't really leave them growing wherever."

That actually brings another point to mind. "Actually, is there any sort of, ahh what was the word." You stumble over your thoughts for a while, quietly frustrated as the word continues to evade you. Thankfully, your sister thinks on a pretty similar wavelength to you. "Masqurede- No, uhh. Ma-squ-er-ade. Yeah, the Masquerade!"

Morgan looks a little confused for a moment before as she tries to work out the word. "Mmm, oh yeah, that's what that means. Yes, there is a Masquerade in place. It's pretty simple. Don't expose Magic to the world at large. You can tell friends and family so long as you make sure they keep it to themselves. Some of the older governments know about it, but I'm pretty sure that America isn't in the know yet. The lack of local magic users and the... thing that is their election cycle means that no-one has really gotten around to it."

"You can use magic to save your own life or someone else, so long as it doesn't threaten the Masquerade. Yes, that means that if you are on TV and are going to be shot in the head, you are not allowed to use magic to escape. You can use it subtly to help yourself, just so long as it's not actually visible to the eye."

You think about that for a minute. "Thats... actually pretty reasonable. I thought the terms would be harsher." Relieving too.

"Well, they were worse in the past, but with the advent of video cameras and security cameras, everyone knows it's just a matter of time before it's discovered now. Nobody wants to be the person who gets hit by the rulebook when we are all expecting it sooner than later." She does a little hop and squishes a flower as she passes. "Not that the rules are the same everywhere mind you. Each place has more specific rules, but so long as you follow that as a general outline you'll be fine."

Mmm. "Speaking of the world. What's been going on recently, I've been kind of out of touch."

She looks a little strangely at you but she still answers your question. "There is some big ooh-ahh in China and the whole place has gone to shit. Not sure what's going on in Europe, but I should know soon-ish, I sent an email a couple of days ago asking. America, last I checked has got big parts of the northern bits under martial law. They say it's because of the massive rash of disappearances going on along the border and the recent attack. Well, I guess I know what happened there now, the Demon must have killed people as it worked it's way along the border. Was probably in the world for a week or so, either means that someone gave it a lot of power when it was summoned or..." She has a harsh frown on her face now. "It made it into the world on it's own... Ahhh fuuuuuuck."

"What, what's wrong?"

She is still frowning as she thinks. "I'm going to need to let Karen know about this, I'd told her the barrier was weakening now that the Light isn't reinforcing it." What?

"I'm sorry, could you explain that? It sounds important." And worrying

She blinks and looks up from where she was fiddling with her hands, sliding around a tree in front of her without thinking. "Oh, yeah sorry, kinda went somewhere else there." She takes a breath and starts with her 'teaching' tone. "There is a barrier around this dimension that serves to keep it separate from others, it was created and maintained by the Light, I'll get to them later. If a Demon managed to cross the barrier into our dimension at full strength then it must be weakening faster than we thought..." She's silent for a minute. "Anyway, Karen is one of the strongest mages in Europe, based out of London. She kind of keeps everything together over there and... Just think of her as my boss? I'm not really employed, but if I find something important that is a risk or a benefit I usually let her know so she can make use of it. Think of me as a scout."

Ok. "And what or who is the light?"

She scrunches her face a little and her frown morphs into a full on scowl. "Peh, the Light. They are the self-styled guardians of this dimension." She scuffs her foot against the ground as she walks. "In all honesty, they do good and they protect the world from a dozen different things. But in reality, they poke their fingers into everything and push everyone around until you do what they say. If you don't conform to their little view of how the world works they'll imprison you and lecture you until you 'see the Light'. Problem being that they have the ability and will to do this to anyone and for any length of time."

She looks a more than little angry now. "They up and took the previous leader of Europe in the middle of a crisis. His absence was the spark that kicked off both World War 1 and World War 2. He was mediating the issues before, his sudden disappearance had people pointing fingers and things escalated until war broke out. If they had just kept their fucking fingers to themselves so much suffering could have been avoided." Her walking has slowed down now and you can actually feel tiny ripples of her magic.

She smiles a little bitterly. "I guess what they learned from that was that they shouldn't help at all. The problem there is that they were basically the entire foundation that every faction was built on. They kept the monsters numbers down, guarded the planet and kept anyone from going full storybook evil villain." She sighs. "There was a big scramble after it happened, Karen ended up taking over the faction and has been leading it ever since. She was the founder of the Knights. Ah, magicians specifically trained to take over the roles that the Light left empty. Monster slayers, diplomats, environmentalists, guardians." She purses her lips.

"The barrier that I mentioned earlier? The Light made and maintained it, now they've suddenly pissed off back to their castle in the mountains it's been left alone. A lot of people from all over the world are trying their best to keep it going but... we just don't know how. It's magic unlike any we've seen before and we're worried about doing anything too drastic in case we destroy it entirely. As it is now, it's still strong enough to repulse an actual invasion. It lets weaker Demons through to save power so it can't be worn down with cannon fodder."

She suddenly takes in you and Una's attentive faces and lets a little blush form. "Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to talk at you like that. I just like teaching."

"No, no. It's fine. It was very informative, you're good at teaching." Her voice was very comfortable to listen to.

She laughs a little, clearly pleased, as her smile shows. "Thanks, anyway. To finish up, Karen herself is kind of a mix between the best boss and a mother. She's been doing her job for longer than my parents have been alive, but she doesn't look a day over twenty. I'm pretty sure it's some kind of illusion or transformation, because she insists that she's not immortal. Still, she's the sort of person who will bake you cookies and sit down and give you a hug while you talk out your problems. She's the best." She speaks up again quickly. "Ah, I should actually. Her full name is Karen Samson, we just all call her Karen because yeah." She looks a little embarrassed at her on slip-up.

You just hum in response and continue walking, quietly making your way over a small mount as you keep your attention focused on the road you can feel about five hundred metres to your left. You feel heat passing along it every so often, ten-twenty minute intervals maybe? You adjust your course to avoid it as you continue. Another hour passes with some quiet background chatter. Not really discussing anything important while you focus on your magic. You've had some ideas as to how better hide your magic and now seems to be an good time to test them.

You focus on trying to make your magic appear to be heat, and disguise it in the background temperature around it. Thinking of it as a flame is easy in this context, as is trying to make it invisible.

(Ceyers: 44 + 5 = 49)

When you try and change your look on your magic you just... cant. You don't spill your magic out or have it do anything crazy, but what you are trying to do is change how you conceive of your magic and it's... hard. You have some very minor success in making your magic try to emulate background temperature, but it's still very noticeable according to Morgan and that's as far as you get. Hell, even Una said that she felt a very faint prickling feeling! Ugh, this is going to be hard

You decide to stop trying after an hour of frustrating yourself by trying to bend your mind around your magic and try something else. The ability to use your Thermokinesis at long range was very important, so you decide to try and work on it now.

(Ceyers: 86 + 5 = 91)

This however, goes much better than you had hoped it would. In the end it turned out that all you had to do was bunch up your magic just so and suddenly you could focus on control temperature in multiple places at long distance. Before it was things effecting your body getting your attention, now you just ignored them. More accurately, you dulled your senses with partial reinforcement so that you can focus on things outside of your body easier. After a little while you even managed to use your sense to guide your body instead of your eyes. You had to constantly sense the area around you and focus hard but you could tell the tiny difference in temperature of the various different little twigs at your feet enough to walk around without hitting a tree!

When you draw back to focusing on your body, you seen Morgan looking at you. Apparently she couldn't feel what you were doing, but had felt something was going on nearby and was getting antsy about it. When she'd seen your zoned out look she figured you were using your sense at a distance for something. You hesitate about informing her of your success, but in the end decide to do so, in exchange for a little knowledge on her own magic.

"Mine? I can do a lot of little things with my magic. I'm pretty good at reinforcing my body, though it looks like you've figured that out. I can create little beams of magic, they are thin but are capable of penetrating through most mundane materials and I can create a solid wall of magic. I mean, I can do some other things, but I'm not the sort of girl to show all on the first date yeah?" She smiles teasingly at you as she spins around a tree. She must have planned that in advance.

The air is getting somewhat colder and a look over at Una shows that she is shivering slightly despite her jumper. A glance down lets you see the red scarf you were still wearing. Well, not like I really need it. You quietly unwind it from your neck and sneak over behind Una, you hear her mumbling to herself about something and poking a leaf in her hand but ignore it. You stealthily drop the scarf around her neck and start wrapping it. She notices within a second and looks up at you with wide eyes, but doesn't say anything. One the scarf is properly wrapped you move away to where you were walking, missing Una bunching her hands in it's material and taking a deep breath, smiling a little at the familiar scent.

A little bit later you've stopped by a fallen tree what is with all of these fallen trees anyway? Was there a hurricane or something recently?. Ignoring your random thought, you sit down to let Una rest for a while, not missing her breathing growing a little heavier as you crest another hill. While you are sitting down, you decide that you might as well share a little of your magic too, it's only fair.

"Mmm, apart from reinforcing I can also heal myself, it's a little slow but it works. I think I'm figuring out how to fly but, I'm not really sure of that." You decide to keep your degradation Aura quiet for now. "I mostly use my control over temperature to heat up or cool things down, but I can also make this kind of Aura thing, it sets everything inside of it on fire. Actually on that subject, are you fireproof? I kind of can't control what it sets on fire or not."

She looks a little bemused as she answers back. "No, I'm not fireproof and if that works like it sounds like it does, I would have to be very fireproof to stand in that." She hums. "Your abilities are pretty different from the last Magical Girls I know about, they were all about brute strength and being able to bounce swords off of their skin. I wonder...." She trails off like than and you've lost her.

"Actually, while we're here. Do you know anything about the land spirit, or the spirit of the land, not really sure which it is." At that, her eyes focus to yours with laser like intensity.

"How did you figure that out? Wait, didn't you say something about talking to it? How, people have been trying to work it out for literally hundreds of years." She actually stands a little from her seat and starts leaning towards you as you speak.

"I just kind of... push my magic into it? Well, not just that. I tried it through the ground and it didn't really work, but it lead us to this tree and I could kind of? talk to it just fine. It was more like transmitting ideas rather than words."

She's silent for the longest time, before she palms her face violently, the sound echoing through the clearing. "Oh for fucks sake, was it really that simple? They just don't want to talk to us?" She grumbles. "We've been trying to connect to them through the ground from a long time, why did we never try the fucking trees." You smile a a little uncertainly at her grumbling. "What did it talk to you about, no wait, are you allowed to tell me?"

"It didn't say I couldn't tell you, in fact it's been very helpful so far." You hear her mutter a derogatory helpful which you ignore "It answered a bunch of my questions and helped my travel a long distance really quickly, I didn't notice anything but we somehow managed to travel like 200 miles in two days, by walking." You see her frantically groping through her bag before she pulls out a notepad and pen, quickly writing down your words as you speak. "There were only two big things about it. First, it told me that I needed to leave and then showed me an image of a castle glowing with Light on a mountain, I'm assuming that's the Light?" The way her mouth twists into a line and she starts frowning lets you know the answer to that. "Second, it asked me to set the forest on fire when I left, but only after I asked it what I could do."

When she's finished scribbling down your answers she looks at the page for a long moment. "On the first point, I have no fucking clue why those assholes would come crawling out of their hiding place to presumably come looking for you. On the second, it... would be wise to do so. It probably wouldn't do anything bad if you didn't, but the favour of a spirit of any kind is no mean feat, especially for something as trivial as starting a forest fire."

"Yes, I thought so too but... I was worried about being linked to a new fire after the one in town..." She starts tapping her finger onto the notepad.

"Yes, I can see how that would be an issue... Still though, I would recommend that you do this, I really recommend you do this. Having a friendly spirit of any kind is a massive blessing let alone one of the bloody continent." Her eyes are wide as she scribbles down on the sheet in her hands, frantically taking note of her thoughts as she speaks.

You give her a little while to calm down and shift a little closer, making sure that Una can't overhear you. "Just a quick question, is it possible for other people to learn magic, or is it something you re born with?"

She looks up from her page with a frown before her eyes gravitate towards your sister. "Yes, it is possible for someone else to learn magic. Most people have at least a little, but it's possible to give them a boost of some kind. I can only imagine the results of someone with your amount of magic doing so. It would be... impressive to say the least." She thinks about something before continuing at a quiet level. "I would hold off on it for now, your magic never stops growing but it grows fastest when you are young, let her grow into her potential a little before you give her any boosts, it can extend the rapid growth state for a while."

"While we're on the subject, I accidentally made a connection with Una, something like I had with the spirit, I cut it out before it could grow but could there be any consequences." This was something that worried you.

"Maybe... I don't know how to do that sort of link, but I remember a Magical Girl pair in the past that were linked like that, they didn't suffer any downsides as far as I can remember, I'll look it up later if I have the chance."

With that, you move back away from her and look at the sky, the sun is about halfway down now, so you still have a little while to go. You've been sensing increasing numbers of traffic whenever you pass by a road so you must be nearly there by now. When you start moving again, you start sensing a lot of heat moving around in the distance, not within your range, but there is so much of it that you can feel it moving towards your area. Must be a border post or something, maybe a big fire, dunno.

An hour later, and you've reached what you think is the border. It would make sense, seeing as there is a long fence and groups of soldiers wandering around in the distance. Why are there so many of them? There must be a good two-three hundred people here. Ah, a base of some sort? You whisper your findings to Morgan and Una and keep a careful eye on the base in the distance, you run your hand over the pistol still strapped to your thigh, you had gotten so used to it you'd almost forgotten about it.

The sun was still in the sky, another hour or two you think, but it's starting to dim already. You are a little tired, but not massively though Una looks like she could use a rest. Morgan looks fine.

What to do...
[] Sneak past the base now
[] Sneak past the base after the sun has gone down
[] Don't try and sneak past
[] Write In...
[] Ask Morgan for ideas