"Yep. Templars are paired with the wardens and seers, usually. The Kyorl's main fighting force. Perhaps they won't be so bad with the new leadership, but they've been burn-the-heretics kill-the-corrupted - well, since drow were in Chel," Riaa explained. "Comes of having leaders who were all old enough to remember when elves lived on the surface, probably."
"Templars and wardens, together?" Berit asks, surprised. Then she looks thoughtful. "I suppose I shouldn't assume they're the same as ours, although, hah, burn-the-heretics is all too familiar, I'm afraid. Our Templar Order is ... was ... charged with watching over the mages in the Circles - keeping them under control. And yours..?"
"Watching over mages? Well, the templars and wardens are all part of the Kyorl'solenurn clan," Riaa explained. "Templars are male warriors. Each one of them's either paired with a warden, or rarely, a seer. They're meant to either protect their seer, or work together with their warden. Wardens detect the tainted and demons, templars hit them with swords, wardens seal said demons. And - Circles? Nearly everyone in Chel has some sort of magical ability, even if they don't have the training to do much with it. Even I learned a little minor sorcery. The Kyorl would like to be in charge of everyone, but even they don't have the manpower for it and I don't think their leadership is stupid enough to try."
"Hy tink gemz in hyu place iz sumtink deefferent den een mine place too. Der vunz hy know ov iz moch smaller und don´t tok or move or ennythink. Dey just is dere and iz pretty und hexpensive."
"Yes, I think we've established that," says Nacre, with slightly strained patience. "And you can see what Gems are to me; I'm right here. But our sparks are little things thrown off by fire and electricity, which I hope I haven't been mistaken for."
"No not dot kind. Schparks iz der pipple vot haz more brains den iz goot for dem, und dey mek tings vot izn´t possible becawz ov dot. Hy vas made jägerkin by a schpark. Sum constucts is made from der bits op, bot hy vas human before der Heterodynes changed me eento jägerkin."
Oh. Some kind of organic Peridots, then. Only... "...I can't have heard that right. You say you changed type?"
"It can happen for elves too - my ancestors used to be normal biped, but they got injured and they were too valuable to lose, so the old sorcerers figured out how to turn them at least partway into their clan or queendom's guardian beasts," Riaa added. "And nowadays the Jaal sell off spiders and snakes and whatnot that can swallow someone up to their waist and turn into one creature. Completely destroys their minds, though."
Gems don't actually have vasoconstriction, or blood for that matter, but nevertheless Nacre looks noticeably paler. Her mouth opens but she can't actually find words in response to the idea of a species where it's apparently common to just go and... become something else. At that, she can at least manage a weak "I'm not surprised!" Being swallowed up and then, what, fused with the thing? That would be some quality nightmare fuel, if Nacre slept.
Mina gives her a worried look. "Hyu need smellink salts sveethot? Hyu look a beet faint dere. Put hyu head between hyu knees eef hyu feel fonny."
Almera rubbed her eyes. Nope, nothing for it, she was going to be seeing investigative report forms for the next six hours minimum. She yawned and stood up. "Alcy, 'm going out for a bit, if I have to fill out another page of form A3R12 I'm going to die right here." The redhead sitting a few feet a way looked at her sidelong. "If you don't get it done, Captain Trezia's going to skin you." "I'll get it done, just later. I need to stretch my legs, maybe get a drink." Alcyone glanced at the corner of her screen. "3 pm local time, Mera." "Coffee then. As long as it's something that hasn't been in subspace storage for three months." Almera stood up and shrugged on her jacket, making a half-hearted attempt at straightening it. "Fine - bring me back a pastry or something, kay?" Almera saluted lazily. "Aye-aye." With that, she wandered off, and within a few minutes was wandering through scuffed-metal halls under a decently maintained artificial sky. She'd never been on a realspace station before, not one that had civilian shops on it. She scanned the storefronts around her, but she guessed she was outside of the restaurant sector. "Hm. Scathach, can you find the station directory, get me a list of the cafes around - wait, never mind." She honed in on a rather out of place looking door - well, it was worth a look if nothing else. She pushed in, and barely bothered to look around before sitting down at the bar. "What do you have for waking up?"
Leah could not have been happier when her 'brother' stopped paying attention to her long enough for her to sneak off. Seriously, who hauled their sister out to their date, anyways? Especially when they left their even younger brother behind. At least her friends had been free to grab the kid. Any case, Jake was an absolute idiot. He'd spent the whole time fussing over Leah, and not nearly enough paying to Lucy, you know, his ACTUAL FUCKING GIRLFRIEND? Who had spent the whole time alternating between melting looks at Jake and furious glares at Leah. Once again, Leah lamented her horrible luck with siblings. Jake was better than her biological brother, but his level of creepy was starting to rise. Quietly, she made her way to the closest building that seemed easy to disappear in. It looked like a bar, so no one was ever going think she'd have gone in here. And hell, if they did, she could hide. She slipped in, clutching the swiss army knife in her sweatshirt pocket like a good luck charm. Hopefully, she wouldn't get noticed and kicked out, what were the laws about underage people in bars, again?
"Hey, are you okay? You look really freaked out." The girl had nearly run into her; maybe even the wall wasn't a good please to be.
Leah let out several choice swear words, looking around wildly for the other girl. "What? No, I'm totally fine!"
"Sorry, sorry - I'm right here. Right in front of you, just, you know, invisible. Sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"There's a difference: our mages are relatively rare," says Berit. She gestures, summoning a wisp of flame above her hand that quickly dissipates. "And until recently, we were expected to spend our lives in Circles - schools, or prisons, deciding on your perspective. ... Not me. Of course. The Dalish look after their own mages. But, yes, our Templars are trained to effectively keep mages in check, and our Wardens are an order devoted to fighting darkspawn."
"uh." Okay, invisible people were not the weirdest thing to happen to her recently, but still, what the fuck. "It's fine, you just kind of freaked me out." What the fuck sort of bar was this.
Mina turns and waves at the newcomers. "Dey make nize eyereesh voffees here." She tells @Almera Phaeton
"Oh, okay. I'm still trying to figure out - how to keep from getting in the way, how to make sure I'm safe. I'm not used to this yet," she admits. "I'm only just starting to get the hang of it."
