Ernst, was sitting silently, devouring as much food as possible at the feast, As his stomach began too fill, he decided to walk off. He stood up from his table, smiling at all the passer by's until finally he broke off from the crowd. Now alone, he took out a cigarette he had rolled earlier, looked for a lantern, and lit it. As dawn was setting in he didn't want to be seen outside the feast, he put up his hood and casually continued to stroll.

Getting bored with the cities sights, he decided to go outside of the walls. He snuck away, and Walked down an arbitrary path, and eventually, he walked through the woods, he found a tower, but, an overwhelming sensation of nerves and fear struck him, he didn't know why the tower was so eerie. He decided to take a seat and stare at the tower. Taking drags of his cig.

"What is this place?" he whispers to himself in hope for the wind to answer. And stared at the ground.

"Huh, with this crowd here im not surprised that something different happened" He said in reference of the coin he was tossing. "By the way, you may call me Bel. I am well.... sort of a failed mage. Ive gone to study things myself since none of the teachers would take me for apprenticeship. This phenomena started happening a while back and I got absorbed into investigating it." He gave a little pause and then asked the girl, "Whats your story?"

Rei smiled and placed one hand on her hip.

"My name is Rei and my story is...",

Her words drifted off as she momentarily though about her past, an almost blank look consumed her face till she snapped out of it again a few seconds later.

"Well, long story short, I am a mage of sorts and currently live wherever I think to be comfortable... kind like...", She paused again, "A nomad..."

"Oh?" Bel spoke, suddenly feeling a pang of respect for her. "The nomadic mage type? not too far from my standing" He said. "And whats that textbook your lugging around?"


A chain of bells wrung, the same elder who spoke to the crowds in the city's marketplace was preparing to speak again in the festival. The old man climbed onto a raised platform and the people started to gather to hear his words...


OOT: This part is for Ernst's perspective

The tower's uppermost window gleamed with a piercing light that was being concentrated somewhere out in the fields... However, the light was temporarily blocked by the passing of something in front of it...

Ernst grunts in disbelief noticing the beam of light for the second he did. He stood up and brushed whatever got on him. He looked up at the window only too see there was no light. He was in a state of shock. He was scratching his head in confusion, only to try and predict where the light was hitting. Ultimately going around in circles. Once he started giving up, he began to head back. What he saw was... Unnatural to him.

He took a shortcut through the woods to get back to the festival, But first he stopped near a tree and out of anger punched it with his right hand. It did nothing but make a loud noise and rustle the branches lightly.

"What is the story behind that tower." he said openly, In hopes someone was around.

Rei was slightly surprised by Bel's sudden change of expression,

"My book?", she paused then smiled for a moment before pointing at the book with her thumb, "That is an heirloom of sorts from my clan, it is contains just about everything on the use of soul magic",

There was another brief pause as Rei thought again, she lowered her arms back to her side and looked at Bel carefully as if studying him,

"You said you were a mage to some degree right? What can you do?"

"Nothing too fancy, I don't have much training since I lost my apprenticeship accidently burning down a building..." Bel explained. As he finished his last words the coin that he was holding transmutated into green shimmering dust. "Now that is odd" He said staring closely at the tiny pile in his hand. A sudden gust of wind and the dust flew off, glittering and sparkling as it flew in the air.... A hand suddenly fell upon Bel's shoulder and when he turned around to see who was there, the person seemingly vanished before he could even see him. A letter sat where the person would of been. Bel picked it up and opened it, it was written sloppily, probably intentionally... "Do not seek answers, the truth holds great danger".

Rei stared in disbelief.

"What er... Just happened?"

The world was full of waste.

That thought crossed his mind far too often as he sat on the side of the street, watching the people scurry around fretting and frittering about their entertainment.
They really were playthings, funny little bodies that impacted the world they lived in in such delightful ways.

But not all people were playthings, and he smiled to himself.
Nydia, his friend. That word always made him smile.

She was so fascinating to be around. Pleasant too. He fingered the fangs in his pocket, thinking about her for a moment.

So he would attend this festival. Because she liked it, and he liked seeing her happy.

He rose, and started moving among the festival goers, smiling and grinning and taking care to avoid treading on small children.
He would go and see her and see if she needed anything doing, as was his way...

nydia finished reading her book, she glanced back out the window as she closed it, setting it on her lap
"the crowd seems to get bigger and bigger each year"
she watched as the people started making their way towards the festival, the children running through the crowds playing, laughing, giggling. everyone was excited for the festival. including nydia.

she glanced down at her book smiling. every year Asmodeus took her to the festival and every year she had fun and enjoyed herself. he always made sure she had fun. she glanced back out the window
"i guess i better get ready then, he should be here soon"

she got up, placed her book on the side table and headed towards her room to change for the festival

"Im not sure, but I intend to find out whats this is about" Bel said in reply.

Despite the plenitude of strange events that occurred so far, another happened... As the sun fell out of view, strange lights emerged into the sky. They were bright and lightly hued, coming in blue, green, yellow, and white. They danced about beautifully in the sky, almost like stars that came down from the sky. They flew around the festival, they were living creatures. People at first were astonished by them and silent, but they soon supposed that they were the work of technology or a wizard. They believed they were a gift to the festival and cheered their presence. The old man who was to soon speak to the crowds, called out "Today is very blessed indeed!". However, they did not know that these lights emerged from the old wizard's keep....

He moved gently, taking steps slowly and surely, not wanting to startle anyone.

Tossing a few coins to a homeless plaything - he meant, a homeless person - as he passed, he reached Nydia's front door and politely knocked.

Rei gave him a questioning look and sighed before smiling again and standing up straight.

"What do we do first then?"

"Sometime... We are gonna have to find where that light beam comes from in the keep's tower..." Bel replied. He looked at the floating lights, "Light anomalies? Where did these come from? I swear, this night is getting stranger and stranger..."

Rei shook her head as she watched the lights for several moments. There was a pause as she though then looked up to the tower.

"Lets go then!"

just as she slipped on her dress nydia heard the knock on the door, she put on her shoes and headed for the door, opening it she saw Asmodeus standing there and she couldnt help but smile upon seeing him
"hello, would you like to come in for a moment?"
she pulled the door open and gestured for him to come in

He returned her smile, his face flickering with genuine warmth.
"If you don't mind of course," he said politely, gently stepping inside the house, removing his shoes briefly, then politely sitting on the nearest chair.

"Would you like to come look around the festival?" he asked, shooting her a look that was half-wry, half-curious to see if her response would change from before.
"Also, you look very pretty in that dress," he added, taking care to compliment her as he always did...

she nodded
"of course i would love to go to the festival, you know i always enjoyed going with you every year"
she walked over and sat on the couch
and looked at her dress
"im glad you like it, i just bought it the other day to wear to the festival"
she glanced out the window
"i noticed there are a lot more people this year then last"
she looked up at the sky noticing the lights
"they must have good entertainment judging by those lights"
she smiled and looked back at Asmodeus
"im ready to go when you are, take you time and relax a bit tho im in no hurry"
she sat back slightly
"so how was your day so far, do anything interesting?"

Bel looked back at the keep, "Well no point in resisting, it was bound to happen to me sooner or later... Lets go"

They traveled to the rusted iron gates of the keep. From their point of view, the place was a wreck. The gates were severely corroded, the lock itself was rusted out and broken. The walls were covered in vegetation and were a crumbling wreck. Nobody cared for the place, and it was long neglected, left to the forces of nature. Bel was easily able to simply push the gates open and step inside to find a jungle of weeds and a stone pathway to the great wooden doors of the keep.

Rei looked side to side through the weeds and then up to the tower as she slowly approached the wooden doors. She couldn't sense any life which seemed stranger to her.

"Does anything live here? I haven't seen a rabbit or even a spider since stepping foot inside this place"

"Nobody knows, but probably not" Bel said. "Its been forgotten for hundreds of years, and people tend to stay away from it" He unlatched the door and opened it... The inside was quite different, it looked inside as if someone was keeping it together. It was still quite dusty and dirty, but it seemed to have none of the damage that it had outside at all. The entrance was followed only by a long hall that stretched on for a long while. On one side of the wall were stained glass windows, the other side was mostly bare, save for a few bits of furniture.

The windows seemed to be bright, despite it being night outside, some form of magic must of been keeping it that way.

The first window they approached was the image of a flat frame laying on the ground, the ground could be seen through it, yet ripples were forming on the ground, only inside the frame. There was a plaque under this window, and it read, "Invenio"

The second window pictured a hand bleeding over a bowl. Drips of blood were falling from the hand and a pool of blood was already in the bowl, underneath it there was a plaque that read, "Permutatio"

The third window showed the landscape, the keep and the city. Strangely enough, a moon hovered over the city, and another hovered over the tower. The plaque underneath read, "Peregrinus"

The fourth window was the image of a man with a line dividing him. His appearance was different on the sides of the line, his left side he held a sickle and wore farmer's clothing, and in his right side he held a sword and wore armor. The plaque on this window read, "Transfiguro"

The fifth window was odd, it was the image of a under detailed man holding his arms up and and aura surrounding him and stretching upwards. Something like the sun was at the top of the aura. Its plaque read, "Mysticum". Opposite of this window was a pedestal with a glass case on top, inside it was a round green glowing light, much like the lights that were at the festival. It had a plaque as well, it read "Primordium"

The sixth window was even stranger, it was like the fifth window except the man was positioned up high and his arms were extending down, the aura stretched down as well. At the bottom of the aura, there was a black hand print. The plaque read, "Contaminato"

The seventh window was the upper body of a gray shaded man holding his hands over his face. Behind him a long shadow loomed. the plaque read "Truculentus"

The eight window was the image of a long shadow encompassing a large area. The shadow was disfigured and four arms protruded from it, each arm carrying a weapon. Around and under the shadow, winged people stood, armed with weapons. The plaque read, "Consternatio"

The ninth and final window was blank, it was a simple white plane of glass. A plaque was under this window, however, its metal was hot and glowing with letters, it read, "Halosis"

Rei studied each of the windows, displaying some interest in each. The sixth window caught her interest and she looked closely at the aura and black hand print for a minute or so before moving onto the next window.

"Invenio, Permutatio, Peregrinus, Transfiguro, Mysticum, Primordium, Contaminato, Truculentus, Consternatio, Halosis... I wonder what they all mean...", Rei spoke quietly, almost whispering as she said the words before turning to Bel, "Well going by logic some can be guessed... Perhaps, Invention, Permutation, Not sure about Peregrinus, Transformation, Mysticism, Primordial?",

The last word came out as a question since it didn't seem to fit very well, none the less she continued.

"Contamination, Not sure... Not sure again... Halo? Perhaps heaven?"

"It looks like a story or something of that sort" Bel replied, "The words, however, are unfamiliar to me"

He looked at the glass display case with the green orb. "It looks as if it is alive"

He smiled at her.

"Oh, just walking through the forest, musing, thinking about life, helping some kids, that kind of thing."

He got up, and opened the front door, waiting for her.

"What about you? And let's walk and talk, I'm sure you're eager to see the festival..."