Pendryg wondered at this peculiar puzzle, feeling as though in what she'd said there were many clues, even an answer, but that he lacked the mile markets to tell him what road she had led his question down.
"You've said several times you mean no harm, and I do believe you, but I can't say in truth that it doesn't make me curious to know the nature of the lady. Especially when you say centuries." Was she herself immortal? As he had once been, though he'd given up that spell since, though still knew what it felt like to be immune to the relentless march of time, while the others around you were not.

"Name me someone who has no secrets." Seifer interjected softly, chuckling and rubbing the edge of his jaw in vague thought. "And I'll probably tell you you're discussing a dead man. Or a rock. Because even the dead man probably has secrets."

"Some." Seifer agreed. "But the secrets of a stone are somewhat different than the secrets of men." Pendryg let him continue as the man shrugged. "There are those races that measure their lives at great length, but I think you'll find harder to know some of these races than you might have, where you came from. Sea-gate is the only kingdom, for example, and the only place with horses, and while my lord has fought a red-she-dragon, you won't find another in this world of the breed, only seed dragons. Or in representations of the death guardian in a rage."
With more chance to go afield, he'd been collecting more information for both mens benefits, and he'd found it all quite interesting.

"I'd as soon not be as...unique a location." Pendryg sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "But it's just as well I suppose."

"No clear answer to that." Pendryg answered. "Though I could hazard a guess that it comes down to balance." His expression turned a little dour. "I don't recall if I mentioned it, it's been that sort of a morning, but there were guardians before as well, but the chosen Life Guardian had a perpetual habit of raising the dead. Perhaps that has something to do with it? Sufficient dickering with the forces of nature in that regard can't have done any favors, and there were an increasing number of wars. Perhaps simply God's way of saying 'To hell with this."
A bit crude maybe but that was how he felt. There had been so many wars, and so many of them against beings of increasing levels of power... Eventually the entire world would have simply been destroyed, which probably would have been a relief to the powers that be, since it had always seemed almost surreal that Thalion attract quite so much attention, unless it was because he was so blindly enamored of a world where no one died, or at least not for long.

"Well we're doing out best, I'll grant you that. I think it's most hard on some of our guardians, since one of them is wed to a woman who rules another world entirely, and it's rather a poor idea for Guardians to leave the world for long, they're tied too strongly to their elements. It's a rather great responsibility, perhaps more than it once was."
Axel leaving the world had caused a slow transition toward winter, as his element was stiffled and actually attempted to follow it's guardian to where he had gone. If he himself vanished, while alive, the tides would potentially stop altogether. Perhaps even the fall of rain.

"Actually...they're men and women, and we're not quite sure how any of them is chosen for a particular role exactly. One day you could be anyone, and the next, you're the guardian of...who knows what. The Water, the fire, the Forrests, maybe."
Seifer explained. He wasn't surprised to hear them refered to as greater beings, but they weren't. They were mortal like everyone else, and then they passed, their responsibility would likewise change hands.
"And mind, Robert only believes in one God." he teased, shooting an impish grin at Pendryg as though he thought this were a little naive. "But he's fairly tolerant of other peoples beleifs.

"That's a matter of theological debate and opinion." Pendryg noted, somewhat growlingly. "But I didn't come prepared to debate weather or not heathen deities exist at the breakfast table. Or if they do exist weather or not one might properly call them 'gods'. By the light, a Guardian might be called so, though in truth it would be an uninformed opinion based on their powers, and not the truth." Clearly it was a bit of a sore point for him, which only made Seifer sigh slightly. "Why don't we change the subject. I've never heard of this "Great Platinum" personally." Seifer added to the conversation. "Sounds more like a piece of jewelry than a god."

OOC: ok this is me skipping ahead to Lea going down with the boys to check out that magical...disturbance she felt....and having....happy time? lol ;P...here goes nothing....


The elven woman took a deep breath as she settled over the sands. The ever-present mists swirling about her ankles seemed to slither away in wafting drifts from her person as she bowed down to crouch over a particular spot. The section of sands didn't seem much different than any other. Yet the silver lady hiked up the trailing fabrics of her skirt and cloak from around her bare feet before nodding to herself. She was certain this was the area.

"I do believe there was indeed magic cast here," Lea whispered loud enough for Pendryg and Seifer's ears though she did not look up towards either man. Her silver brow knit further over pupilless opalescent eyes. The maiden took a deep breath as a frown of concentration came to her pretty lips. Delicate digits reached forwards to caress over the earth beneath her. Her fingernails traced tiny divets in the sand's surface in some absent design. Lea shook her head and then closed her eyes falling into some deeper trance. Her breathing took on a slow and even manner and the woman's expression became peaceful.

"Let me see what I can learn," she murmured.

Lea extended her fingers into the sands, pressing her hand to the shore. Arcane words slipped from off her tongue as her free hand lifted to alight over her bossom hidden beneath the violet fabrics shrouding her petite frame. The magical phrases spilled effortlessly though they sounded as if to come from a tongue differing from a humanoid mouth, and yet they were musical and enchanting coming from the mysterious woman. A soft white-blue glow surrounded the hand within the sand and Lea opened her eyes--bright with the same light--to look downwards.

The simple divination sparked to life before her vision. Swirling auras snaked about themselves before bursting into glittering motes to settle over the sands, some dissolving to leave the imprints of others. It was meant to determine what kind of spell was cast...how long ago...how strong....Lea pursed her lips and opened them to relay the information she saw. But the words froze in her throat as the woman felt a strange sensation clawing its way up her fingers into her hand and her arm. Insane colors crackled in her vision like lightning bolts crawling up in rapid movements to shoot for her chest and eyes.

'LeaND!!!' came a worried voice screaming into her mind's ears. But it was too late.

Lea gasped aloud as to the Guardians' vision she fell forward slightly as if pulled by some unseen force towards the shore beneath her, her hand delving deeper into the sands. Her opalescent eyes widened with a look of shock.

Strange elemental shapes danced before her mind's eye. A great metal bird that flew over a wolf trying to fight off a fire. Somewhere within the crackling flames was the last remenants of a burning man as he screamed out in...agony, surprise, horror? The smoke that rose from off of the body and seemed to take some sort of blackened form. It was familiar to her eyes...Lea narrowed her optics instinctively as the vision seemed to gain focused clarity. It was a oil-black...and for a second there was a swirl as if a disembodied ghost burst before the raging winds dancing around the man...a small girl.....and then the male drew back a bow and the smoke melted away to show....Pendryg?

And his face twisted in pain as he crumpled, putting his hands to his chest, fingers twisted into claw-like poise. Tears streamed from his eyes in pain and where they dropped flowers blossomed around the feet of a strange humanoid creature covered in tattoos...his bottom half looking almost satyr-like while the top was more of a man while he supported wings and horns with a wide-eyed wild look of shock upon his face as roots sprouted from his feet and tore into the earth. Only to have the flowers retreat backward on themselves as reversing in age back to seeds. Lea could see the ranger that had been so kind to her except that he looked so much younger. Before she could focus, a screeching young male blazed past with metal consuming his form...screaming incoherent mumbling random phrases despite the fact he seemed worried about the metal swallowing his form. As Lea watched him, her vision swirled to a lycan of some sorts reeling in terror as some man tried to help him with his arm as it turned itself inside out.

All the pain and torment conjoined into this masculine figure that ruptured into an explosion and a drowning roar muted out all other noise. Lea's heart sank in deep pain as she witnessed a beautiful feminine white dragoness dying.

Tears streamed from the Lady Lea's eyes as she screamed in torture as she crumpled on herself.

Breakfast had been sufficiently eventful, if you'd asked Pendryg, who had begun to feel moody, nagged by the faint feeling of brewing storms whipping themselves up into a frenzy. Normally it was easier to push it aside, but there was just something in the air...
Nonsense of course. It was probably just because he'd been arguing 'gods' with the Lady. As a result, he expected, perhaps a little more than Seifer who watched the woman with a deep curiosity, as though he'd figured out something about her and hadn't elected to share it yet, however when ahead of them by a few paces, the lady burst out with a gasp and crumpled as though someone had given her a firm kick in the stomach, both of them sprang to life, though Seifer was the one to reach her first, being a certain degree taller.
"Are you alright?" Seifer demanded, boots skidding in the sand as he reached to almost put a hand on her shoulder, then paused. Magic at work and no idea how he might affect it, after all.

Not expecting the sudden, fervent embrace, Seifer tensed, frozen by an unexpected intimacy. Like Lei, and even like Pendryg, he'd suddered his own loss of someone dear, but with his repeated reincarnations, he'd had far less cumulative time for the memories of his wife and child's torture and death at the hands of an villain called Sano.
Still unsure of what it was that had affected her so strongly, he gave her a gentle pat. Around them, aside from Pendryg's thunderstruck expression, the beach looked more or less the same, though there was an angry darkness to the water that might have previously gone unoticed, and far on the edge of the horizon was a dark rim of cloud.

(I got heather's permission to join up and get this dog and pony show up to date hahaha I'll just try to provide scene where I can :offtopic: )

The water along the shore line lapped lazily. The sky was blue. Whatever the lady had scene in her mind didn't seem to have manifested as of yet. But it was sure as the sun rising that things were moving. In what direction though? For good or evil. Time would only tell and there was little that could prepare them even with the warning ... for what must be.

Nothing more could be done for the day. The source of the tracks seemed to be gone and with it the magic that brought them to the shore. It was probably best all returned to the castle.

The return trek would feel heavy on the shoulders of Lea as it was simply a foretelling but not a when or how.

(was thinking maybe her and seifer were called away during sea gate smoosh but I can run where they end up and seifer going chibi? :offtopic: )

There was discussion though light on the way back. Pen was mostly in shock. He believed her and made that clear but was still unsure as to how one could prevent such an event or when it would come.

He asked if Seifer would go with Lea to investigate the world in hopes that they might find some clue. Perhaps starting with the Death Guardian's home. She often knew when things were rolling their way towards her husbands power's of destruction. She resided in the golden tree at the middle of the world in the rules of Enoch.

"Since I can't readily leave Seagate, you have my deep, deep gratitude." Pendryg explained, his own face troubled. Something felt wrong, but for now it wasn't much more than the hint of a breeze, which carried the smell of a storm which might or might not ever reach view. "I hardly have the right to ask you this, but a woman of your clear power... may be what we need right now. I and mine will be in your debt."

The golden, once silver, tree was well known to Seifer. There was an air about it that would make him feel very much out of his element. Oddly that was nearly exactly the case. Still it was the best place to start in the matters of the silver lady's vision. It stood at the center of the world and he would know the way. Through the old ruins of Enoch...the vampire city.

Ghosts lingered
Old memories
...and death