Things That Go Bump in the Dark [Ophelia/Zacharia]

[Ophelia]

At this point, the confusion washed over the tiny abyssal like the gentle caress of the nether, albeit not quite as soothing, and considerably more confusing. So... actually not at all like the nether. But it was a vaguely similar feeling for reasons she could explain. Nonetheless, it seemed that her gambit had succeeded, which was good. Probably. It was actually kind of hard to tell. She tensed up a little when he talked about 'not letting them out of his sight again,' but that turned out to be a misunderstanding, or miscommunication.

Surprisingly, simply standing there and eacting grated on her slightly. Ophelia was used to being left out of conversations and didn't mind, she hated to impose, but it was growing very tiresome to be confused all the time. What did Phos know they were? Did he know she was an abyssal? Was that bad? Why did Zach panic about it? She didn't need super senses or mind reading skills to hear the sudden intake in breath, the hesitation and almost fear in his voice, the off-beat tempo of his words. And what did the elderly gentleman mean by the strange gesture? Was doing that with his fingers some kind of arcane sign? Hmm... she was fairly sure she could recall how to do it if she had to.

On the bright side, Mr. Phos was willing to show them the way out, so out of ingrained politeness she bowed lightly to him, trying her best to smile and getting very little more than a very slight uptick to the sides of her lips. "Thank you for your kindness Mr. Pho. We appreciate your aid. It was a pleasure to meet you, sir."

It didn't seem that anyone was interested in explaining things to her, though, so Ophelia turned to her companion with simplistic curiosity evident in her eyes, even if her face still looked about as expressionless as a statue. She tried not to speak too loudly, but it was quite within earshot for their quest, and unfortunately perfectly audible to Zach. "Zach, what did that gesture mean, and what does Mr. Pho know about us? You didn't tell him he was wrong, so it must be true." She repeated the gesture just in case Zach had missed it. With any other girl on earth it would have been blatantly obvious she was absolutely bullshitting Zach like a professional, but unfortunately the little voidborn's queries were as genuine as they were innocent, her lack of understanding of the situation written on her face as clear as day.

[Zacharia]

"I um, yeah, thank you. Pho." Still a lovely shade of pink in the face and feeling... different from their encounter, Zacharia hurried after their guiding light, already wandering off. It didn't matter if he was a vendor or the Saint herself, if he never saw Phos again it'd be too soon. It was only when the old man disappeared from sight as they rounded a sharp corner that the mage found it safe to breathe again. Well, safe in comparison to having both your ribs AND your pride bruised. Unfortunately, Ophelia was all too keen to bring up the sore subject again. With a perfect replica of the old apothecary's gesture to boot. "I, um," Zach stammered, turning his head to look at literally anything else. The boy put his hand over his mouth, trying not to cry out in distress. "It's not i-impuhportant. Please, just do us both a favor and never bring it up again."

It was good to see that getting kinky was something that transcended times.

As Ophelia and Zach grew further apart from Phos, the light in front of them started taking on a less and less corporeal shape. Hoping to break the silence again, the mage scratched the back of his neck searching for a topic. It could've been anything, anything at all. Just as long as it could get rid of that image in his mind. "So... we were talking about magic, right? You wouldn't happen to know of any other Elder mages in the city, would you? I've run into a couple of them, going around the streets. Most of them seem a little recluse or a little... odd, if you know what I mean."

Then again, Zach wasn't quite normal himself, but he didn't find himself strange in the way that most advanced dark mages tended to be. Maybe being so invested in such a supernatural school was odd in and of itself. Ophelia seemed earnest enough too, if not a little uncanny in her appearance. Only when Phos mentioned her chains did the boy really take notice of them, and sure enough, glancing back at the girl again, they were still there. Maybe the old man was right, and she was one of... those kinds of people. He shuddered, shaking off the idea. "It'd be great if you knew, say, a forum of mages, or what not. There's so many people that can use magic here that it's hard to find someone who's knowledgeable enough to share pointers with. Err, but I guess that'd be a little presumptuous of me. Sorry."

Although the light grew dimmer by the second, the mages were getting close to the plaza. The bricks changed from their natural dishevelment to a newer, more orderly pattern in the dirt, and the streets they passed cutting through the alleyway slowly became more recognizable for Zacharia. Though he wasn't confident enough to dousing the light just yet, if left to his own devices, it wouldn't take too long to find his way home. Home. That was sounding really good right about now. A nice warm sack to sleep on by the firelight, and the promise of warm food in the morning. The boy resolved to put some extra piety into his church's morning rituals once he awoke. Just as he was thinking of home, however, the thought of Ophelia popped into his mind again as a stray chain lightly brushed against his trousers.

"Not to pry, but... you have somewhere to go tonight, right?" Half of him wanted to apologize for inadvertedly dragging her across the neighborhood, but the other half of him started to grow curious for his mysterious ward.

[Ophelia]

Doing them both a favor? Well now, that was just intriguing. Was there some strange, arcane power to that gesture that she could not feel? She didn't think so. Ophelia was pretty familiar with Arcane magic and she definitely didn't detect any right now. She acceded to Zach's will on the subject, but privately refused to shelf the notion. She WOULD find out what it meant and what power it had! If there was such a big deal about keeping it secret, there must be real power to it, power that might even help her find her master. Even if it was a dead end, it was SOMETHING she could do, so she owed it to him and to herself to try.

Zach ill knew the kind of stubborn stupidity he had unleashed, or how badly it would end for the both of them.

The hapless mage, unwitting of the dire consequences of his actions, asked a simple question that temporarily staved off the coming end-times by breaking her concentration and causing her to temporarily forget to research it at the first chance she got. Other elder mages...? She could smell them just fine, it was hard to miss the familiarity, but she didn't actually KNOW any of them. Most of the ones she had talked to hadn't been very nice. "I, um," the little voidborn began with optimism that she could finish her sentence - a false hope that was not born out by reality. She was left scrambling to figure it out. "I don't know anyone here," she eventually settled on, taking refuge in the sordid truth. "B-but there are lots of mages in the city, so I'm sure you can find them?"

She would have offered to help, but Ophelia wasn't exactly a professional mage-hunter, nor did she know how to search by the qualities Zach had indicated. If he gave her something concrete to work off of he might have been surprised by just how good of a tracker she could be, within very limited constraints at least, but it was not the case for the time being. "I'm sorry."

As usual she was hopelessly lost, following Zach in the empty hopes that he knew what he was doing, so it was a pleasant surprise that they seemed to be closing in on something resembling civilization. Well. More civilization. Arcadia was a huge place with many varieties of civilization after all. At least she knew how to navigate from here, meaning that she wouldn't have to burden Zach further! So that was nice. He took her off guard by asking her where she stayed though. Shouldn't he be focusing on getting home himself, rather than worrying about her? Ophelia couldn't say that she... disliked the concern, but it felt wasted on someone like her.

Stopping abruptly as he did after the question, Ophelia curtseyed simply, lowering her head as her bonds rattled quietly from the unexpected motion. "Please do not concern yourself about me." It was selfish, but looking back up at the young nether mage, for a moment she almost wanted to say something else entirely. Even if it was only out of politeness, it felt... good to have someone worry about her. Even if she didn't deserve it. Even if Zach should be considering himself instead. But she couldn't be a burden again, and so she stopped herself from saying what she wanted to, regardless of how much she wanted to. "I will... find something."