The Forsaken Art

Anna blushed deep red, saying nervously, "we, um, we used to color each other's hair, and draw pictures, we even wrote stories. She was good at drawing, and I was good at making up stories. And sometimes we'd.....well....um.....we'd, "have fun with each other."

As she said this, she covered her mouth with her hand and was sent into a fit of giggles.

Amanda raised an eyebrow. "You... 'had fun' with each other? What exactly do you mean by that, Anna?"

She giggled, turning red, before saying, "well, um.....we'd, oh fuck, what's it called? Intercourse? I can't fucking remember."

She sighed, resting her head in her hands.

Amanda blinked. "Oh.... OH.... Well..." at this point, she knelt in front of Anna and tilted her head up. "Maybe you and I could.... 'have fun' together." without a further thought to what she was doing, her body moved on its own, and she kissed Anna.

Anna gave a little gasp in surprise when Amanda kissed her, before closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around the other girls neck, welcoming the kiss fully.

Zelcys watched Carl approach then looked him in the eyes, "I take it you've heard of the Czar's death, Carl?" She asked, "Cress is in line for the throne... but he doesn't deserve it and I need CORE's help."

She then flicked her tail briefly before turning away slightly, "I do know about your... affiliation with them." the feline added, her ears flattening.

Carl sighed at the last part of her statement as her ears went flat. He looked down at the ground and kicked it a little, before sighing. She knew he was a mole, and judging by her tail flick and ear flattening, she wasn`t to happy about it. He sighed, and lifted his head up slightly. "One thing," He lifted his face up to look her right in the eyes. "How did you know?"

June looked down at the poor excuse for an animal that the man had become. She was in the mirror realm, a special area that only a Mirror Walker such as herself could take someone to. They were especially rare mages, usually being slaughtered before they could even walk in the magical genocide of the past due to thier obviously magical features. Mainly, white hair and yellow eyes. Ever since her breakdown years ago, June's eyes had become dull and unnatural reflective extensions of herself.

"Please... no more!" The man begged as June fiddled around in her black outfit until she took out a dagger.

"Magic...." She uttered back before cutting his side again. The putrid wound grew unsanitary with how long he had been there. He obviously showed a fear of mana now. June just needed to wait for him to take it in so she could break him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!!!"

Hostillity. That wasn't good, or was it? The witch thought back to her earlier days of being tormented. Was she hostile back then? It shouldn't matter, as long as she could reproduce the results. "Magic...." She said again, cutting him. Was this extreme? Maybe, but she just had to figure out why she lost her own fear of mana. Countless generations of mages could benifit from whatever she discovered!

Finally, when the man had passed out, June opened a portal and found herself phasing out of a window. She focused on her staff's crystal ball and found Jessie easilly.

"Are you all right?" June asked as she approached her daughter. "I was so worried about you, but just had to deal with some buisiness.... You know how it is, dear."

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Arvein jumped up, having finally finished the paperwork on the mage he killed the other day. Who would've thought that it would take so long to do paperwork on 1 mage that just randomly appeared? Hey, who would've thought that mages friends would show up just as unexpectedly? The assassin looked at the three bodies outside in a sort-of pile. This was going to be a nightmare to figure out....

"Eh Carl, you sure there's not a better way to deal with this?" He waited a response, but was met with nothing. "Carl!" He shouted... where could he be?

After searching the entire HQ, Arvein finally realized Carl was gone. When did he leave? Under his breath, Arvein cursed the paperwork....

"I guess Cress could figure this out. He always seemed like a smart sort-of guy."

"The same way I knew about The Chosen's return before the Czar," She said, "To properly aid the Czar I simply employed a network of assistants and spread them throughout the New Republic's lands. It's that simple."

She then added, "Now I have a question. Why were you working against the Czar?"

Carl, turned his gaze back to the ground. "I wasn`t against the Czar, per say. I`m against the New Republic, the corruption within the system per say. " He looked back up towards her face, and held back a slight tear. "The system could work I suppose, but the way it is now, it just leads to mindless bloodshed." He closed his eyes again, and bit his lip. "Murder." He opened his eyes again and looked at her, wondering how she was feeling about all this. Did she think he betrayed her? Had he?

He shook the thought from his head and went on. "When I was younger, I was a paladin in the New Republic as I am now. There was this town it had harbored around 3 mages, and the pop was around 300. We only had to capture a few mages, bu we destroyed the entire town. We burnt every building in sight, those that tried to run to get away were killed on the spot." He closed his eyes and looked away hearing the young boys cries over and over again in his head. "Momma, momma momma, wheres momma? Momma, thats yo."He muttered, remembering his own sword to end the crying mortal boys life. Tears began to run down his cheek.

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Jessie was just about to snag a stupid foolish New Republic lackey, she was just about to sneak up to him and snag his wallet when she heard a voice behind her. She wheeled around her daggers out, her black died hair swinging in the wind, her daggers were up in the air ready to lunge at the persons neck, when she was who it was. She dropped her daggers and hugged the black robeab women in front of her. "Mom!" The end statement, unnerved her a little bit knowing very well, what she meant though her mom tread her best to keep her in the dark. She knew her mom had her reasons and left it at that, as she pulled away from the hug. "You won`t believe who I met the other day.

Zelcys took in the information then moved to hug him, "It's alright. I understand." She said softly, using one of her paws to remove the tears from his cheek, "But herein lies the problem... If we let Cress take Lucian's place more paladins will be forced to suffer the same as you, or worse."

She eventually stopped hugging him then said, "If I have to... I'll take Lucian's place from Cress by force... which is why I need CORE's help."

Dany gazed at the sea, tears flowing on her face without being called "Dammit. Why?!" She mumbled to herself, seemingly angry at something "I have to find her... That message... Who would say such a thing?"

"It's past the time of when I should depart..." She said, holding Kamikaze in one hand and a backpack being held on her other hand for a moment "I will find her... No matter what it takes"

In a moment she was there crying, in the other she had already flashstepped away.

A moment before going she had made sure that Kamikaze's new sheath was able of nullifying anything related to light magic so that Jessie could not track her.

"I want to hear about everything you've been up to, dear." June patted Jessie on the head, comforting her. Who knows what sort of trouble she could've gotten in to. "But first, how has your mirror magic been develouping?"

Greyson sighed, shaking his head.

"Mircana, tell the Venetian governor that this city's military ties with Arce are...'nullified' until further notice."

"But Greyson, they're on their way here. Why would you do such a thing? The war's ending and the Army will be here soon, even Dad." She turned to him. "Please Greyson...don't do this. Lives will be at stake, millions dead."

"I'm pretty sure this here C.O.R.E can handle them." He began walking for the Venetian Parliament building. "I'm sure they can..." Mircana hesitantly followed suit, looking around.

"Can I get something to eat? I'm hungry." Greyson nodded.

"Same. Anything but pasta."

"Sure."

Trent slowly followed Greyson, not saying words until the subject of food came up.

"Oh man, I sure could e..." As soon as he started the last word, he was hit in the face by a giant steak. "Seriously..."

A few minutes later Cress was back at his house. Ezekiel had told him it would be fairly simple to have Cress on the throne in a few days. However, Zelcys' words made him nervous. "No!" He said to himself. "I already have Jaide on my side. All I have to do is wait for her to arrive and we can think up a plan." He walked into the kitchen, a newspaper in hand. Cress started brewing a cup of coffee and sat down. "Damn." He said while looking at the clock. "Already One in the afternoon!"

Her touch soft touch manged to calm him down and he sighed. "I wasn`t the one who suffered the worst," He said, in a low hushed voice, as the dead body's flashed before his eyes. He sighed and looked at her. "I have a contact, in Napples. It`d be best to go there first so she can set things up. Though before we head down there, do you have any coffee?" He asked while holding hid head, he was still a little hung over from the amount of sorrow drowning he had done the night before.

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Jessie nodded, unhugging her mother and smiling. "My tracking getting better, I manged to track Danerys to a beach last night." Her smile, then turned to a frown and a blush as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Though I kinda ended up in a guys shower last night trying to mirror walk home. " Her face then lit up as something struck her, she peeked beyond the bend and scouted out the area. "My Illusion magics getting better though yiu wanna see?"

June laughed slightly at her daughter's comment. "I hope there wasn't anyone using the shower when you barged in." Who would have ever guessed her own daughter would grow to become so much better at her father's craft. Often, June had considered how much faster her work would go with Jessie helping, but she would never dare expose her to such violence.

"I would love to see your illusions, but first lets get you home. A good friend of mine told me that it's not as safe out here as it used to be...."

After two hours of negotiations the task was complete.

The Venetian government would cut all military ties with its sister city Arce. Although visibly upset, they understood the circumstances and hoped there would be trade. Greyson, Annamaria, Nursery and Ntebele all agreed that agriculture was vital, and that non-military trade was obviously unaffected. The large group headed to a restaurant and ate before heading back to the docks. As they left Greyson stopped Trent and sighed.

"You're needed better here than in Arce. You're always welcome for visits. And..." Nursery appeared and smiled.

"I'll miss you Trent. And here's your gift." She presented him a black and red katana with a chain at the hilt that ended in a mace. "This was my favorite war weapon. Now it's yours." She kissed Trent before heading on the boat with the others. Mircana hugged Trent tightly before letting go.

"An interesting man you are. I do hope we meet again." As she left Greyson fist-pounded him before getting in the boat and pushing off.

"Remember Trent...evolved Piemancy is Steakmancy."

Trent turned his head slightly as they walked away.

"What Am I supposed to do with 3..." Before he could finish the sentence, the sword made for attacking jagers disintegrated, and left a pile of ash at his feet.

"Er... Two magical fire swords?" He stopped, they were already gone.

"Well... I'm all alone again... No one here besiiiiiide me!" He continued the song as he walked off, slinging the new sword into it's sheath, and strapping it to his back.

Spoiler:

Breathing hard, a grin on her face, she snuggled up to Amanda's side. Pressing a kiss to her cheek and saying, "how was that for fun?"

Jessie frowned at her mother, before picking up her daggers, and turning around. " She shook her head, why didn`t her mom understand that? She herself had stolen for a living, and its not like she was bringing anything in, then why didn`t she understand. Jessie sighed and made her way out of the ally. She found a rush of people walking towards the feary, she shrugged something must have happened in Rome or Napples. Jessie, slipped into the crowd, and slipped out again holding not one, not two, but three wallets full of money. She`d been doing this for a while, she stuffed the wallets into her bag, and slung it over her shoulder whilsteing a little dity. As she made her way down the city street, she smiled at people, but inside she couldn`t get over how much better these people lived. Most of these houses, had non holey roof,s and the heat actually worked. Jessie sighed before spotting her last target of the day, a big chubby man in a black sweat stained sleeveless tee, who was eating ice cream and reading the news paper. The fool had a full clip of money, sticking right out of his pocket, Jessie slintly walked up to him.

Amanda grinned at Anna, her breathing heavy and ragged. "Girly, you're amazing." she breathed.

Anna giggled and pressed another kiss to her cheek, pulling the covers over them.

"Was it really that good? You weren't bad yourself, to be honest."

Amanda walked her fingers over Anna's breasts. "Mmm... better than any other I've had." she said, a small smile on her face as she snuggled up to Anna under the covers.