Yellow Brick Road (Open)

November 20th, 2880
Eorzea, Coerthas Central Highlands
21:57 PM

In the late night, the star dotted sky was the only thing hanging above the Eorzean countryside bar of course the irregular passage of a dragon or airship. In this land between Ishgard, the Black Shroud and Mor Dhona it was serene, free of troubles and other qualms that may have once plagued the land and possibly some of them would return to do so at dawn. But alas, not all was made to last forever and certainly not the serene night.

Certainly not this serene night.

Suddenly without warning, interrupting the beauty of night there was a sphere of light. All below were showered in a sudden inexplicable light, yet despite how utterly, undeniably, uncomfortably bright the sphere was not much light issued forth from it. Like it was keeping it all to itself, sheltering it, coveting it like a treasure in the deep dark night. And what was more precious then light, revolting light. Unwelcome light.

Soon however, the sphere descended downwards. Like a star falling from its premier perk atop the apex of the heavens brought to the dirt below, at the same time the light began to be devoured by the orb itself replaced by a mirror image of the environment except despite the darkness, well lit. Every detail, every speck of dust visible on this mirror as it danced. Pulsing in and out like the beat of a heart.

And then, as it pulsed outwards the sphere began rotating against its own axis. Two halves now made, one for each direction of rotation.

And it would not be the only star that fell today.

Meteorites would join its descent, impacting the soil around the sphere as it hovered in a valley, craters soon appearing around it the fallen stars, or rather cubes remaining in their resting places.

'Well they were right, that's pretty hard to miss... and not exactly rich with descriptors.'

Sailing through the night sky came the Highwind Mk. II, the blueish hue of its crystal energy lighting the ground as the airship banked wide and low coming in fir a hot landing. Inaa jerked the ship back and forth as the rain of rocks threatened her approach, eventually sliding the Highwind into a dip between two rocky crests. The feline Dragoon disembarked with a leap of a jump, landing into a run before suddenly stopping. "They said to stop it, but how do you stop a big marble?"

Inaa wondered as she drew the lance hanging behind her back. Not yet daring to approach the mysterious sphere, the Dragoon plucked a stone from the ground and pitched it hard at the anomalous force of geometry.

Evreaux Clihodard hung on to whatever he could on the Highwind while Inaa piloted it. Had he not been riding dragons since he was a boy, the experience may had twisted his stomachs in knots and emptied their contents with the way she was dodging stones and weaving between rocks. Never the less, he was greatful when the ship finally touched back down to soil. He hopped down from the side of the ship, eyes scanning the metalic and bubble hued marble before them. "Pop it?" He turned his head to Inaa, "I've no other idea. Pop it like a balloon or bubble and hope it's not metal." He scratched his nose, then lowered the visor of his Drachen armor. "With luck, we'll be out of here before the Hoard gets wind of our presence."

S'nabyano closed her book with a sigh and with clear reluctance rose to peer over the airship's edge to look at the reason all of them were there. The chain that she had spelled into existence that had tied her to the deck of the airship for the duration of the flight shattered, the motes of aether it was made of fading into the air. "It's an arcane construct." She said, eyes narrowed as she studied it, her previous reluctance fading away. There was no there for her to see, not that she had expected it to have such from the description given. But it was a marvelous creation, that much was obvious despite its form being the most reminiscent of a melted clay figure reshaped into a sphere.

"Stab it hard enough and it's bound to work." She shrugged, making no moves to join the dragoons. She was just here to witness the thing. It really was a marvel of a work, why had it been just left here in the middle of nowhere like yesterday's trash she did not know.

She giggled as she thought of the one action the construct before them had been seen to do. "But a word of advice, coming from a tome about the Far East: 'Be not afraid of falling stars.'"

S'nabyano took out another book to which make notes to with a pen. "Well, get on with it."

Both of them were Azure Dragoons, they'd be fine.

As the pebble was flung, striking the sphere it seemed to grind to a halt in a sense. The rocks it had cast down, perfectly square in their own way suddenly folded out arms and began levitating. Racing towards the two Azure Dragoons behind it, the perfectly spherical object twisted and contorted shrinking inwards, had this small pebble dealt such grievous a blow to reduce it to naught but a small sphere? No, it had not. Within a moment it exploded outwards, the circular sphere becoming sharp and jagged now a pyramid rotating on one of its points in the sky. All the while the air was filled with discomforting sounds, like metal being forged after it had already gone cold.

And immediately a beam raced out from it, the environment being carved by the black energy heading towards the two Dragoons. The highwind, fortunately, seemed to not be on the radar of the menacing formerly circle currently triangle. But what wasn't helping were circles of light appearing randomly and rapidly throughout the environment, detonating in small pillars. One could infer that the geometry had been angered. Its comrades, the cubes still barreling towards the two assailants seemed completely unaffected by this however.

Meanwhile, aboard the Highwind MK II.

"Bardam the Brash, a classic." A voice spoke behind the Miqo'te, speaking in hushed tone. A robed figure with a red mask stepping out of a cloud of dark, an Ascian "Oh and lets keep things quiet, your friends have enough to worry about currently." He stood just a bit shorter than her, though the mask and robes obscured everything aside that basic information and that he was no Lalafell.

"Besides, I merely want a conversation. If you'd prefer a bout then I can make some time for that I suppose." While stated nonchalantly it was bordering upon a dare. A smile accompanied it shortly after. "Now then, if that is an arcane construct, what would you claim it was constructed to do?"

Inaa's brow furrowed as her attempt to gain the sphere's attention seemingly succeeded; it was hard to gauge the malevolent marble. The Miqo'te darted off to dodge the hurtling cubes, but as she ran a circle of light appeared around her. Pushing off with the butt of her lance, Inaa sprang back out of the light before it erupted but widened her eyes in shock as the sphere fired its beam. Already poised and ready to spring from the landing , Inaa jumped high into the air to avoid the blast.

"If it'll pop, then here goes nothing!"

Energy wreathed the Dragoon as she spun her lance about and dropped like a meteor of her own rewards the sphere. Fiery aether erupted from the tip of her spear as Inaa aimed it down and made to to drive it in, her foot bracing against the blunt back end of the weapon's head.

Evreaux watched the sphere come to a halt. Surely, a single pebble wasn't enough to defeat it, right? It shrunk inward, collapsing on itself. "You have got to be kidding me." He stared dumbfounded, there was no way, no WAY that a little pebble defeated this massive living geometry. Disbelief turned into disappointment as it exploded outward in a new shape. The sphere structure, now pyramid, looked quite ominous. What on Hydaelyn-

With Inaa, Evreaux jumped away, a near mirror to her to dodge the beam. He cursed under his breath and rolled out of the way of the pillars of explosions. "I think you angered it Inaa." He pulled the spear from its holster on his back and swung it around in front of him. "I'll handle it's friends. Take that thing out!" He lept, bringing his lance down upon the angry cubes, jumping off to launch himself at the next soon as he got his feet under him. If the attack destroyed the cube, all the better, but he was happy just gaining their attention.

Startled, S'nabyano slammed her book shut and turned to glare at the man that was suddenly behind her. "There are better ways to approach a woman than to sneak behind her and whisper surprise quizzes into her ear." She huffed, though her voice was lower than usual like the Ascian had requested. "I thought I could finally leave them in the past the day I got my Archon's Mark. Though inflicting them on others one day could be nice..." She trailed off, an almost wistful sigh escaping her lips as she thought of the possible future she had muttered. She hated the damn things but she was certain that seeing the panic and desperation on the students would be both cathartic and exhilarating.

The appearance of the arcane construct was vastly more understandable now, with the appearance of the Ascian before her. Of course, S'nabyano had both heard and read about the enigmatic Ascians, but there was little to no knowledge about them, save their apparent hostile nature. But at least right here, right now, she did not think she was in danger from him. He could have attacked her without announcing himself with ease yet chose not to do so.

Besides, this was a golden chance to converse with - and hopefully learn about - an Ascian.

"If I answer in a satisfactory manner will I be allowed to ask a question for a question and receive an answer in turn?" She asked as she turned back towards the beginning of the battle. The choice between a conversation and a certain battle was not a choice at all. There was no guarantee that he would speak truthfully, if he spoke of anything of value at all, or that it would not lead to a battle no matter what he said, but it was still much better than the alternative. While S'nabyano had been called obsessed with her research and hunt for knowledge and she could not fully deny those accusations, no one had ever called her a fool. And only a fool would choose to fight here and now.

"It is, as of right now, impossible to know and tell what the construct's design was designed for. It's form offers no hints and even well meaning constructs made for maintenance and cleaning can be twisted to offensive purposes easily enough when done by an expert. But if you are asking what I think it is doing here that is a different matter."

She was silent for a moment as she gathered her thoughts.

"It is well known that Eorzea is, for reasons unknown, denser in aether than the rest of the world, but if it was here for something to do with that then there was no reason to do it here, or in such a public fashion. Similarly, the falling stars it used could have been a way to trigger something in the earth, but the cube creatures that came from the points of impact make that unlikely, as well as the collisions' haphazard nature. For simple destruction it would have been dropped in a city to cause as much devastation as possible."

"No, I'd claim you placed it here to test for something, or even multiple things at once. Judging by the spectacle with which it attracted attention to it, testing Eorzean Alliance in some way as well as the construct's efficacy in combat are the most likely objectives, though I do not know what you would be after with the former."

The meteoric dive collided with the side of the geometrical shape, pushing it backwards as they collided while no wounds or damage was seen, one could not simply take a blow like such without consequence in contrast to the pebble prior, A pulse of holy energy burst from the Pyramid, aiming to push the Dragoon backwards now that she was without grip in the air. And then the pyramid shrunk inwards once more, a small cube forming in the center of the geometrical menace, which proceeded to fold out multiple times, growing until it had returned to its former size.

Static begun to hang in the air, the kind that made hairs dance and metal shock one on the touch. But the space around the now cube seemed to not adhere to this mounting electricity, that and the Highwind Mk II seemed to also remain unshocked fortunately. The space inhabited by Evreaux however, was right in the middle of the electrified zone. While his blows were indeed dealing grievous blows to whichever blocky minions met the tip of his lance the remainder, glaring at him with malicious intent, summoned winds in retort.

Tornadoes amassed around him, closing in and aiming to both disable any real vision as well as pelt him with the wind aspected Aethirical attacks. To say nothing about jumping into a maelstrom. Thus, 'its friends' while brittle in front of the Azure Dragoon's weapon would not suffer these blows unanswered.

There was a shrug from the Ascian in retort to the first response.
"That would imply a slew of questions, this was but one." He stepped past her, leaning forward onto the railing of the airship, watching the battle unfurl. "That will depend on your question, if it is one that does not warrant an answer then I will not. Otherwise I don't see why not." It would seem the Ascian winced slightly as the meteoric plummet struck the intruding creature construct.

He remained however, quiet as she explained her view of it. His gaze was firmly on it instead of her, the last line however recover or perhaps for better or worse refocused his attention. No longer leaned the robed figure in casual manner down the side.
"Quite bold to claim me cause of it, is one not allowed to look upon unusual happenings nowadays?" The eyes behind the mask remained hidden, preventing her from looking into them for as much as a glimpse at the so called soul. "Whether I am or not, I feel I will keep for myself. It matters to me not whether you consider me cause or observer."

He once again leaned down, "Well go then, ask your question."

Inaa brought her offhand up to shield her face as the orb's light gathered and blew her away, the Miqo'te limply sailing through the air before curling up and righting her orientation with a flip before skidding back along the ground. "What a pain, why couldn't it have just been a Dravanian," the Dragoon said to herself. Aether rising up from within, Inaa pounced forward back into the fight, the electricity in the air trailing along with each step.

Twisting her lance about, the feline Dragoon struck at the geometric menace with a flurry of swipes, kicks, and double ended stabs as if searching for some form of opening or weak point. As Inaa attacked, she attempted to find an alternative orientation to draw the enemy's attention to, hopefully away from her allies and her airship.

"Damnit-" Evreaux hunkered down, buffeted by the winds. The tang of electricity filled the air, a threatening maelstrom combined that would overwhelm anyone. Almost anyone. There was no jumping out of this just yet, but he didn't quite need to. He could weather the storm and the lightning. His hand reached into his mail, touching something unseen nestled within the confines. And from the Eye nestled against his breast, he drew power and directed it into shimmering protective dome around him, seemingly constructed of a glittering rainbow of iridescent scales. Once the blast from the sphere- cube- whatever! went off, he would drop the shield and charge forward to once again assail the living blocks with his lance.

S'nabyano scoffed as she turned her head to glare at the Ascian with narrowed eyes. "There's hardly a point to this discussion if you are intent on insulting my intelligence." She snapped. "One is of course allowed to look at curious, unusual happenings. Encouraged even, if one were to ask me. But this?" She waved her hand towards Ozma and the Azure Dragoons fighting one another.

"This is not something that just anyone could make. It would be the magnum opus and pride of any mage that created it. It wouldn't be thrown out like a dirty table rag covered in piss for no evident purpose. The only group I can think of that has the means to do something like this with enough ease to just throw it away in the middle of nowhere would be the Ascians, the mysterious lot that taught us summoning in the first place."

S'nabyano shrugged and turned back to the fight. "At least feign ignorance in more believable a manner, that is all I ask. But my question I would like an answer to is a simple one: Is it possible to improve 'Summoning magic' to the point where the creations created with it are permanent instead of requiring constant feeding of aether to the construct in order for it to remain?"

As S'nabyano asked her question, the Miqo'te researcher's voice sped up in excitement and passion that it hadn't had prior. Summoning was, quite evidently, something she cared a lot about.

The Cube spun violently both from its own momentum and from the blows against it, yet despite its rotations did not move from its position. From this distance inspecting the surface of the peculiar adversary was simple enough and proved to be frustratingly useless, neither imperfections nor obvious dents or weaknesses were evident from its formation and presence and now from the flat surfaces on either of the six sides it was firing beams in a fashion not unlike a rifle. Beams of blue that shot straight, dissipating after some distance and fortunately before getting close to the ship but still beams the size of a person.

Their target, the Dragoon in close combat with the now Cuboid. A courteously simple barrage but quantity sometimes outweighed difficulty. At the same time the weapon and direct blows carved into the geometrical foe, clearly carving through what made this being a being, slicing away the Aether that composed it with every punch and blow but its perfect shape, coveted by mathematicians and artists longing to both draw a perfect square, remained.

With the storm passed and weathered for Evreaux he would find himself better off then the minions summoned to accost him, his weapon now dealing critical blows to the ones that remained as they suffered his strikes only to crumble. Those that lived to see the other end of it would drop their claws on his hide aiming to tear him piece to piece where he stood. But there were not many left.

The Ascian leaned back against the mast of the ship, eyeing the battle ahead as S'nabyano continued, neither acknowledging her first complaint nor the subsequent remark yet, it was not until her last statement that a proverbial eyebrow was being raised. Seemingly in contemplation or perhaps otherwise.
"That... does warrant an answer. If any question does nowadays that is among them, the simple answer is yes but followed by a sharp no."

She could feel his eyes upon her back instead of the battle now, for better or worse the Ascian's attention was grabbed.
"Yes because 'Summoning magic' as you boorishly call it has far from showed its apex. No because, it simply said will not." There was a pause, it seemed even the Ascian needed to think on the matter "Perhaps..." The contemplation however ended there as he fell silent once more.

"This... Is extremely... ANNOYING!" Evreaux shouted to Inaa as he danced through the cluster of stone cubes, felling one after another. At least now the outbreak of blocks began to dwindle. Still, they fought back against him to the bitter end. Their claws scored mail and armor, then their owners crumbled to his lance. Evreaux surveyed the battlefield once no more grasping hands came for him. A quick breather once satisfied all were downed and he made his way to the ever shifting geometry.

He paused in his approach for a moment and gripped his lance tight. Was he watching Inaa fight? Yet after that pause, he ran straight for the orb-box-pyramid-annoyance and jumped. Like Inaa before, he led with his lance, bringing the force of might down upon the top of the not orb. Rather than kick off, he remained perched upon it. He used his lance to anchor himself, then bent down to knock on the square orb with his gauntleted fist as if knocking on a door. "Knock knock, Time to play." He stabbed the sometimes orb again, first with the front of his spear, then the butt of it, before backflipping off. "Over here, you giant floating eyeball!" Hopefully, he could draw the attention from Inaa and she could find some weak point to finish it before it did whatever it was geometry did to their prey. Bore it to death with lectures? Eat it? Squish it?

Inaa's eyes shot to the side as the geometrical foe called forth its assistants away from her fellow dragoon. Just as Evreaux looked to her, so too did she for but a split second before he began to advance to her position.

The Miqo'te sprung high up into the air once more, though with a distinct backwards angle towards a corner of the cubic menace. As she sailed through the air a bright light began to envelop the dragoon. Landing safe for the moment, Inaa twirled her spear as the light grew stronger. All around her Aether built up until it billowed and formed the silhouette of a giant, draconic humanoid mimicking the dragoon's movements.

Inaa and the bright figure wheeled their spears to face the cube in unison and a great, twisting beam of energy like coiling dragons erupted from the giant figure's weapon at the foe and approaching geometrical minions.

"I knew it!" S'nabyano's triumphantly exclaimed, but the triumph did not stay for long as her face morphed, and triumph was overcome by a ravenous hunger, her eyes blazing with determination. "That information alone is more than enough. Your claim of the impossibility of the task will only spur me on even more. I will prove the falsity of your claim. Even if I won't, those that come after will."

She exhaled, and then snorted in amusement. "Grand, glorious claims aside, we're in agreement on one thing at least. 'Summoning' is an entirely unfitting name for what it actually does, and ought to have been discarded a long time ago. But much as 'Creation' is a more accurate description of the magic, summoning has stood as its established term for so long I'm doubtful that will ever change."

As the last of the additional foes was felled both Dragoons were capable of turning their attention on their spherical assailant. One landing on top of the somehow solid reflection of environment dancing across the mirror sheened visage of the ball and the other carving through it with its draconic energies. Each strike landing against the almost static shape that hung over the environment, carving into its aether supply as it bled not any ichor but rather its life force that was carved out with each strike.

As these strikes landed the Ascian observed, its attention interrupted by the triumphant declaration of the one besides him. The mask turned to look at the woman whose eyes looked like they could carve a path through mountains if it revealed any additional information. Of course, that would not deter. He would have been sorely disappointed if it did.

And then she said something even more defining.
"It would be more accurate, because that be the correct description."
Perhaps, there was hope for the future to even stand in the shadow of the past. A hope long stilled now felt embers within its embrace.

His eyes shot back to the battle, as from the ship they could see a lightshow. Moments prior, the sphere had collapsed in on itself, folding its cube shape inwards like a retreating Rubix cube before pulsing out as a sphere. It was when that a line divided the two halves, one dark and one light. But both the dragoons were given barely a moment's rest before a loud noise, like the collapsing of a rift, was heard. Carrying all the way to the ship as just outside it a blue flaming sphere scraped by.


Inside, the two Dragoons would be thrown around and up as the sphere itself seemed to vanish. Their surroundings now alien and different, floating isles and looming clouds in this seeming moment of captured eternity where nothing moved and everything rested. Well, nearly nothing moved.
In the clouds above, a burning light raged on. Just beyond it lay, or rather fell, something immense. A gigantic rock, on a seeming crash course with the ground moving slowly but surely.

And at the center of it all, the only other thing that moved here. The rotating sphere rested, its surface now dotted with countless stars in a reflection of not its immediate surroundings but the cosmos.

The Ascian watched the wall of black and blue before them, nodding to himself.
"Language, however." He continued as if nothing had happened "Is much more malleable than one might expect, words have the definitions given to them by people. "

The disorientation of reality seemingly bending into a new form momentarily floored Inaa right on her rear. Bewildered, the Miqo'te took in the new surroundings and steadily shifted into a crouch. "Why couldn't it have just been a dragon..."

Aether rose up within Inaa as she stood, her dragon's eye flaring with light. "Let's hurry this up before things inevitably get even weirder." Whirling her lance about once again, the same draconic silhouette began to enveloped her as before. The aetheric construct rose up, but this time it carried Inaa along with it within the center of its chest. The silhouette's form burned with warm, golden tones occasionally flashing with streaks of crimson; its shape built itself into one resembling its host and even bore features reminiscent of Inaa's armor.

With a swipe of its hand, a lance appeared within the radiant spirit's grasp before striking at the geometric foe responsible for the situation.