[Jaykobell]

Whisper Forest wasn't known for its rainbow-filled skies and its refreshing, inviting forestland. It was mostly known for its dark environment and the possibility of those who entered it to stay stuck in it forever. The fog made it hard to navigate, and the dark and quiet atmosphere made most people unwilling to approach it, no matter the cost.

However, it was precisely because of that that one particular woman wanted be in this forest.



The albino threaded through the forest without hesitation, the eerie atmosphere actually calming her nerves ever so slightly. She had gone through so many terrains that were worse than a foggy forest; Whisper Forest was nothing impressive or terrifying to her.

However, the same couldn't be said of the child who was accompanying her. After a few minutes of entering the forest, a small body started clinging to her from behind, and the albino woman hissed from the clinging. "Danika," she warned coldly as she stopped in her tracks and looked down at the girl latching onto her in fear. "Get off."



Despite being ordered to let go, the small girl did the exact opposite and instead clung harder. "I-I'm scared, Sibyl," the child said quietly as she looked up at the albino woman, the urge to hide in the woman's scarf growing all the more.

With Danika clinging more and more to her, Sibyl quickly changed strategies and forcefully pulled the child away from her. "Danika, I told you to get off," the adult pointed out coldly, holding the child by the collar of her black turtleneck. "Don't be scared," she then added, as if being scared was but a decision and not an emotional reaction one couldn't control.

The two had an odd relationship. Sibyl was far from being the greatest role model around, but that mattered very little to her. The reason why the child, Danika, was with her, was because the kid had a ridiculously power amount of dark magic inside her body. The child didn't quite know how to wield it, and so Sibyl had taken her under her wing to teach her how to use her magic effectively. Not to be confused with this being something that Sibyl was doing out of the goodness of her heart. Oh, no: she had every intention of using the child once her powers had been awakened and mastered. She held no emotional attachment to the child: should she fail to become powerful and useful, the albino would probably look elsewhere.

As for Danika, the relationship was quite the opposite. Abandoned by her parents due to her dark magic, the child had lived a dark life up until recently. Left to a despicable home for abandoned children in her hometown, the caretakers neglected her and the other children refused to play with her. That was all under the assumption that she had some sort of curse to her, due to her sporadic releases of dark magic energy. People had been freaked out by her powers and called her a witch, hurting her and leaving her to herself. The only one who had never done such a thing was Sibyl. She was the only one who had ever acknowledged her power as a good thing, and the only one who had taken the girl under her wing. She was grateful for the albino's efforts, and all the girl wanted to do was to learn and develop the dark powers she did have. While she still couldn't quite understand what she could do, she woke up every day with the intention of returning the favor to Sibyl for giving Danika a reason to live, and a reason to grow and learn.

Upon being ordered to stop being scared, Danika simply nodded quickly and looked down. "Y-yes," she squeaked quietly, holding her hands together and patiently waiting for Sibyl's instructions.

"Today will be... different," the albino explained as she cracked her hands, which made the child jump a little in surprise. "This is a spell that you probably won't be able to do until later, but it might manifest if you get agitated."

"Wh-what does it do?" Danika asked, looking back up at her mentor, eyes bright and curious to learn more. Despite Sibyl's passive aggressive comments — such as Danika not being able to learn a certain spell — the child didn't hold any of those words or comments against the albino. By now, she understood that the adult was just curt and cold, and that her words didn't mean anything. In a way, Sibyl just had no communication skills, and she called it like she saw it.

"This will let you manifest your dark magic into something akin to necromancy," Sibyl explained as she flapped her hand to ask the child to step back. This time, the child obeyed and stepped back as far as she needed to. "You gather your energy and use it in order to infuse something with it," the dark mage continued to explain as she started to focus, dark energy starting to form into her hands. "And you can use this spell... to create undead warriors called Risens."

With that explained, the albino focused more energy into her hands before dropping the accumulated energy onto the forest ground, summoning two magic circles. She then took just a few steps back before snapping her fingers in both hands. Upon doing that, the two magic circles activated, and after a bright flash of light, two decaying warriors stood in front of the two mages, armor and weapons included. They made a few gurgling noises before slouching away through the trees and fog ahead, breathing hard and leaving a trail of decaying blood and flesh behind them.

Frightened again, Danika latched onto Sibyl again, and this time even harder, letting out a scream from seeing two undead warriors being summoned. Sibyl put her hand right in front of the girl's face quickly and gritted her teeth. "Shh!" she scolded curtly, the same way one scolded their animal when they did something wrong. "I said to stop being scared."

"B-but won't they attack us?" the child asked as she continued to cling, something she would do up until the albino got sick of the physical contact. Whereas Sibyl couldn't stand the child clinging to her, Danika felt the opposite way. She felt a certain sense of security and comfort when she was close to the albino, even if the touch was often met with disgust or anger.

"It's difficult to control them, but I can give them basic commands. They won't attack us unless I order them to." Which, to be honest, would be a terrible thing to do. "Instead, they can simply get lost in this forest and wreak havoc somewhere. They have no soul: there is no lost or remorse in summoning these zombies. Understood?" she asked as she turned just slightly to look down at the child. There was a short pause as she stared, narrowing her eyes at the girl. "Danika, what did I say about getting off me?"

Immediately, the girl let go and put her hands behind her back, looking away. "Sorry."

[Thunder]

(Human Form)

The misty forest, as gloomy and creepy as it was, did not bother Armatas in the least. He was a man without fear, one who had seen hundreds of battlefields and faced several assassination attempts, and a mere forest wasn't going to unnerve him. In fact, he was here to relax. The Blazing Lord of Telos had spent quite some time running around Evelon to gather information about rumors of a conflict between two powerful forces so he could see whether he could use the situation to his advantage. The task left him stressed and tired, so a casual stroll through the Whisper Forest was his way of calming down.

White puffs of breath left his lips as he exhaled, and he ran his fingers over the bark of trees as he passed them. His furred cape fluttered gently as he walked. All was still around him. Nothing broke the perfect silence.

That was, until he heard a ragged moan.

Armatas stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes, looking around for the source of the sound. It was hard to see due to the fog, but his ears told him the noise was coming from somewhere to his right. He ducked behind a large tree and peered out from behind it, in case whatever made the noise was something dangerous, and in a few moments, the things revealed themselves.

Their appearances were undeniably those of undead warriors. Their flesh was rotting, bones jutted out of their bodies, and the armor they wore was worn and tarnished. The stink of their decay was so strong that the lord winced at it even from a good distance away. While Armatas was no magic expert, he did have a younger brother who was a mage, and based on things that his brother had explained to him before, these zombie soldiers had to be summoned using dark spells. The undead wouldn't come out of their graves on their own.

With a low growl, Armatas drew his longsword, which he carried on him at all times when walking around alone. It could be that whoever summoned these fiends was targeting him, and if that were the case, he'd have to slay the undead quickly so they didn't cause him too much trouble later. Once the two soldiers were close enough, he sprang out from behind the trees and swiftly slashed one's head off. It let out a guttural cry and promptly disintegrated into purple smoke.

The good thing about the undead was that they reacted slowly and could be rather stupid when acting on their own. It took a few moments for the other zombie to realize that its companion had been felled, and by that time, Armatas was already on it. He swung his blade and sliced its arm cleanly off, but that wasn't enough to destroy the soldier completely. The zombie swung back at him with a club, and he leaped to the side, hissing. The lord jumped forth again, and this time he managed to plunge his blade into the center of its chest, severely cracking its ribcage. That damage finally caused it to vanish into smoke like the other one.

Armatas stood still for a few seconds, staying alert in case any other undead were around, but there appeared to be none. Sighing, he sheathed his sword and stared down at the ground where he slayed the two soldiers. Perhaps their master would show up at any moment...

[Jaykobell]

Since Sibyl wasn't expecting Danika to be able to pull off such a big spell right away, the albino ordered the child to move along. The two walked deeper into Whisper Forest, with the albino keeping her gloved hands into her pockets nonchalantly, while the child was following her carefully, looking tense and unnerved at such a scenery. However, if creepy places would help enhance her sense for dark magic, then the girl had no choice but to suck up her fears and to follow. She was doing her best to be brave and to ignore her anxiety and fear, but being a teenager, it was hard for her to do that well. She was still looking all around, keeping her arms tucked tightly against her torso, and keeping her eyes wide open as she looked. She also tried her best not to latch onto Sibyl at every little sound—

But when the gurgled sounds of the undead were heard, together with the sounds of clashing metal, Danika jumped in fear and screamed briefly, once again running straight for Sibyl and latching onto her for dear life.

When the area was quiet, it was always surprising to hear a sudden noise; especially when the person was just minding her business. So when the child screamed, Sibyl cringed from the noise and from the child latching onto her again. No matter how often she ordered the child to not touch her, she would keep doing just that. "Danika," Sibyl hissed dangerously at the child, but no matter how threatening she was, it wasn't enough to demotivate the kid.

"B-but I h-heard—"

The albino put a hand in front of the child's face quickly, cutting her off immediately. The other hand had its fingertips resting on the woman's face in exasperation. "I already told you they won't attack us. It looks like someone found them to begin with." She, too, had heard weapons and moans, but those were noises she was used to hearing often. And speaking of noises, they were probably close enough for the one who had cut the warriors down to hear them. She honestly didn't want to risk meeting some villagers who would mistake her for Negative, the world-renowned tactician that looked exactly like her. Well, if worse came to worst, maybe Sibyl would just kill them off. Who bothered to look for missing and lost people here, anyway? No one would know.

"You know," Sibyl said quietly as she grabbed Danika's collar again to pull her away, "maybe we ought to work on stealth before we work on developing your magic. Something that wouldn't involve you screaming and revealing our position to potential enemies."

Danika let Sibyl pull her away, used to the albino's lack of any emotional and physical attachment to her. Upon being told that she lacked stealth and that she had the tendency to scream, Danike haunched her shoulders up a little and looked down. "Sorry."

Wait. Give their position away to potential enemies?

[Thunder]

It didn't take long before Armatas heard a piercing cry shatter the quiet again. He whipped around and drew his sword again, glaring into the mists with his single good eye. It sounded like the scream of a young girl, so he doubted it came from whoever summoned the soldiers. More likely, it would be that there were additional zombies up ahead, and they were attacking some poor passerby who let out the scream. Still, one couldn't be too careful about these things.

He darted among the trees until he came close to where he heard this new noise coming from. Looking out from behind the thick trunk of an old oak, Armatas was immediately baffled by what he saw. There was indeed a teenage girl there, presumably the one who shouted, and grabbing onto the girl was...

"Negative?" he growled, stepping out from behind the tree. She was the last person he had expected to see walking around these woods, and the first time they met hadn't been a particularly good incident. Armatas had been looking for a tactician to help him formulate war strategy back in Telos, so he tracked down Negative because of her famous knack for tactics. However, she had been extremely angry because the lord had interrupted her nap, threatened her husband with a blade, and yelled at her quite a bit. In the end, she could only refer him to her friend, who was another tactician, and he grudgingly accepted.

Why was Negative lurking in the Whisper Forest? Armatas knew she was a mage, as well as married to a dark mage, so was she the one who summoned the undead? And who was that girl with her? There were so many questions to be answered, and oh, would he demand answers. "What the hell are you doing here? Were those undead that I just cut down with my sword yours?" He gritted his teeth, somewhat irritated that he ran into Negative again so soon after having a massive quarrel with her.

Still, something seemed off here...

[Jaykobell]

Of course, give away their position the scream had done. While she was pulling the child away from her, Sibyl heard rustling coming from ahead. Whoever it was, they had probably been alerted by Danika's scream, and the albino grumbled internally. This was a huge problem with the kid, and she would have to find a way to control it. Hopefully she wouldn't have to resort to a muzzle or something like that.

However, the urge to muzzle the armed man that appeared from the fog ahead was pretty powerful. Negative? There you go: exactly as she'd imagined. Some random guy — not a villager, however — just popping out from the trees and fog and being completely baffled at seeing the tactician in front of him. From the way he spoke, though, he seemed to know the tactician, to have recognized her and spoken to her in such a baffled and surprised manner.

When Danika heard the swordsman call Sibyl "Negative", the child knew what was coming. She'd quickly learned that the albino wasn't the renowned tactician, despite their identical appearance. She knew how angry Sibyl could get at being taken for Negative, and she certainly didn't want to get involved if she was going to snap at this man for calling her just that.

Unlike the Negative Armatas had met prior, this one was dressed differently: a sleeveless top with two gauntlets, together with a dark scarf around her neck. She also lacked the scar across her eyes, and her face looked a lot more menacing and unfriendly. While Negative had had an impressive presence and stance, this one was a completely different story.

Sibyl narrowed her eyes as she glared at Armatas, her lips curling slightly into a nasty snarl. She let go of Danika's collar, and immediately the child took a few steps back. "For someone who seems to know Negative so well," Sibyl started as she approached Armatas, stopping just a few inches away from him, "you obviously can't tell that we're two different people," she added as she got her face as close to Armatas's as possible, so he could see for himself that she lacked Negative's eye scar.

With that done, she turned around and started walking back towards Danika, her back facing the lord. The fact that he was armed and possibly grumpy didn't seem to bother or scare her in the slightest. "Clearly you seem to think I'm that tactician," she added as she stopped just a few inches away from the child, arms crossed. "Sorry to disappoint. And so, I expect you to be uninterested in my intentions for being here," she continued, lifting a hand to look at her fingers, seemingly in boredom, as she looked over her shoulder at the lord. Her voice was exactly like Negative's, but a lot darker and flatter, as well as more curt. "But if I absolutely must humor you, then yes, those Risen soldiers you cut down were mine. Are you satisfied, now? If so, then please leave us be."

While Sibyl was handling all the talking, Danika remained quiet, simply watching the scene and waiting for the albino to be done.

[Thunder]

Now that the initial shock was over, Armatas realized that this woman, indeed, looked similar to Negative but wasn't her. She dressed differently, lacked the scar, and also acted more menacing...though when he talked to the famous tactician, she was in an impressively nasty mood as well. And evidently, the fact that he had confused the two made this woman really, really mad.

He wasn't going to let her get the best of him for his mistake, though. He let her march right up to him, scowled down at her, and flipped his dark hair. "What makes you think I know her well?" he snarled to her face. "I've only met her once, and as far as I can tell, the two of you both seem to get pissed off pretty fast. What are you, her sister? Her jealous clone?" He was sure that one of those comparisons- or both- would get this lady seething with anger. And maybe he would actually be somewhat accurate.

When she walked away and asked to be left alone, Armatas was determined not to give her that. She had summoned those soldiers and ruined his peaceful walk, so she was going to get the brunt of his displeasure. "If you don't know tactics, then yes, I'm uninterested in you," he huffed, placing his hand on his hip. "And besides, Negative already turned down my request for help, so I'm really not all that keen on seeing her again. Don't imagine that she and I are buddy-buddy now, all right?"

He kept his sword out in case this Negative look-alike was going to lash out at him or call more zombies to mess with him.

[Jaykobell]

When she was done talking to Armatas, Sibyl turned back around to let her back face him. She genuinely had no interest in him, so the faster he made his getaway, the faster she could get back to training Danika. The man's sassy character and grumpy mood didn't interest her in the slightest.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the lord had no intention on leaving them alone. When he called her out on getting upset quickly, that comment went over her head. But when he started insinuating what she was in relation to Negative?

With her back turned to Armatas, the lord couldn't see her reaction. However, Danika could: she gasped when the man said those words, because she knew exactly how enraged Sibyl would get at that kind of comment. And enraged she got; as she heard those words, the albino narrowed her eyes to slits, and the hand she'd been playing with got clumped into a tight fist. If it weren't for the gloves, she probably would've sunk her nails right into her hand hard enough to make herself bleed. Oh, the nerve of that man... Whoever he was.

Oh, but that was all right. She had to let this roll off her back: this wasn't the first time someone had rubbed her the wrong way about the whole Negative ordeal. Sibyl was used to it: she gritted her teeth and made some questionable grimaces, and then she was fine. She had no choice but to get used to it: this was the number one disadvantage of her looking exactly like the world-famous tactician, after all.

After a few minutes of silence — the time it took for her to let Armatas's sassy comments roll off her back — Sibyl turned around to face the lord. "Hah, her sister..." Sibyl laughed briefly at the thought. Once she was over the initially anger, it was actually pretty hilarious to compare the two. Save for their appearance, they had absolutely nothing in common. "The odds of meeting a comedian here. No, I'm not anything like that, and I would appreciate you not relating me to her." She would keep her answer to that: let him figure out the rest for himself. Maybe he would catch on to the fact that she was keeping it brief because she had no interest in him, but she figured he'd probably ask for more details.

She still had her arms crossed, and she mostly stared at her hand, which was flexing a little. That was the one she'd fisted so tightly just a few minutes prior, so it felt good to stretch the fingers a little. "Tactics...?" she echoed as she glanced up at the lord, giving him a small grin. "Did she, now... You must be ridiculously unpleasant for the friendly, goody two shoes Negative to turn you away." How ridiculous. Negative was known for being ridiculously naive and friendly. How nasty was this man if even she had turned him away? As far as strategy was concerned, perhaps this was something that the two shared. Sibyl had a knack for strategy as well, but she wasn't about to tell that to this man.

"I believe this cements the idea that we have no interest in each other," Sibyl pointed out as she returned to her hand, tapping her foot lightly to show her annoyance some more. "If you have no more assumptions and explanations to say, perhaps now you can leave us be? We have more pressing matters to attend to."

[Thunder]

Armatas's words certainly had an effect on Sibyl. He smirked in satisfaction when he saw her tense up and fall silent. He supposed that was another difference between her and Negative; if he had been talking to the tactician, he was sure she would have spat something back at him. At any rate, he was actually fairly impressed that this lady managed to keep her cool and face him again. He could respect that.

"Hmm," he murmured mostly to himself, "even if you two aren't related, you certainly seem to have dislike her, do you not?" He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how Negative and Sibyl could possibly be connected. Their looks and common ability to use magic suggested that they were kin, and Sibyl hadn't exactly denied that. She had only said that she did not want to be connected to the tactician.

At this point, the Blazing Lord was growing curious, and he tried to think of a way to make her stay longer. He got an idea when remembered what he had been doing before he came to the forest, so he cleared his throat and spoke loudly so there was no chance that Sibyl wouldn't hear him. "I don't suppose you and your little companion there are trying to get involved in any...conflicts, are you?" When he referred to Danika, he turned his gaze at said young girl and narrowed his eyes at her, still trying to puzzle why she was there. "What's your name, girl? Why are you running around in a forest and summoning the undead with this woman?"

He figured that if he got the timid looking girl's attention, he could force Sibyl to stay that way.

[Jaykobell]

The man's persistence was starting to grind on Sibyl's nerves. Why was he so very interested in her? Yes, he'd mistaken her for Negative and thought that she was the tactician. She'd already explained that she wasn't Negative, so why was he persisting in talking to her? "I do," Sibyl answered with respect to Armatas's assumption about her disliking the tactician. "Did you figure it out on your own?" she added, waiting for the thick-skulled man to catch on and to leave them be. What did it matter to him if she disliked the tactician? The relationship she shared with Negative was between her and the tactician, and it wasn't anyone else's business.

It especially irritated her when Armatas turned his attention to Danika. What was he trying to do? He was a fool if he thought the child was but a rampant little wild animal. Danika had been trained to react and talk exactly how Sibyl wanted her to, and if anything did happen to the child, the albino had a way of gaining control over her. The lord would certainly not get any further in his questions by turning to the child.

Danika was a little unnerved by Armatas's stare, but she didn't scream or hide behind Sibyl. She knew exactly what to do in case someone talked to her directly, especially in the hopes of diverting the discussion away from Sibyl herself. She would answer the basic questions, but everything else would have to be directed to Sibyl. "My name is Danika," the girl answered the lord, pushing back the large hat that she sported on her head. It looked a little too big for her, but it seemed like it didn't bother the child if she were wearing it regardless. "But you're not talking to the right person," the girl added afterwards, and that was all she would say. He'd asked for her name, which was something she could say, but anything in relation to what they did or why they were here were things she couldn't answer. Sibyl had established early on that the child had to follow her lead, and that such questions had to be left to the master of the pair.

"I would appreciate if you directed any questions you have to me, and not to the child," Sibyl said coldly as she narrowed her eyes slightly at Armatas. "I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish, but your presence is unwanted here. Our reasons for being here are none of your concern, and the same applies as to what any of my intentions may be. Now, please leave us be, before I force you to do so myself," the woman threatened, fisting her hand now and again before flexing her fingers again. If this lord refused to go back to his business, Sibyl wouldn't hesitate to send him packing. She'd humored him, and so now he had no reason to be here.

[Thunder]

Armatas ignored Sibyl's snappy rhetorical question and focused his attention on Danika. While the teenager's reply had seemingly no value on the surface, the way she responded actually told the Blazing Lord a fair bit. It was a very planned out reply, obviously meant to redirect him to Sibyl, so it appeared that Damika had been trained to say this. He felt safe to conclude that the young girl was the albino lady's apprentice or underling of some sorts. It didn't really explain why he had heard her scream earlier, but perhaps that was because the undead that Sibyl summoned startled her. Those zombie soldiers could certainly shock someone who wasn't used to seeing them.

"Hmph, so she's your pet, then, following you around and calling you master?" Armatas snorted, turning back to Sibyl. The lady was getting more and more aggravated by the moment, which was exactly what the lord wanted. "I have no idea what you plan to do with her, but judging by what little I know of you thus far, I doubt it can be good." He gave Damika another glance, one that said something to the point of why are you with this woman? "I'm surprised that anyone would agree to going with someone like you."

He took note of her clenched fist, but he was not concerned. Let this woman hurtle some dark magic at him if she wanted. He was ready to take her on. He was called the Blazing Lord for a reason, after all.

[Jaykobell]

Sibyl narrowed her eyes ever so slightly at Armatas when he directed the topic of their conversation — one she didn't want to have to begin with — towards Danika. Why did the child intrigue him so much?

At the mention of Danika being her "pet" and Sibyl being the "master", the albino let out a laugh: loud and brief. "Pet...?" she echoed amusingly, finding the prospect to be hilarious. True, under normal circumstances, the idea of keeping a child under her care would've probably resulted in just that: Sibyl being the master, and the child being the obedient little pet that would follow her lead. While Danika did some of those things, their relationship was far from being that of a master and pet. No, if Danika were the pet, the child would've been in worse condition.

While Sibyl had found the words amusing, Danika hadn't perceived them the same way at all. The child frowned at Armatas's words, especially at the part where he mentioned that she was the "pet". What? Why would this stranger even come out and say such a thing? He didn't know either of them, and his assumptions weren't true at all. She recoiled a little when Armatas stared at her again, but her unhappy expression didn't leave. "I'm not her pet! She doesn't treat me like that!" the child exclaimed as she took a few steps forward, but without leaving Sibyl's side too much. "I'm with Sibyl because I want to be. She teaches me magic, and she gave me a reason to be someone. She helped me, and I'm going to help her back when I'm stronger and better," the girl added, the words sounding genuine and even full of admiration. This wasn't a scripted reply, nor something that would've been ingrained in the child's mind. If it had, the feelings would've been much more diluted, to the point of not being noticeable.

The more she spoke, the more the child's attitude started to waiver. She wasn't used to being assertive, but it upset her that someone like this stranger would assume such things about Sibyl. If it hadn't been for her, Danika would still be on the streets of her hometown, stealing food from others and getting beaten up by the paranoid, ignorant people of her town. It was all thanks to Sibyl that the child now had a purpose, and a reason to be someone. The girl wasn't as ignorant and foolish as every adult thought her to be: she knew quite well what was going on around her.

Hearing the child speak, Sibyl remained quiet and simply watched. She smiled slightly at the girl's ability to put her foot down: something she had been teaching the child to do more often. She had to get rid of that weak, useless little meek personality. Deep down, she had a strong character, but one that had been buried deep by the judgements and actions of others. With time, the albino would find the real personality of the child, and she knew that a strong, confident character would come out of her, with due time. "The child is not a 'pet'... but a pupil," Sibyl replied after regaining her composure. "Just as she explained to you, all by herself. Are you satisfied, now? This child is here of her own accord: she is welcome to leave at any moment. Our relationship is none of your concern."