Effiria Isle

[Doctor Corn]

Efferia. The key city in Alex's merchant business. Although situated in the Sky of light, it is in actuality a protion of the Main Land suspended inside this side dimension. As such, it doesn't actually exist in the realm of light and is inacessible from there. The island is shaped like a eight pointed star, and is paralell in shape. At over 20 miles from one point to the other, it has a pillar on each. North, south, east, and west have the symbols for fire, water, wind, and earth on top of the towers. Northeast and southwest have the symbols for light and dark respectively. The lightning tower is in the southeast. The final tower is reduced nearly to rubble, perhaps as the result of some great battle.

The space the island once took up in the main land is empty, seemingly a hole of nothingness that is colored white and black at the same time. This is used as a first deterrent to those who attack Efferia, as this is very confusing and painful to the eyes. The only way to even see the island is to either be holding a special medallion with the symbol for Alex's business on it, or to be on a ship that is touching the medallion. However, this alone will not grant you acess to Efferia. A field of pure energy unbound to any element, or some strange mixture of them all prevents acess to the shore. To get to the shore, you must have permission to enter, as well as anybody or any thing on board that is alive. This inclutdes people as well as vermin such as bugs, rats, or stowaways. To get permission is very simple, either verbal agreement from somebody on Efferia or a written one will work. All of this is to keep people who may cause harm to the people on the island away.

Efferia is also important as it is a backup headquarters for the Rebele. All Rebele members have constant permission to come and go as they will, and are given the best room and board while there. Also a popular tourist attraction for those with the cash to do so. The tourists are mainly restricted to the southern quarter of the island which is full of sandy beaches and five star hotels/resturaunts. The northern sector is strictly Rebele business only, and this is where most members stay when on vacation. The island of Efferia is also unique in that both denizens of the light and dark realms are allowed to come and sell, buy, or trade goods. They are restricted away to each other on the east and west quarters of the island. In the center is a great castle which is about the same height of the towers. This is the home of Alex, and most of it is kept under close survellence by his guards. This is where expiriments occur in both the arcane and scientific worlds.

Each of the towers is host to a dojo for the element, altough the masters are somewhat hard to find. The towers are also partially open to the public, for a great fee. Jobs for merchants are available here, but most of them are handed out in the Rebele, although there are some that may become open to the general public.  

[Doctor Corn]

I can't protect you without holding a sword

Alex sighed in relief as his flagship touched the shore. Leaping off the ship, he planted his face in the ground while weeping like a baby.

"Thank God I finally made it to dry land. I missed you so much, oh yes I did" cooed Alex to the soft sand while scooping it up to give it a gigantic hug. A hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up into the face of the captain of the ship staring down at him. "Really Alex? If you hate the ocean that much, why did you become a merchant? You spent most of the time on the ship sitting on your bed grappling with the pillow and spewing into your bucket." The man said with a strange sense of hoplessness in his voice. Clearly they had similar discussions in the past. Alex ignored him and flopped down, making snow angels in the sand. He stood up and admired his work, a slight breeze ruffling his hair. I'm home Alex thought with a idiotic grin on his face.

He made his way into the bedchamber of his castle, wondering why the hell he had been convinced by the contractor to make the nearest bathroom nearly a mile away, down seven flights of stairs, outside through a perfect miniature replica of Ethral Range that changed as the very spot did, and down a gigantic slide with no way back up besides the slide. Shaking his head and making a promise to himself that he would find and murder the contractor, he flopped onto his bed and stared at the celing before drifting off to sleep.

He awoke with a start to a massive quake that reverbarated through his bed. Jumping quickly out of the bed and pausing for a moment to wonder exactly how he had managed to get into his bed clothes from full travel wear, he grabbed Kozuchi Ozuchi and Judgement then sprinted out the door. He made his way outside, parts of his castle falling around him, and looked up at the source of the noise. An immidate fear swelled up inside him, but he shoved it down as he realized what it was. His guards were very stupid, as they had shot a gigantic ballistc arrow the size of a tree into the wing of a vampiragon. "Vampire bat and dragon. Sometimes I think that mages are all stupid people who want to kill everybody with their stupid ideas." he said with disapproval.

The vampiragon opened it's mouth, and Alex had to rool out of the way of a pure white beam that erupted from it. The beam swept across the ground and through a group of men trying to reload the giant crossbow. The ground froze, and the men were encased within a giant dome of ice. Alex looked away as the ice cracked into nothingness. He was somewhat sad, but they got what they deserved. As a fellow wind creature, he sympathized with the creature that now couldn't fly. The creature fell from the top of the castle and plummeted to the ground. Alex created massive cushion of air that lowered the beast cleanly to the ground. When it hissed, he walked up and put his hand upon the beast. When it calmed down, he carefully removed the arrow.

Several months later Alex was walking out of his castle. The air had the cool breeze of late summer. He wistled, three high notes and two low ones, and a massive blob of white plummeted from the sky, landing infront of him. Wings then extended, and he said "ready to go Frozen Tempest?" to the freshly healed vampiragon. "Yes Alex. Lets get out of this place and go flying." said the vampiragon, which stunned Alex. "You can TALK?" asked Alex with his mouth hanging wide open. Shaking his head, he climbed on her back, and she took flight. Once again they were headed to the Main Land.

I can't embrace you while holding a sword

 

[Hoarfrost Dirge]

After much travel and conversation with his new pet, Tysulir arrived at the Island. He entered the northern sector of town and began to look around at all of the glory in this secret base. "Damn, I have to give him a raise soon for this don't I?" He said with a chuckle. "Speaking of which, where is that guy? He had better not keep me waiting too long." He said scanning the area and not seeing Ales anywhere. He sighed and continued to walk the street in search of his host of sorts.
 

[Doctor Corn]

Alex rubbed his hands in anticipation as he waited for Tysulir. He shrugged, then placed his hands on the outside ot the dark blue pillar that was the tower of water. Concentrating, he managed to make a sea green door appear in the side of the tower. To those gifted with the power of water, this door would instantly appear to them unlike those who had no talent with it. Stepping through the door, Alex was blasted with an intense temperature change from tropical heat to tundra chill. The towers supported their own side dimensions, allowing the normally twenty-five foot in diameter tower to hold spaces up to three miles in diameter. The inside of the water temple was a very cold one. There was only a ten foot walkway that jutted over a lake of water that had chunks of ice floating within them. The circular dojo held a large lake with large pillars of ice piercing it. Leaping to the nearest one, Alex landed and waited for Ty. "Why do you want to learn water Alex? You hate water" said Tysulir's voice as Alex remembered when he had asked Ty to fo this. "If I learn water, then I can have a much less chance of drowning in the ocean" whispered Alex to himself as he turned back to the entrance.  

[Hoarfrost Dirge]

Ty wandered the town and came across the large blue pillar like tower. "Interesting, bet anything he is in there already." He said to himself as he entered the teal door that appeared before him. Walking through the building in the straight forward path he saw Alex and waved to him from a distance. "Had a feeling you were here, I assume you need me to teach you how to use water still, yes?" He said as he neared and looked into the water of this place. "Here is the perfect spot to teach you everything I can to get you started. Tell me when your ready to begin."
 

[Doctor Corn]

Alex breathed deeply. His teacher had arrived in the form of Tysulir. The leader of the rebele waved at him as he entered the tower, commenting on the usefullness of the place before telling him to let him know when he was ready to begin. Alex nodded at Tysulir to let him know that he was ready, then leaped to another ice pillar before once again turning back to his sensei.  

[Hoarfrost Dirge]

"Now let's start with the basics of water magic" Tysulir said starting to enter the lesson now to get it over with it before happy hour. "Water has many uses, it harder to warm up and become steam." A wave of the water rose and held its position in its crested formation before Ty continued. Suddenly the water froze and altered its shape and created a frozen ice that wouldn't crack even under the wieght of many. "Now as you" saw, it is posible to create many new structures of anything." Ty explained and then placed his hand into the water. I want you to work on just this for weekend.  

[garion3211]

Garion absolutely despised his trip onto this island. A small ship had taken him here, and he thought if he didn't get to land soon that he might die. The ocean was the only place where there was no earth to be found. Yet Garion found some solace in the fact that it was indeed to be found, just down below, and that eventually the earth would rise, overcoming the ocean and paving a path for a new land. Such was the cycle of the land.

The watercraft began to land, and his connection with the earth was restored to full power. Even on this little island, which was mostly sand where he was, he could feel the Earth's might. His face, which was until recently sickly and green, flushed out to its natural color and he felt a new strength rush into him.

His golem, however, took to the ocean quite well. He was actually helping out the sailors, as he had a greater strength then most men. As the ship was finally tied to the dock, Gregor approached him. "Hello my friend, are you ready to return to the land from which we all came?" Garion asked with a smile. Gregor nodded and they walked onto shore. Garion took in a deep breath of air, relieved once more to be on land, his one true home.  

[Doctor Corn]

Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man
is either a fool or a coward, whoever cannot take care of
himself without that law is both

"Woah" commented Alex as Tysulir effortlessly made an entirely new structure from the cool water. Noting what the man said, he placed his hand into the water, pulling up a strand of water that coated his hand. Trembling and sweating from the effort, the water formed into ice. This created a thin pillar of ice from the water to shoulder height. Through his telepathic link to his pet Frozen Tempest, he became aware of a large golem and a powerfull earth user entering his port. Shrugging, Alex told the vampiragon to welcome the beings of earth. Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, Alex unfroze the pillar of water and let it sink back into the lake. He repeated this exercize for a few more minutes, this time only partially freezing the water. Through his mental connection, he could feel what Tempest was doing.

Tempest flew down from her perch atop the castle that housed Alex. Landing delicately in front of Garion, she sniffed curiously at him and the golem. Determining them to be at least linked like her and Alex, she offered her head out to the man to pet. Her dragonfear would at least unsettle the man, but she could sense that he posessed a iron will that the fear that naturally occured in those around her would not break.

For a wounded man shall say to his assailant,
"If I live I will kill you, if I die you are forgiven"
Such is the rule of honor

 

[Hoarfrost Dirge]

"Well you seem to get the idea of shape manipulation with water becoming ice. That is one of the easier ways to learn water magic. Although ice can only be made well and balanced if you fuse air magic into the water." Tysulir said pointing out the obvious difference in the two different structures of the ice. His frozen wave was unaffected by the water around it and was a prefect solid. Alex was getting there but his structure was off balance in the crystallization. "Though for now let us leave the ice tricks alone." He said and removed his hand from the icy water and forced the water dripping from his hand to stop mid air and then form a huge blob of water under his dripping palm. "See this floating water. With it I can make any weapon in the world. You can to if you practice mentally shaping it. Though this is much harder than ice because it is constantly seeking its own shape, not the one you are trying to force it into. So lets see what you can do for shape manipulation."
 

[garion3211]

He stared at the creature that flew to him, slightly afraid but mostly curious as to what it was. It seemed to be some sort of dragonic bat. Its wings were the shape of a bats, but were scaly. He wondered how it took flight since the wind couldn't catch on what would normally be flesh. Perhaps it was magical by nature. After all, technically Gregor could fly if Garion willed it. Gregor approached the being and crouched down so it could be eye level with it.

"Does it speak, master?" Garion looked at it, but didn't know whether or not it spoke from a glance.

"I do not know, Gregor, I imagine if it wishes to speak it will, though." Garion pet the head of the creature as it stuck its head out. "At least it is friendly, even though I doubt anything would be evil in these lands."  

[Doctor Corn]

Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man
is either a fool or a coward, whoever cannot take care of
himself without that law is both

Alex smiled, his master had praised him for his talent in freezing stuff. "It was no problem" commented Alex to Ty, remembering that he had complete control over wind. Alex thought for a minute, then decided that his water strength was offset by the massive wind strength he posessed. Breathing in mild irritation, he made the wind from his breath swirl around his ice pillar. The ice was chopped finly enough to make snow, and ALex debated making sno-cones with it. Deciding not to, he watched as Tysulir effortlessly made a puddle of water float beneath his hand. Amazed, he was told to repeat what he had seen. "Ummm.......ok" murmured Alex as he scooped up a bit of water from the lake. Concentrating, he made the blob into the shape of a crude hammer. His thoughts turned to Kozuchi Ozuchi, which he had left in his room at the castle. Absentminded, a bit of his wind magic oozed out, which made the hammer of water aquire a thin covering of frost. His attention restored, he made the rim of frost dissapear while hoping Ty wouldn't notice that it had done so.

Meanwhile, Tempest was having the time of her life being scratched by the earth master. That is, until they unknowingly insulted her intellegence. "OF COURSE I CAN TALK. WHY WOULDN'T I?" she screamed at the two, releasing a mild wave of frozen air. This was not meant as an attck per se, but just to show how annoyed she was. Flapping her wings, she rose to eye level of the golem and snapped her jaws shut only inches in front of it's face, then picked up a small empty ship from the harbor. This she slammed down at the golem, though this would be like a fly buzzing around it's head.

For a wounded man shall say to his assailant,
"If I live I will kill you, if I die you are forgiven"
such is the rule of honor

 

[Hoarfrost Dirge]

Ty carefully observed the control that Alex demonstrated with his quick learning of the bare basics of water. "You may want to practice controlling water and air separately to keep yourself from accidentally freezing what you don't want to freeze." He said after watching the thin frost crystals form and then vanish as Alex got used to using just water now. "Alright, now you can mold general shapes, with time you can get more fancy with that shape alteration." He said before moving on to his next lesson in water.

"Now shapes are easy, currents are the hard part." He said as he spread out his left hand and the water from the pool drew up and around that hand. The ring formed by the water then began to spin, creating a vortex of water near Tysulir's skin. "To help you gain precise control like this I suggest you start with something like this to test and train your flowing manipulation." The bandit said and the water around his hand stopped and fell back into the pool. Raising both hands, Ty drew on a huge stream of water that took both hands to control. this large halo of water spun quickly around the master and Ty made the speed of the water into a current swirling around him. "If you control currents then with shape manipulation you can pressurize the water and make it into a deadly weapon." He said as a thick spire of ice rose from the pool for a moment. The current gained pressure and became a thin jet of water that sliced through the thick ice once and severed the top from the bottom. If you can learn the basics of that technique then you will be able to learn the full capabilities of water and be able to use them in combat or ant other task.
 

[Doctor Corn]

Breathing deeply, Alex released the magic and let the water sink back into the lake. "Alright. Keep the wind away from the water in my mind. Got it." whispered Alex to himself as he watched Ty preform an amazing feat of slicing a pillar of ice with a streamlined blast of water. Taking his hands back into the water, Alex pulled up a bunch of it, wearing it like a glove. Turning his hands over, he marveled at how well he had done to get this far in water usage. Shaking his head, he turnd his attention back to matters at hand. He focused, and the water on his hands took on the shape of brcelets which spun around his hand with increasing speed. Attempting to do as Ty had done, he thinned out the stream as best he could. This he sent out at one of the already existing ice pillars. Although it did not exactly slice through the spire, it did manage to blow a large hole in it.

"Damn. Not thin enough" said Alex as he promptly sat down, sweating. The last blast had taken quite a bit of his energy from him. "Well, how did I do?" he asked of Tysulir, watching the man carefully.  

[Hoarfrost Dirge]

Ty watched the water control of Alex carefully and noticed that he was focusing on his explosive force a bit still. "Well you kinda got the idea. But you also need to pressurize the water... uh... like this." He said then drew on some water and willed it to float before him in a huge blob. Then he forced the water to all press into a smaller surface area. After the shape began to shrink Tysulir spoke as it continued to pressurize in slow motion. "in doing so with a stream you can make its force when used in a jet of water able to rip through just about anything." The blob was now a small ball of water before Tysulir. "Now watch me release the pressure in a certain direction."

The ball shot off a long good sized stream that slashed through one of the pillars of ice in the room. The ice now had a huge hole in it along with the building as the jet ripped up, out, and into the sky of the island. The water all drained through this opening just off the intense pressure it was set at. "Ok... Maybe you should not try that right away, I don't know any medical magic, and the turtle is sleeping right now." He said then a sound that sent some fear running down his spin came.

CRACK went the pillar and wall of the building about to shatter the support. "Well... I think that sums up offensive water attacks." he said with a pale face. Not wanting to get crushed, Ty manipulated a bunch of water at his feet to gush out onto the wall and freeze it in place. Now leaving a frosty, crystalline look to that entire section of the large room. "Ok, the last trick I will teach you is walking." Said the bandit as he stepped onto the shallower water surface and the water held his weight. "To do this you need to use water magic near your feet and probably some air to steady yourself since the water will ripple and make you trip and fall in."