Heavensward

[arroganceandangst]

Coming to Ishgard

The Crystal Braves's betrayal still fresh in mind and only the Warriors of Light, Alphinaud, and Tataru accounted for, Cid Garlond whisks our heroes away to Coerthas to avoid detection of the crew they thought were friends. They find themselves in Ishgard where they are greeted warmly by House Fortemps and granted sanctuary, much to the displeasure of King Thordan and his Heavens Ward.

Alphinaud's despair about being unable to "Save Eorzea(TM)" comes to a head and Tatarus and the Warriors of Light set him straight. Together they move forward to find their scattered friends and allies and move forward. Meanwhile, the Dragonsong War begins to set back into motion after years of an unease and tense ceasefire.

Amongst the chaos a strange and desperate from another world slips into our Eorzea with the intent of saving their land at the cost of ours.

Welcome to Heavensward, I hope you packed your furs.

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They Say Heroes Never Die

[talkingtrashpriest]

High above the Eorzean continent, locked within a barrier of ancient magics, and trapped under a winding labrynth of magitek and diseased monsters... lies the Singularity Reactor.

Seven Warriors of Light against the Twelve Knights of the Heavensward and their Mad King Thordan. The aether pours like a tidal wave of energy from Nidhogg's stolen eye in the crosspiece of Ascalon, the great sword the King brings down on barriers of magic refined and strengthened by the precision of Felih's Arcanima.

But when that shield breaks, Sami's blood sprays hot and shocked from her shoulder. It doesn't kill her but her sword drops, outraged words in her mouth before Grinnaux the Bull slams his axe full across the face of her shield and sends the Keeper flying to land and skid hard across the glass floor.

Jets of warming wind are too distracted by the tank's distress- "Q'UiLA!" -and a lancer, Paulecrain? meets Q'uila's jump mid-air. He wins the split-second parry to get his lance between the Dragoon's and her body. With a spiralling twist Q'uila is sent flying to recover from her jump, do or die, and her weapon lands across the room with a metallic chink- sticking upright where it lands.

"I won't let you- I won't- Holly no!" A lance of pure Aether sings through the air and it misses Felih, but takes his fairy through her core and she shatters into motes of distressed light. It's in that moment of fear and anger that Adelphel's shield strikes the Scholar across his torso and Felih's head cracks hard over the floor, the glittering light of palisade's protection shimmering too late to save him.

"Get Sami on her feet!" Pinya is at his back, landing sharp and light from her jumping shot.

"I'm trying!" Connor's hands are cold around his staff, aether gathering thicker and thicker around him until he can barely see the chaos around him and he slams the end of his brittle staff against the floor: there's no stone here, but metal remembers what it once was and the panels under them rip and sheer upward in a makeshift shield against the charging terror of two more lance-bearing knights.

But then there's a terrible echo through the air and Connor feels the spirits screech in fear and they and their power abandon him. It winds him, a crippling pain in his chest that drops him to one knee, coughing for another breath.

"No you won't!" And Bri sees why because she's the only one close enough to Thordan to see the way he raises his sword and brings his hand to Nidhogg's eye. The corrupted aether pours out in such a blood red torrent that Q'uila feels a suffering pain scream through the partnering eye on her person.

Blades up and mudras flashing white and black over her eyes, Bri comes the closest to sinking a knife into the dragon's evil eye- but not before the shockwave of paralyzing magic rolls over all of them and sends the elezen woman flying like Sami before her. She slams into and then over Connor's barrier with a bloodied landing beside the two lalafell- and doesn't get up.

"I'm sorry-" They've never suffered a fight like this. Connor doesn't know why he apologizes but he has one hand on Pinya's arm and he's so cold, his fingers are so cold, and he's afraid. It's in his watery grey eyes and the pale sick look creeping up over him.

They can't lose like this, they can't die like this.

Adventurers die but Heroes don't. Heroes never die.

"I'm so sorry-" He grabs her in a hug and it's brief but there's a song that rises out of him. It's warm and it's real and instead of being borrowed from around him this time it comes right from his heart. It makes his eyes glow, and his clothes flutter. And Pinya will feel the ambient energy of the fight and the frightened voices of Azys Lla's much-abused spirits coalesce around the White Mage who is singing to them.

And then a blast of cold white water will pick Pinya up and hurl her away from him because time and battles don't stop for anything, not even goodbyes. She'll feel the harsh scrape of another energy lance- like the one that killed Haurchefaunt, burn against her arm and then straight forward through Connor's chest. He doesn't flinch.

His eyes are closed and his hands are fists, arms crossed in an ex just below the sizzling trauma of the lance. And he's on his knees but his eyes are still closed, and the glow is still rising, and the prayer is still pouring out of him. And he doesn't give up and he doesn't let go, even though it hurts.

Because Azys Lla is a cursed place but it was not always this way. These islands were not always haunted. Their waters were not always bitter. Their wind was not always toxic. There was a life and a joy in Azys Lla before the Allagans changed it and the Heavensward invaded it and there's a joy that needles through the fear and the pain and the loss because Connor can feel that faded memory of existence beyond suffering and life spiralling in an endless stream from this star to every other beacon of light in the sky.

And then it shines.

Light like the birth of a star forms from every surface, the air itself opens up with joy so brief but potent that it seals wounds and mends hearts. It brings back confused minds and balms the burning pains. And their friends will stand up and they'll be hale and whole and the fight will be there's and no don't look at him like that, Pinya, if she cries he'll cry and he's already crying but he's going to just keep smiling no matter how close those footsteps get because:

"Heroes never-"

The mad king uses both hands to slam Ascalon down through the White Mage's back. It cuts from between his shoulders down and out through his belly, dispelling the lance and making his smile go tight and forced as his eyes go skyward with an overwhelming fear.

And then the sword comes out and the White Mage falls.

"I WILL BURY EACH OF YOU AND YOUR BELIEFS."

((Idk if Monx is here but I counted her in the 7 and then didn't write her in? I'm not sure? I'll gladly add her if she's here though!

Simple format: each person gets a max 3 responses from Connor before you know what! Feel free to continue on with each other from there ;) ))