A Life of Banditry [Job | Aoife | Plot]

Job Details:

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"Reed! Reed...REED!" A voice yelled, shaking the young magician awake as he tossed in bed. He opened his eyes to find his oldest sister frantic and shaking him, repeating his name over and over for him to wake up. He abruptly woke up, concerned that Lyra was in danger or something pressing was the matter. "Goodness...I was concerned you'd never wake up! You sleep like a rock, Reed--that's dangerous!" Not wishing to listen to his sister's lectures, he rolled over back in bed, though Lyra's swift and mighty smack against his back woke up him right quick and he didn't dare fall asleep again.

"W h a t do you w a n t Lyra? It's terribly early and I want to sleep..." He replied, rubbing his eyes. Lyra hadn't moved, just stayed still on his bed, looking him with the same frantic, panicked expression.

"I was speaking to a professor...well he spoke to me...regardless, he said he found out where Coda might be--she's with this bandit gang in the plains as a prisoner!" The news was ecstatic for sure but something didn't sit quite right with Reed. If this professor knew this bit of information, why didn't he inform his family? They would have far better means to rescue Coda from whatever prison she was from. How did she even end up with bandits in the first place? There were a lot of questions to consider but considering Lyra's willingness to believe this professor, he decided to play along with her wishes. "He told me for us to meet him in the academy square at the break of dawn so HURRY UP and get dressed! We have to meet him--he should be by the fountain in the plaza. I'll go on ahead so he doesn't think we stood him up or anything, okay? Get there as soon as possible, Reed!"
And in a flash, his sister escaped his room, her footsteps echoing in the hallway. Reed slowly got up and got dressed, not minding if he was just a little late. Besides, his sister disturbed his sleep enough for him to exact some sort of retribution in this case--she didn't need to set this up for the break of dawn! He walked down to the plaza with his wand and an apple in tow, searching for his sister.

"Now...where exactly is this professor...and Lyra...huh?" The plaza was absolutely empty. Not a single soul in sight. Had they left without him? No, that's not right, Lyra wouldn't leave him behind, especially if it were about Coda. "Lyra! Lyra! Where are you!" Nothing. No response. Reed frantically walked around the plaza square to find nothing, not a single sign of life. The shops were yet to open and the sun was just beginning to rise. Was it all just a dream? No, he knew his sister, and he knew her slaps, there was no way that he dreamt a full on conversation with Lyra. When it became clear his sister was nowhere in sight, Reed began to panic just as his sister was in his bedroom. He started running through all possible terrifying scenarios--was she murdered, was she kidnapped, was she ever real at all? There was some melodrama to his panic, sure, but can you blame him? He walked around aimlessly until he came upon another soul in the vicinity. He rushed over to this person--a girl, not any older than he by the looks of it--just casually walking around in the morning twilight. Perhaps she was to blame? Yes, it must be so.

"Where is my sister!" He yelled, grabbing the girl by the shoulders. Her large hat flopped around as she looked at Reed with a blank stare. It was evident she had no idea what Reed was referring to. "Sorry...I...I was just supposed to meet my sister and some professor here and she's nowhere to be found...I guess you could say I was getting a little nervous..." The girl just continued to blink and leave her mouth slightly agape. It seems she was now even more confused.

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Word Count: 700/1500
Magoi: 260/260

Aoife was disturbed yet again. This time, however, by the professor and when she was not in such a relaxed state as before. She went through her typical morning routine--brush her hair, do all that hygiene stuff, and get dressed. Her blonde hair fell perfectly today and she watched it bounce around like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. She dreaded opening the door but she had to answer it or else he would just keep knocking on his door like the annoying gnat he was. She daintily walked to the door and opened it, pursing her face into the vision of politeness.

"Why professor! Whatever brings you here? I can only imagine it's you--my roommate never comes home these days!" The sweetness was so thick even the professor couldn't help but smile. This was a good piece of information to note down: sometimes it pays to be overly polite. He merely sat down again, this time dabbing his brow with a handkerchief as caught his breath in her chair. Once again, she made himself at home without utilizing the proper etiquette. "Can I help you?" The bitterness in her voice was biting.

"We, I mean...ahem...I require your services again--there's just one more little itty bitty piece of information I forgot to tell you...last time...and well it looks like I should have because I have a little situation on my hands haha!" The way this professor talked disturbed Aoife. There was something much different about his affect this time. He seemed less 'bumbling idiot' and more 'sinister.' "Looks like there's just one more group of bandits I need you to, uh, take care of...I asked two other students to help and, for free, I'll help you out too. What do you say? Meet me in the plaza soon? We need all the help we can get?" She could feel the slime on this guy. Whatever he was doing and whatever he wanted, Aoife did not trust him at all. She half-heartedly agreed to the professor's request and as soon as she said yes, he gingerly zipped out of the room, humming his way down the hall.

"Creep..." She whispered, closing the door behind him. Unlikely to even want to follow through with that creep's 'request' she decided she would ditch the professor and do her own thing. She read for a while, trying to absorb what little she had left to for her first year classes. Yet, she couldn't focus. The professor had mentioned that he asked two other students to come along and wondered if they fell for this professor's bumbling offer. Feeling a sense of duty to protect whoever else could be in danger, she quickly rushed out of her room and into the city, hoping to make it in the plaza in time to met the foolish students. When she came to the plaza, she found nobody there and assumed the students were as intelligent as she was and ignored the man's request. She was all set to walk away when she heard a man's voice screaming for his sister in the distance. Aoife felt a tinge of regret for not arriving sooner--perhaps if she had been present, she could've prevented this girl from accompanying the professor. Aoife felt sick and responsible so she searched for the man, hoping to follow his voice. When it seemed he had given up, she turned around, ready to look for him. Just as she was going to call out to the man with a simple "hey" or "hey you!" the boy turned her around and shook her. She was surprised, to say the least, as this boy frantically yelled in her face. She couldn't make words or do anything--she just felt stunned at the boy's panic. When he finished shaking Aoife and just stood there, apologizing for his behavior, a wave of sadness and fear crept over her. If anything happened to his sister...she would feel the most responsible.

"I...I think I was supposed to meet you here?" Aoife stammered, unsure of what to say. "A professor asked me to help him take out a group of bandits but he didn't show...but I didn't trust him...were you and your sister supposed to meet him too?" The color left the man's face before she could finish her sentence. Something was definitely amiss...but why? Aoife held out a hand to caress his shoulder. "My name is Aoife...let me help you find your sister, okay?" There was a mothering instinct in Aoife, as if she felt like she had to help this boy out. Perhaps it was seeing him so heartbroken over possibly having lost his sister. When she offered to help, his face perked up and just looked at her. His eyes were somber as they were filled with some glimmer of hope. Thankful for her offer, he merely took her in his arms and hugged her, offering up a simple "thank you."

"You're...you're welcome, I guess?" It was time they set off.

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Word Count: 850/1500
Magoi: 240/240

"Reed...Reed Harper. Thank you so much! I don't know what I would do if I lost Lyra too..." Reed went on, filling the young girl in on his current situation. She seemed sympathetic, perhaps too sympathetic, as if she was only feigning sympathy to assuage her own guilt over ditching meeting up with the shifty professor. Still, she was there, and offered to help, so Reed couldn't be too distrustful. Perhaps this was fate to make another friend while in Magnostadt. While he had Ariel, one friend (aside from his sister) just wasn't enough and if his worst fears came true, then his sister...he didn't want to think about that just now. They walked through the city, hoping to catch any trace of his sister's whereabouts, or any clues as to where she was. The girl didn't know much about where the bandit encampment was--he didn't drop off the usual document as the girl described in previous encounters. It seems the professor was trying to entrap both girls for whatever purpose he thought of. Maybe that's why Aoife was sent alone to these camps? To be taken and sold like cattle to whatever sick investor wanted in. Hearing that made Reed sick--what if they sold Lyra into slavery? He couldn't stand the thought...and just when Coda was reported to be alive! Unless that was just a sick prank played by the professor to feed off of Lyra's insecurities. Reed was downright fuming all in the span of five minutes, much to the horror of Aoife, who was walking beside him this entire time. "S-sorry...I'm just thinking about what danger my sister could possibly be in currently...She's a talented magician but she isn't on top of her game currently. She's in the 1st Kodor you know! Incredible talent and skill--she's a water magician but I'm a sound magician...I hope she's alright..." Aoife could feel the cogs of sadness turn in his mind as he ruminated about his sister. She tried her best to distract the boy but they continued marching off around the city, hoping to find something.

In what seemed like an impressive bout of frustration, Aoife just decided it would be time better served to examine the plains themselves instead of the town. Reed was not in agreement but it seemed like she knew the man better than he did. However, by some fortuitous stroke of luck, Reed happened upon a clue in an alleyway by the plaza. He found piece of cloth from Lyra's dress there.

"Lyra's dress! That has to be a clue! Look around here for something--anything! Anything could help us out!" Aoife wasn't sure Reed was thinking clearly, but it was worth a start. "Come on...come on..." Reed tore apart the alleyway, desperately searching for something within the confines of that space. It seems his frantic searching inhibited his ability to locate things, as Aoife quickly found a clue, unexpectedly, but she did find one. It was a piece of paper hidden to the side. She grabbed it and handed it to Reed, believing he should be the one to open it and move on.

"It's a letter? Lyra...you genius--I know where they are! Off to the plains! We have to be quick!" Reed darted out ahead of Aoife, leaving her to catch up with the speedy magician. He quickly lost her and moved forward, dashing through the plains as if he were traveling on horseback. There was no way he was going to lose his sister to slavery, but what genuinely spooked him was the contents of the letter. He traveled further happening upon the bandit encampment. To Reed, he was relieved--there was no sign of any caravan arriving to take his sister into slavery. While coming up upon the encampment, he saw the faces of many more girls, just like his sister, who were abducted to be sold into slavery. Just what sort of operation was this anyhow? Slavery felt so archaic to Reed, possibly because he was never a slave himself, and lived in a fairly liberal center of the world that didn't partake in that...openly. A quick scouting revealed there to be at least three bandits within view but he couldn't be too sure they were the only ones in the vicinity. He traveled down the back of the camp, hoping to gain the element of surprise on at least one of them before jumping into the fray. He had no idea where his female companion was--probably still chasing after Reed in this chaos as he charged ahead very quickly. Hopefully she would be able to catch up to the green magician, it didn't seem like he could win this fight on brute force alone. However, that didn't stop Reed, and he charged in, gaining on the one masked bandit he had the upper hand on. With a flick of his wand, he conducted the rukh around him to hum with fervor, creating a fantastic display of wind magic.

"Diminuendo!" He yelled, thrusting forward bursts of wind toward the bandit. They ripped his body to shreds, leaving him tattered and lifeless on the ground. Unfortunately, his brilliant display of stealth only bought him the attention of the other two masked bandits he picked out earlier. Both of them charged at Reed, leaving him defenseless in the wake of their attacks. Seeing no other option to escape their attacks, Reed brought his wand close to his body, and sliced it across from him, mobilizing the sound rukh in the area to vibrate with immense power. When the masked bandits were within three meters of the young magician, he released his spell, scaled to enormous strength. "Sforzando!" The explosion of sound around him knocked the bandits back, defeating one and leaving the other just mildly injured as he parried some of the attack by blocking his ear drums. Smart...unfortunately that did not bode well for Reed as the bandit was able to recover faster than he and manage to levy a strike against him, cutting his leg with the might of his sword. Reed's leg burned hot with pain as the steel connected with it. To counter, Reed released a quick spell scaled to defeat the masked bandit.

"Cadenza!" The burst of sound collided at point-blank range with the bandit, tossing him to the ground. He nursed his leg's injury to health as he looked around, hoping to find any sign of his sister. He was regaining his composure and standing up when a tent near him burst into flames.

"Lyra!" He yelled, charging after it before he was stopped suddenly by his companion. "M-my sister! She is most likely in there! We have to save her!" He pleaded, his leg dripping with blood as the female magician looked on the camp in fright.

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Word Count: 1850/1500
Magoi: 150/260

Abilities Used:

The young man in front of her poured his heart out at the prospect of his missing sister being potentially missing forever. She listened intently to him, as if she could sympathize with him for a little, but found no way to relate to his life experiences. In a way, that made her more apt to listen to him, for she had no frame of reference for how he truly felt, and this seemed like the only way. They searched around the plaza, calling out his sister's name, or even making sure to check down streets to no avail. Reed began to shake with anger, causing Aoife to recoil in horror. There was darkness in this boy, that was clear, but he seemed to be desperately gripping onto whatever gleam of hope in his life to pull forward. It was clear that was his sister and Aoife had failed him by letting this woman go off alone with that creepy professor.

"It...it will be okay, Reed...I'm sure we'll find something, anything, as quickly as possible. Look we haven't searched around the plaza enough--there's alleyways and inside homes--oh! We haven't looked as hard as we possibly could...what if she dropped something? Like a clue or like a note somewhere and it's going to tell you exactly where she is? Your sister is smart, right? I'm sure she did just that!" Aoife tried her best to find the silver lining but Reed just remained mopey in this troubling time. She felt bad for being unable to cheer the man up but there was absolutely nothing they could do. "You know...if we don't find anything here it might be worth our time to just go out into the plains and search for them? They couldn't have gotten too far and if it's bandits they probably have a camp or something around...searching around here aimlessly over and over again won't solve anything, we should take some action, at leas--Reed? Reed! Where are you going!?" Reed had trailed away from her, not wiling to listen to her pragmatic plan and instead found himself inside of an alleyway, searching around the ground for clues or whatnot. Was he drawn there? Why that alleyway? So many questions surged into Aoife's mind but she chose not to get involved in the ctazy machinations of the green magician and instead aid him. She watched as he shuffled around, knocking over barrels and being absolutely terrible at looking at his surroundings. Jeez, this kid really needed her to help out. Until he found a piece of his sister's dress lying on the ground!

"Clever girl...look around...better, at least. There's got to be something somewhere here?" Aoife wasn't exactly hopeful they'd find anything, but it was worth a shot. She assumed Lyra's dress ripped in a struggle and not because she ripped it off herself to leave a clue for her brother to find her. That would be...almost too lucky. Still, she (lazily) helped the young man locate any semblance of a clue. She got frustrated with his spelunking methods, which much to her chagrin, consisted of tossing things around like a man man until something clicked. Fortunately, in tossing a barrel around, she found a piece of paper tucked underneath it and quickly snatched it before Reed rolled it down the alleyway. She quickly handed it to Reed, not wishing to get in the way of his exploits. After he read it, he had his "eureka!" moment and rushed off, leaving Aoife in the dust as he darted for the plains. That brat! How dare he leave her behind as she offered to help!? She chased after him as quickly as she could, but his outfit was far more suited to running around than hers, and so she trailed a little behind, making their way to the plains as he grew into a speck in the horizon ahead of her as she trailed behind him, running as fast as she slowly could. After a while of running, she lost sight of her ally in the distance. She wandered aimlessly for a bit, trying to locate where Reed could have gotten off to.

"I'm gonna slap the hell out of him when I see him again...but where did he get off to..." She wandered, standing atop a hill in the plains. She was about to give up her chase when she saw a flame light up the sky not far from where she was and hurried to the area. "Damn him! What's he doing, trying to bull them all to the ground!?" She arrived to two bandits closing in on a distraught Reed, yelling about his sister.

"Reed! Reed! Reed, focus!" Her yells fell on deaf ears as the bandits closed in, making sure not to draw any attention to themselves. Fearing for the worst, Aoife tapped the tail end of her staff on the ground and began to chant, hopefully to draw the masked bandits away from Reed. "Trembling blade that bends the sky, drive the wedge of freedom into those that would oppose me--Eulim!" The black sword flew through the sky and stabbed the masked bandit through his head, impaling him through the skull. The other bandit turned in horror to find Aoife above them, her staff readied for another spell. Uh oh. Aoife nervously grabbed her staff and ran to the side, hoping to avoid the onslaught of the ruffian. He managed to catch up with her and stab at her body, her borg deflecting the first blow but being struck by the second across her arm. It was painful, but she managed to recover from the attack quickly enough to release a scaled Libilab at the assailant, felled by the conjured vine. She quickly stood up and ran toward Reed who was screaming for his sister in the middle of the fiery landscape. Apparently, his sister was inside the burning building, but it didn't seem like anyone was going to be in there.

"Reed! Reed, come on! We don't know if more bandits are here!" She called to him, ignoring his cries for his sister. When it seemed like he wouldn't relent she rushed into the building, hoping to find a girl that looked like him. She wasn't sure if Reed followed in behind her but all she wanted to do was get them out of there before any more bandits came in. Inside, she found the professor angrily trying to pull away two girls with blue hair inside the tent.

"If you would've just listened to me and left sooner I could've got my money and we wouldn't be burning alive!" It was that voice! Aoife made eye contact with the professor and the two girls as they struggled in the tent.

"Let go of them you creep!" She yelled, striking the professor with her staff. He cringed in pain as the two girls escaped from him outside of the tent. She was sure she could hear Reed shout in joy when they left as she faced the professor in the dead heat. The tent was large but blazing very quickly. The professor attempted to blast his way out of the tent, though Aoife had other plans. Before he was able to leave, she tapped her staff into the ground and began to chant.

"O flowers of the long sleep, rise from thine earthen slumber and strip my foes from their mortal coil--Zanbaq!" The vine coiled around the professor and impaled him through the heart, leaving a trail of lilies to fall from the tent and get sucked into the flames. Aoife quickly escaped, her body slightly singed from the flames to see Reed with two women with blue hair standing with him.

"You have sisters? I thought it was only one?" Aoife asked, in total shock.

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Word Count: 2180/1500
Magoi: 150/240

Abilities Used:

Reed was elated and shocked. His eyes couldn't deceive him--Lyra was there, Coda was there--they were both there. "C-Coda...? It's...it's actually you..." All he could do was walk toward her, as if he were in a trance, and run up to hug her. His dead sister, alive! He walked over to her but she backed away from his advance. "Coda...why?"

"She was the damn leader of this bunch, Reed! WHAT were you thinking? Why didn't you come to us? We were both in Magnostadt! You could've come to us help for...for help...you could've lived with one of us!" Coda only scoffed and walked away, ignoring her two siblings.

"You abandoned me, Lyra. You went to school and abandoned me...and Reed. And you, Reed! You abandoned me too! You left me there to...you didn't come back for me!" There were tears in her eyes as she went on her tirade. Both Lyra and Reed hung their heads in shame as Aoife slowly slipped away back to Magnostadt, not wishing to be a part of the family squabble. "I had no one! So, I fought my way into this group...I fought my way into this...I can't stay here! I don't belong here..."

"You can...you can stay with me...I'll pull some strings..." Still, Lyra's plight fell on deaf ears as Coda ran away, leaving the two siblings stunned.