Playing With Fire (July 2014)

[Claire Gallows]

The forest north of the city was one not often traversed by the elder Farron, even when she made it out there to visit Shadow at his newly acquired baronial manor in Battlefield Park. But she found herself weaving up the path that lead to the wrought iron fencing that indicated the Academy's grounds. Once past those, she wandered along the cobblestone path that lead to the academy proper, taking her time to take in the sights. How she had never made it up here was beyond her, but she had business to attend to so she didn't linger too long. Mage House called to her in a way she couldn't explain and she found it rather easily amidst the gardens outside. Arthour's office was her next destination and she lingered at the door for a few moments before lifting a hand to rap her knuckles against the door. "Hey Art? It's Claire."

"COME!" The muffled voice called through the oak door. There was a slam, something that sounded like a book, followed by several more, hitting the ground and some cursing from him. The door, creaked open slightly to reveal a wooden paneled room. A simple, woven rug took up most of the floor to protect the floorboards. Arthour, was on the floor, muttering to himself and collecting a few books that had fallen from on of the massive, floor to ceiling bookcases. His back was too the door, and at his side was a desk that looked big enough to land a helicopter. And every inch of it was covered in paper work of some kind. "Just leave the papers in the In Tray, and I'll get to it when I can!"

She paused for a moment, hesitating on whether or not she wanted to step in but as the door creaked open, she peeked in. "You alright there, Art?" She asked quietly before opening the door further and stepping in. Gaze swept the room, a cursory glance that took in details and stored them away. Once she was inside, she bumped the door shut behind and slipped her hands into the pockets of her oversized sweatshirt. "I um, don't have any papers for you...."

Blink. He paused in gathering up books and stood up to glance at Claire. "OH! Claire! I'm sorry, I thought you were one of the teachers" He shook his head and snickered, quickly crossing the distance from the desk and the door and offered a hand to Claire in greeting. "Yeah, I'm fine. One of the shelves in the bookcase broke. What brings you out here to Crios? Would you like a drink?" There was a table and a few extra chairs in front of the desk. All in all, Arthour's office was comfortable and seemed designed to put the person visiting it at ease.

She chuckled quietly, taking his hand for a brief shake before stepping further into the office. "Yeah, me and teaching, not so much. But yeah, hi." A grin broke out across her expression and she shrugged, politely waving off the offer of a drink before heading over to claim one of the chairs at his desk. "We needed to have that talk, right? Figured now's as good a time as ever, you know?"

Arthour nodded his head, moving with Claire, he stepped around the desk and settled himself into comfy chair behind it. He smiled and dipped his head again. "Yeah, we need to talk. Well, no time like the present! What's going on with you and Scion?"

She shifted in the seat, fidgeting with the drawstrings of her hoodie. It felt like school all over again, sitting across the desk from the teacher. Probably in trouble. "I figured sooner rather than later would be good but if you've got school stuff to attend to, I can find a better time to stop by. Was sorta in the neighborhood so I figured I'd try and catch you." She paused, pondering her words. "Well, that's sort of complicated. He's been on my radar for awhile but it's getting harder and harder to ignore his...dealings. As of late, he's bound a summon to a man's soul and well, it's complicated. But it needs to stop and I figured I may try to help."

He listened carefully, and leaned forwards slightly. He brows furrowed and Arthour waved a hand dismissively at the comment about her coming back. "Bound a summon to a man's soul? Interesting...I wasn't aware he'd started causing problems again, he's been rather quiet these last few months....." He sighed, leaning back in his chair and turned on the swivel to peer out the window overlooking the gardens behind Mage House and sighed. "Scion really isn't the kind of being you want to tangle with if you can help it, Claire. He doesn't give up very easily and is more than happy to kill or maim anyone that gets in his way"

She chewed at the inside of her lip a bit, quietly contemplative as she watched him process her words. Nobody *wanted* to deal with Scion, but sometimes in life there are things that just have to be done. This seemed to be one of them. "Perhaps you remember Diritas and his brother Ventus? The latter is the one I'm referring to. It seems to be a summon similar to those used in my realm, which is troubling to say the least." She softly sighed and shrugged. "I'd prefer not to. But nobody else seems to be tackling the issue and I'm short on time to do so..."

"I can't say I'm hugely familiar with the names" He replied, returning his attention to Claire and nodded his head. He understood her reasons for acting, he was just...He was tired. "I can certainly understand why this might be troubling for you Claire, and I'll help you however I can. You must try not to get caught by him on your own, ever, Claire." He looked serious as turned those piercing blue eyes onto Claire's and looked right into her. "Nothing you've before will come close to the insidious way the man weaves and weedles into your mind."

"Fair enough. Di's a pirate...the one I killed awhile back." She muttered softly. Sure he came back, but whatever, that was a whole different barrel of monkeys. She rubbed a hand over her face and sat back in the chair, knees bouncing slightly with anxiety. The material of her sweatshirt stretched taught over her abdomen, putting the seemingly constantly growing baby bump on display in a rather blatant fashion despite the frumpy fabric of the hoodie. "I've been one on one with him twice now. And neither time has he deemed me fit for conflict. It's like he's written me off as a non-issue, which, while mildly insulting is fine by me."

Arthour smirked softly. "He's arrogant. More so than even me...Which is a bit of an ego pinch too, now that I think about it..." He shrugged. Then peered at her stomach for a brief moment, then looked up at Claire's face. "You need to be careful. Not that you need me to tell you that, and I've probably got the least right to tell anyone about careful"

Her nose scrunched and she nodded. "He seemed pretty arrogant. That's saying something coming from me. Like the pot calling the kettle black." She actually let out a soft laugh and shrugged. "I know. Noct would kill me if I went and did something stupid and got myself hurt or worse. But sometimes it's hard to put the world on hold because of things in your personal life, you know?" Certainly he would understand.

Arthour nodded, completely in understanding. "I know, really. It gets easier after a little while, if only because it gets so tiring" He shrugged a little. Don't mind him, he's just an old swordmage. "Either way, if you want to go against him, I'll do what I can to help however I can. Keep your crystal close, so you can contact me, yeah?"

"I don't think standing by could ever get easier for me...it's just not in my coding, you know?" She asked with another soft shrug, gaze steady on the swordmage. The urge to crack a joke and make fun of his old-ness was evident with the faint curl of her lips but she wiped it away with a pass of her hand over her mouth. "It may take as much as help as I...or as we can get. We took out Vanion and that damn near killed most of those involved and I don't think Scion would go down any easier. But yeah, I'll do that."

Arthour nodded, and smiled back. "Good. Now, with that done with, you wanna take a tour of the Gardens? Or maybe take a look at our Combat Annex? Crios isn't just an academy you know!"

With the conversation coming to a close, she stood up and brushed her hands over her jacket and nodded. "That'd be nice. I've never been up here before, it's quite the campus." She smiled and gestured toward the door, no more at ease about the Scion issue than she had been upon arrival. But it would have to do!

It would! Arthour nodded, and he felt, did a remarkable job of hiding his apprehension at the entire idea. No one wants to face the being that you know can kill you, especially when they've done it once already. It's not fun. He moved to the door, and opened it, gesturing to Claire to precede him out first. And interesting thing to note, here and now, was these two things. Arthour's desk had a coat stand behind it. On it, hung his sword belt. This was likely the one and only time Claire had ever seen Arthour without it on. Also, his cloak was hanging up back there.



[[Adapted from Live Play with thanks to Arthour ♥ ]]