11 am/Las Luces/A Motel parking lot.
Ida starts to wake up slowly to the sound of a muffled scream.
She looks around confused then turns to Coirn who is suffocating under his bandages.
Suddenly his bandages ignite into flames and he emerges with his magic activated.
"YOU TERRIBLE AT BANDAGING!" he yells as he rises.
Ida looks offended
"Hey, it's not my fault you're so reckless! A thank you would've been nice."
"Thanks" he murmurs.
A cloud of smoke starts to fill the RV causing Ida and Corin to start coughing
"What is that?!" Ida says fanning away the smoke.
She looks behind Corin where there's a fire started on the couch.
"Corin you started a fire!"
Corin jumps and they start running in a panic
"Open the door!" Corin yells.
As Ida runs to the door, Loc opens it with a brown grocery bag.
"I was gone thirty minutes?!" Loc yells in utter concern.
Corin and Ida run past him and wait outside as Loc runs in and starts opening all the windows.
He then activates his magic to summon water imps who start jumping at the fire and putting it out.
After a bit, the smoke clears.
"What happened?!" Loc says standing in front of Corin and Ida who are pointing at each other.
He shakes his head and walks back inside
"I- you two are lucky nothing was broken. Come in and clean the ash off everything while I make breakfast."
Corin and Ida's stomachs rumble.
"I actually haven't eaten in like a day," Ida says looking at Corin
"I know same, haven't caught a break yet."
They walk in and Loc leaves a broom and other cleaning supplies for them to use.
After some time passes Corin and Ida manage to make the place spotless and Loc has prepared a hot breakfast for them.
"I'm surprised, you guys aren't half bad."
Corin and Ida walk silently over to the black wooden table to eat where Loc places plates for them.
They stare with stars in their eyes at the meal he made. "A traditional pancake breakfast, with potato, bacon, and egg tacos." As Loc says this they have already cleared their plates.
"More." They both say
"What the hell? I haven't even sat down yet!"
Corin and Ida slide their plates toward him signaling to get more
He puts his plate on the table and walks back to the stove where he has more food.
He brings the plates back and gives them to them, stacked with food.
"This is all we have left so enjoy it."
He sits down to eat, as he looks up from taking his first bite Ida and Corin have a cleared plate looking back at him. He is astonished
"Did you two breathe?!" Well, I only bought enough for what I thought was good for three people but clearly, I was wrong."
"We'll just have to wait till lunch." He says as he continues to eat.
"What are you making?" Ida asks
Corin nods as if her question is a good one.
"Oh no don't go thinking I'm the cook here." He says staving his fork into his pancake. "You two were tired so I thought I would be generous, we're gonna rotate meals." He then reaches for under the table and picks up a large book then slides it to them."
-Hungry man's guide to being full.-
"A cookbook?!" Corin and Ida yell
"Oh yeah. So you two better learn up, 'cause I'll cook for today. But next time I think we'll flip a coin and then go off that pattern."
"Thanks for breakfast..." they both say as they tilt their heads back like children then walk over to the couch.
Loc continues to talk in between taking bites
"So I was thinking we should go to The Plantas Territory, 'cause that's where the celebration of life is."
They both look at him in confusion
"What does that have to do with what we're doing?" Ida says
"It's simple! We have a weird piece of sheet music to find out how to decipher, so who better than pop star Talia Vain during the celebration of life!"
"NO WAY!" Ida scream jumping up and down
"I know! It's perfect!" Loc says cheerfully
"Uhh... Who?" Corin asks.
Loc and Ida look at him like he's stupid
"There's no way you've never heard of Talia Vain!" Ida says looking down at him on the couch
"Nope." He responds without care
"How she's like the best musician of our time," Loc says almost about to fall out of his chair.
"Can't be if I've never heard of her," Corin says crossing his arms.
Ida and Loc's jaws drop
"I- I can't even with you! I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that." Ida says turning away.
Loc shakes his head in surprise.
"Well, anyways the celebration of life where she'll be performing takes place one week from now. In the Plantas Territory."
"Plantas? That's the southwest territory right?"
"Yeah the one directly south of us," Ida says looking at the TV trying to find an ON button.
"So how will we travel between territories?" Corin asks
"We could use a Spacial magic stone," Ida says turning to them.
"No that wouldn't work as well as you think," Loc says as he finally finishes his plate.
He gets up and grabs the plates they left.
"See Spacial magic stones are set to a frequency that only let them work within the bought territory. Also not just anyone can use them, you have to be able to have an extreme level of magical control just to make it where you're tryna go."
"Oh. So what's the plan?" Corin asks.
Loc starts washing the plates.
"So we're currently in the big horn sheep region and we need to go further south. The only way we will be able to get into Bezas, the city where the Celebration of Life is being held, is if we ferry to it, and to get a ferry we have to go to the region of Armadillo, a two-day drive."
"How are we gonna drive through the wind outside of the districts?" Corin asks
Loc points back into the area where Ida was when she saw the Barrier crystal.
"Vehicles have barrier crystals, how do you two not know this, I just told Ida yesterday."
"Well, my family couldn't afford a car," Corin says, but he isn't sad about that.
"Yeah, I never needed one growing up so we never had one either," Ida says as she looks around for a remote.
"I see. Guess I'm driving for a bit." Loc says.
Then he grabs something from the counter next to him and tosses it to Ida.
She catches it, it's the remote."
She smiles and runs over to the couch and sits next to Corin.
"Oh one last thing, I brought enough Till to get us the food for the trip and a supply of fuel that'll last us a bit. I have more but I'm running out, so we will have to wait for the next town over to get spare clothes and more food, extra fuel, and so on." Loc says
"Why not right now?" Ida asks as she flips channels.
Loc goes over to her and snatches the remote, flipping the Channel to local news.
"This is why," he says.
There is a report with now all three of their faces displayed, again saying
Loc Marion - Master of Heists
Corin Fortis - Grunt
Ida Velox - Dangerous Time Mage
"There are helicopters and all, looking around the city in search of them."
The reporter says ash displays overheads from helicopters
"It's grunt now..." Corin says upset
Loc starts to make his way to the driver's seat
"You see why we gotta head out as soon as possible?"
Ida continues flipping the channels.
"Yeah, it makes sense."
The RV starts and they start driving off.
After a few minutes of silence and driving, Loc gets their attention.
"Look the dome Border is visible from here."
About half a mile in front of the RV is the barrier protecting Las Luces from the harsh winds of eagle but in between both the RV and the barrier is something else...
Aurora sits outside of a coffee shop next to the road that Corin, Ida, and Loc travel and seances their presence.
"Are those idiots using magic? Makes my job easier."
It's Ida, she's inside the RV using her magic to try and beat a game on the TV.
"It looks like they are trying to leave after causing such a mess, how have Iss and Nagas not caught them yet? Whatever it's probably for the best, don't want to get any local officers hurt."
Her eyes glow and she sticks her hand out next to her waist by her chair and a portal opens up.
She grabs a metallic red device from her pocket and tosses it into the portal then puts her wrist near her face. "Iss, Nagas, new plan."
CLUNK
"What was that? Did you hit something?" Ida says looking around.
"No, I don't think so?" Loc says looking back in the rear view.
"Oh well, look we're about to exit, you guys need to brace yourselves, sometimes it gets bumpy"
Corin and Ida Brace themselves to what they can.
As they drive through the protective barrier and new smaller barrier forms over the RV
"That's pretty cool," Corin says looking out at it from a window.
Ida runs toward him to look outside.
"Look the wind is carrying a huge boulder." She says pointing at a massive rolling hunk of stone.
The outside of the district is covered with light brown, dry land. There are cracks in the ground everywhere, and from a short distance, you can see the terrifying winds.
"Ok so from here on out it's just driving, our first stop will be at Dort, that's a little pit stop town we can refuel at. It's about 8 hours away."
"I say we switch every two hours so we can get some solid rest in," Ida suggests
"We established that boy me and you can't drive," Corin says looking at her.
"Gotta learn somehow.." she says
Loc shakes his head
What have I gotten myself into...
A phone buzzes in the pocket of Rafferty who is strapped to a hospital bed.
He pulls out his flip phone and answers it
A familiar voice is heard
"Did you do it?"
Rafferty rolls his eyes
"No... there's new information, she's not traveling alone, there's a boy with her using flame Magic, but it's different than normal I- I'm unsure how to explain it. There's also a tide mage but he's just a common crook."
"Interesting..." the voice says as it hangs up.
4 hours have now passed while Corin, Ida, and Loc have been traveling on the road.
Ida is currently driving, Corin is asleep on the couch and Loc is playing himself in chess."
Ida: "Hey how did you unlock the scroll? I never asked."
He turns to her.
"The same way you created those chains."
"Huh?" She says confused.
"It's a bit hard to explain, Corin should also be awake for this." He says as he throws a rook at him.
Corin wakes up. "What happened."
"Listen here it's pretty cool. So the way I unlocked the scroll is with creation magic. Since you two don't have elements that specialize in creation magic you wouldn't get what I mean. Creation magic is the physical manifestation of yourself in weapon form." He then conjures a three-foot key with a skull in the middle made of water. Ida and Corin look at it in awe. "This here is my skeleton key it can change to any shape and unlock or lock anything."
"That's not a weapon though?" Corin says looking at the key.
Loc inspects it.
"I see what you mean, but it's not a traditional weapon. I can use it to lock a soul to my summoning magic, allowing me to summon it at will." He says as he summons a little water imp.
"So how would someone normally summon a creature?" Ida asks.
"They would have to make a soul contract with a creature. Also, it doesn't work on whatever race the user is."
"How will I know if I can use summoning magic though?" Corin ask
"You'll know," Loc says as he makes his key disappear.
"That's vague as hell. Hey, why did the wind stop?" Ida says from the front
"The wind what?!" Loc says
He gets up and immediately races to the front
"Stop the RV!" He yells at Ida
She slams the brakes
"What's going on?!"
Loc looks out in front
"That's not good."
"What's going on?" Corin asks as he walks up to the front.
"Be ready to fight," Loc says pointing to a boulder that sits in front of them
"That's a golem. Their magic presence is so large they can nullify the environmental effect around them, their heads are what's used to create magical barrier crystals."
Corin and Ida both look out at it confused
The boulder starts to roll
A Brown Rhombus crystal appears and floats above it
Then more stones start to roll towards it like it's putting itself together
It towers over the RV at the size of old oak and looks down at them.
"It senses magic, Get out! Don't let it destroy the RV!"
They rush out of the RV one by one and scatter trying to draw its attention away so they don't get stranded with a destroyed RV.
Corin yells from across the battlefield
"WHAT DO WE DO?!"
Loc shouts back
"WE HAVE TO DESTROY THE CRYSTAL AND WE WILL HAVE 15 SECONDS TO RETURN TO THE RV BEFORE THE GOLEM BARRIER BREAKS!"
Ida looks over at the golem. "ON IT!"
Ida rushes toward the golem and then activates her magic to accelerate herself.
Corin activates his fire magic causing his eyes and hair to burn red.
Loc does the same, his eyes glow a deep blue color.
The golem sees Ida and tries to swat at her but it is too slow, she then runs up the side of the golem and grabs onto its crystal head which is triple her body size.
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!"
Corin starts to charge his attack like he did the last time against Rafferty
Loc creates large spheres of water and throws them at the golem. The water that splashes on the golem starts separating into water imps that crawl around and gnaw at it like ticks on a dog.
Ida starts to focus her magic on her hands, trying to recreate the time chain she used previously. After a few seconds of struggle, she manages to produce a thin time chain that she uses to wrap around the head of the golem.
It is now slowed down and being attacked from every angle by water imps. With this chance, Corin goes for the finishing blow
As he launches his attack the time chains snap and the golem ducks out of the way.
It broke free! They all think in unison
"HEY WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO SLOW IT DOWN LIMB BY LIMB," Loc yells
Corin is a bit confused but Ida gets the Idea
She runs toward its right arm and wraps it in time chains.
Loc runs over to the golem and starts to scale it.
He quickly reaches the arm and summons water imps that start to detach it from the body
"Oh, I get it!" Corin says as he starts to charge up another attack
The golem's arm is now detached and falls to the ground with a boom that echoes throughout the barrier.
The golden gets enraged and grabs Ida with its other arm. Then chucks her to the other side of the barrier.
Corin and Loc watch her as she screams
"I'LL BE FINE JUST KILL THE DAMN THING!"
Lock starts making his way to the other arm and summons water imps that start attacking it.
The golem swats at the imps but they keep respawning.
Corin uses this chance to launch his attack on the golem's head.
A large pillar of flame is unleashed from Corin and pierces through the Golem's head.
Corin starts to wobble around
"I don't think- I've... Fully recovered..." he bends over and tries to catch his breath, and his magic deactivates.
Ida is seen driving behind Corin in the RV
"GET IN! HURRY!"
Ida sticks her hand out for Corin and pulls him inside.
Loc runs towards the RV
And the RV passes him
But Corin and Ida grabbed Loc's shirt collar and pulled him inside.
The Golem's barrier starts to collapse
"Close one!" Loc says as he heads over to the driver's seat
"Yeah, hey can you drive, I'm done."
"It's probably for the best, I didn't know we were in golem territory."
He goes over to the driver's seat, takes Ida's shoe off the pedal that she was using to drive the RV when she pulled them in and throws it back to her.
He sits down and starts to steer the RV back on Course
"Honestly we handled that way better than I thought we could," Loc says as he looks out to the road.
"We're the dream team of course we didn't die," Corin says with a smile.
"Ok don't jynx us, we're almost to our first stop, the small town Dort."