[Continued from Act 7.]
[Note: It may be confusing unless you remember that italicized parts are all thoughts or flashbacks, not current events.]

Mipsacri leaned forward slightly in her chair as she heard this. So many things could be answered this way, and she was anxious to hear it. “Are you sure you don’t want some tea first? You seem rather tense, Miss Mipsacri.” To this she shook her head politely, sitting up straight again to try not to display a look of mixed excitement. “Please, continue. I’m alright. I’m just so interested to hear what I’ve been trying to figure out all along.”

“Well..” He leaned back in his chair slightly as he seemed completely focused on his tea, while Eriatic returned to his post, teapot in hand. A moment of anxious silence billowed stuffily throughout the room, the fireplace flickering and warming the room happily. “The Priestess isn’t a person like you most likely believed. It is a powerful artifact, bestowed upon us by all of the four leaders as their strongest weapon. The ‘Priestess’ is just a codename for it. I was looking for it before my father-in-law banished me from Ellinia.” The thief’s eyes widened slightly at this, which explained so many things, questions just blurted from her lips, her mouth moving so quickly, it’d be hard for anyone to keep up. “What is this weapon? When and how was it made? Where can I find it? What do you use it for? Banished.. why?”

“Slow down, my dear.” A smile cracked on his tired expressions, as he was sure this was all new to her, so he could understand why she was so full of questions. He chuckled softly, setting down his teacup carefully and holding up two wrinkly fingers. “Being the tired old man I am, you are allowed two questions, so pick carefully. The rest you will find out in the future.” She frowned at this, trying to pick only two, sliding back in her seat. There were so many things she wanted answered! “Well.. for starters, why were you banished?”

He let out yet another soft chuckle, closing his eyes and resting his hands under his chin thoughtfully, his face looking pained as he spoke, as though he had just remembered some painful memories. “I was looking for the Priestess. It was about 3 years ago, a bit after my dear wife had passed on, rest her soul. I was banished because I wanted to use the Priestess to revive her, there are so many powers within it that it shouldn’t be used by your common person, you know. But her father wouldn’t allow me to, for obvious reasons.” She looked down, nodding slowly. “I’m sorry about your wife. Meriako must’ve had a hard time dea-“ Grenardi quickly opened his eyes, smiling and waving his hand, interrupting her quite rudely. “Don’t worry about it. It’s in the past. What is your next question, Miss Mipsacri?”

“Last question. What should I ask? There are so many.. so.. many..” “Perhaps I will have some of that tea.” She said uneasily, trying to stall for time as she tried to pick exactly what question to ask. At this Eriatic smiled, returning from the shadows with the tea tray, pouring her a small cup of tea, before asking. “One lump or two, Miss Mipsacri?” “None, please. I don’t like sugar in my tea.” She grinned, sticking out her tongue playfully, but it seemed rather silly since everyone else was so serious and polite, to which she quickly noticed and sat up straight again. Looking at the tall man for a moment, then down at her tea embarrassedly, she stared at her reflection in the glass for just a few moments before speaking. “Where is it?”

—

It was about midnight now, and Mip laid in her bed silently, her toasty covers tucked up to her chin. All she could think about was what Grenardi had said to her. Explaining it had somewhat confused her, but now she knew what she needed to do to find it. Even though the old man hadn’t suggested it, she really wanted to speak with Grendal about this, as he might know more than Grenardi thought.

”When or if you do find it, please give it to me to protect it. I need to guard it, it’s somewhat my responsibility.” The old mage mumbled, before getting up to leave the room after receiving a glance from Eriatic.

”Why is it his responsibility anyway? What happened between the Sir Greynol and Grendal? There’s got to be more..” Mulling over this in her mind, she rolled over onto her side, tucking her pillow under head a bit more, her dagger discreetly hidden under it Since she was always alert now because of what had been happening lately, she tried to close her eyes and get some rest. From all the stress she had, it surprisingly wasn’t as difficult as she had thought, slowly dozing to sleep, but able to spring awake at the slightest sound.

—
[Dreaming.]

“Don’t leave me..” A hollow sounding voice whispered, that of Meriako’s, specifically. Appearing from the darkness, Meriako didn’t look quite as angelic as she did in her previous dreams, as though she was getting sicker. Her cheeks were paler than before, and her eyes fixed downwards, absolutely expressionless. The darkness was cold, so much colder than before; Mipsacri could see her own breath. Her normally cheery pale-blue eyes were not quite as bright as before, her wings were dissipating, leaving only a lightly feathered pair. “Mother left me. Please don’t leave me too.” She mumbled, her eyes never quite meeting Mipsacri’s, her glow paler than before. But before Mipsacri could answer, even though she tried to, in this dream, she wasn’t able to speak. “The Priestess is falling apart. The key is needed before she falls into the wrong hands. She’s going to die, and therefore.. the entire world will die with her.”

This doomsday prophecy seemed to upset Mipsacri; she tried to speak as much as she could, but no words would escape her. “Go. Hurry, save her.” She said coldly as she brushed away Mip’s reaching hands towards her. As the tiny cleric’s grey eyes began filling with tears, she finally exchanged glances with the young woman. “NOW! GO, BEFORE EVERYTHING IS LOST!” Meriako screamed at her, in almost an eerie psychotic voice, her pupils quite small and insane-looking, her hand lashing out and slapping Mip directly in the face.

—

But before the dream could continue, it was shattered suddenly by a small, faint sound in the real world, which immediately snapped the thief out of her slumber. Snapping her eyes open, she was out of bed in a flash, holding her dagger tightly. “Calm down, Miss.” A voice came from the door, and after looking closer, she realized who it was. “Sir Greynol.” She blinked, lowering her dagger and staring across the room at him. As he spoke, his hunched back was to her and towards the door, running his long fingers down it, glowing magical sparks emitting from his touch. “I remembered how you were afraid of someone attacking you in the night, so I came to put my strongest protection spells on this room.” “Ah.. sorry.” She nodded apologetically, crawling back into bed and pulling the covers up. It was about two more minutes before Grenardi had finished drawing magical symbols, before glancing back at Mipsacri, who was still sitting in her bed awake, as if she couldn’t sleep until he left. “That should do it.” He nodded, “If you’re still uneasy, I can send Eriatic to watch outside your door, as he’s not only my personal servant, but my bodyguard as well.”

Shaking her head gently, she smiled kindly at him, pulling the covers up. “No, that’s quite alright, I feel quite safe with your spells to protect me.” “Alright then, goodnight, Miss Mipsacri.” He bowed politely, before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him with a muffled thud; his footsteps could be heard walking slowly down the hall. Curling up again in her warm, toasty bed, she closed her eyes slowly, still thinking about everything that had been explained and dreamed about. Just when she thought she had figured out the dream, more details were added, making it more and more confusing.

“There’s gotta be some meaning behind it all.”

—

The sun happily glittered through the curtains in Mipsacri’s room; it was a brand new day. It seemed so cheerful outside after the rain from the previous night, and the remainder of her sleep was rather dreamless and empty. Tiredly, she rubbed her eyes, shoving the covers off of her lazily when she heard a knock at the door. Getting up, slightly slouched from sleepiness, she shuffled towards the door, opening it slowly. “Hmm?”

There stood Lecra, the tiny archer boy, who was simply smirking. “You’re up awful late, it’s almost 9 am.” “Shut up.” Mipsacri glared at him, nearly slamming the door on him, before he caught it with his hand. Even if he was a small child, only about twelve, he was somewhat stronger than Mip. He spoke slowly, his eyes fixed up with hers. “Meriako wanted me to get you.. something about..” He coughed while he was speaking, as though trying to cover up his words, “Baking cookies or something.”

“Cookies..?” She grinned quite evilly, always acting immature around him, although she was sixteen and supposedly grown-up, she pat his head teasingly. “What, is the little Lecra going to make cookies with Meriako? How sweet..” Mip snickered, although the archer didn’t seem bothered by it too much, smirking back at her. “Well, you’re going too, so we both have to suffer.”

[Continued to Act 8.B.]

[Yes, I bet you’re wondering two things. Why is there no music, and why is this act split it to two parts? Well, to answer the first part, there is no music beeeecause I’m not on the right compie to do that, and my time it very limited. Secondly, why dare I split it up? Simple, because this act was simply too long to keep together. By the end of part B though, that can officially be considered the end of this Act, and hopefully it’ll leave us at more of an interesting part.

Lastly, I apologize to everyone who I promised I would post last night. Simply put, I was distracted by Shmooks-kun, who made me go to bed early because I looked tired.

But don’t fret! The next part of the act will be out in a few days AND with music!

Thanks for reading and I hope to meet tons of ya’ll at my meetup on Thursday!
~Mipsacri]

(MaskOfSmak pwns you.)