Today’s snippet, titled “The Forge, pt.2”, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark’s Pathfinder Campaign.
      Yes, another multi-part chapter. This one was pre-broken up into 3 bits, so I’ve done the same here, just for ease of reading.
      Be forewarned, there may be mature themes and naughty language below.
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      “Shall we try this again?”
      Aimsley and Rhiallis exchanged glances, then nodded at Athynacious in unison.
      “Who’s got the coin?”
      “Me,” the elf said. “Here. It is all there.”
      The priest closed his eyes once more and led the others in a similar prayer; beginning with simple breathing exercises and culminating in a hallow spell with slightly different verbiage. As his voice – quite clear and beautiful, especially for a man, Rhiallis thought – rose and fell the very air began to tremble. Golden motes sparked at the edges of her vision and an involuntary smile broke upon her face.
      This is it, this is it! I can feel Her presence, I swear it! Excitement built in her chest and she sat there, grinning like an idiot, as Athynacious reached the climax of his spell.
      The spell failed.
      Again.
      Disappointment was tangible in the overheated chamber.
      “I just don’t know what went wrong this time,” Athynacious said, matching her stride as they left the citadel proper. “I thought for certain…”
      “Me too.” Aimsley spoke up, walking on the cleric’s right side. “I felt it.”
      “I think you were close, Athy. And hey – the good news is, you’ve still got the whole day ahead of you to figure out what you messed up!”
      Athynacious’ ruddy cheeks grew slightly ruddier at Sadie’s words.
      “Well, I do have a lot of work to do before tomorrow morning,” he said, squaring his shoulders. Hastily, he headed for the exit. Rhiallis cast a look down at her little friend, hoping that it said that was rather rude. She was not sure that Sadie read the intention behind it for she grinned and shrugged, then changed the subject.
      Aimsley walked at her side once more when they departed the citadel.
      “I’ve working on a rather complicated spell of my own,” she said, tossing long blonde hair over her shoulder. “We were all talking about raising capital and how it didn’t make sense to overburden Drezen’s lingering merchants with our treasure.”
      “I recall the conversation,” Rhiallis said. It had gotten heated at times, for the finer points of economic theory eluded all seven of the Liberators of Drezen, but in the end they had agreed that it made the most sense to take much – if not all – of their booty to other cities in the region. The how of it, unfortunately, had not yet been settled.
      “Well, my mentor had long ago transcribed one of the most powerful spells he knew for me and I’ve been studying it. With it – I can teleport us-”
      “All of us?”
      She scrunched her nose. “Some of us, and the gear. But we should be able to reach Kenebres easily, then New Stetven and from there – who knows? Pitax is not friendly, but it is fairly large. There’s the city-state of Mivon, or Goldenbridge in Kyonin. I have even heard that the fledging nation of Phoenixa has a pretty cosmopolitan capital. We should probably try them, too.”
      Celeste threw a companionable arm around Aimsley. It was an uncommon gesture of comraderie and afffection from the stoic paladin.
      “That’s excellent news, Aims. How many of us can you take, do you reckon?”
      The mage considered for a moment. “Myself, three others, and a reasonable amount of non-living goods.”
      “Enchanted bags – they can go through that sort of spell without exploding or imploding, right?”
      Aimsley nodded.
      “Well then – as soon as the forge is settled, we should get started. We’re going to need to cash influx to get the city working again.” Celeste greeted one of the men from the Silver Dragons by name as they passed, then returned her attention to Aimsley. “I think you should take Rhiallis, Sadie, and myself.”
      “I- Oh. All right, that’s fine. Unless – Rhiallis, do you have any objections to that?”
      She considered. “I think that’s a good mix. Celeste and I are good negotiators and Sadie seems to have an eye for value. We can run it by the others, but I don’t imagine they’ll object. Perhaps Mira would want to come – but Korael and Niro do not seem to have any real interest in this sort of thing.”
      “Its settled then,” Celeste said, swooping around to pass them. “I shall see you in the morning and we will try again.”
      “Good day, Celeste.”
      “I had better go as well.” Aimsley tapped the spellbook at her waist. “If we’re going to do this, I had better be prepared. It can be rather dangerous, you know.”
      Rhiallis stopped in her tracks, watching her friend vanish into the crowd. “What kind of danger, I wonder.”
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Note: Image is “King Jagiello Statue Central” by (Mulligand) from SXC.hu; edited by me