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[onblackwings]

[ This lady's looking a little different, for anyone that's spoken with her before. Not any older, but there's a sort of crooked quality to her nose, like it'd been broken and healed some time ago. She's lounging in the Initiative apartments, looking like she's recently made friends with a superiority complex. ]

I want to speak to those of you who have seen a war before. Not the skirmishes that the Initiative sends us on here, but actual war.

And failing that, I'll take anyone that knows magic — and can teach it. That part is important. Don't waste my time if all you can do is cast it.

Comments

[onblackwings]

No, not yet. I just want to hear whatever stories you can tell me.

[ladyspitfire]

The war I was involved in was one against a horde of monsters that lived deep underground. Their very presence tainted the land and they were unbiased in their killings. No one was safe from them. They were led by a tainted dragon, one they turned into their leader for the sake of a ruling hive mind.

It was only a year long, the shortest war in the history of my world, but many died. There are some villages that are still recovering from the scarring on the land and the utter destruction they wrought. An entire army had been wiped out in a single battle very early on in the war and we're still working on rebuilding it, years later.

[onblackwings]

It was only monsters? [ She seems disappointed. ] Tell me about the dragon, though. You make it sound like it was mindless.

[ladyspitfire]

Before I was born, our nation was occupied by an opposing country. I couldn't tell you about that, only that it lasted many years and many died.

[The dragon, however, is one Elissa can speak very well on.]

No, not mindless. It was an Old God that wished to be free. The Taint only served to give it more power than it already had and it was much more capable of controlling the monsters. It gave them orders and kept watch for any opponents looking to kill it.

[And if you were a Grey Warden, then the dragon entered your dreams and tried to command you as well.]

It...sang. It's difficult to describe.

[onblackwings]

It sang. [ she makes a face ] That's like no dragon I've ever heard of. How?

[ladyspitfire]

It wasn't...really singing. But that's all I can describe it as. It was loud, hypnotic. You wanted to find and follow it.

[onblackwings]

That sounds like a spell. Not one I've ever heard of, but what else could it have been?

[ladyspitfire]

An illusion?

[But Elissa knows what it really was. Khisanth's questions, though, get her interest.]

Do you know things about dragons, serah?

[onblackwings]

I... [ uhhhh ] ...I've learned about them. A friend of mine rode one into battle, and I've heard a lot of his stories.