First Impressions [Mizumi]

Too late she saw his smile as her staff came up, and Strix dropped his shield to catch her hand. As she jerked back, he dropped his sword to strike her, open palm, across the face. Just to add insult to injury, he jerked the collar of her turtleneck up just enough to cover her eyes before rolling out of her reach to retrieve his weapons.

"I suppose it is, but it can only be countered by a staff if you use a third step spin-thrust. I learned that little piece of dirty fighting from a fellow soldier. Saved my ass against the last vampire I fought too."

She then rubbed her jaw a little her red eyes blazing with excitement and slight annoyance at that trick as she pulled the Turtle neck down. She then went for him her staff moving very quickly and she slapped his sword out of the say and slapped staff against his leg because the shield protected his center mass too well.

Most of his students winced because they have had the same move used on them and they could hear it was not as hard as it could of been but it was defiantly a hard hit.

"Well most vampires are skilled but don't train with weapons for most their lives." She smiled at him and backed up a few paces looking at him waiting for him too move again. she was not sure how this fight was going to end but it was going too end soon.

Strix took the hit on the leg, trading her a bruise on her arm as she moved into his reach. As they pulled apart to center themselves, strix laughed. It was a harsh laugh, split between the humor of the moment and the pain of some memory. [color=#6633ff]"All the vampires I've ever met have. I damn near lost my head to more than one." He spared a look to the students, yelling at them "What's your greatest weapon?!"

They replied in unison, a common call, "Good luck, great friends, and the idiots on the other side!"

Mizumi chuckled and said "Very true... but I also find Idiots do unexpected things and are typically some of the most dangerous people." She twisted and gave him a matching bruise on his arm. She was thoroughly enjoying herself she had not spared with anyone since the day she was captured and that was with her Husband Zeferoth. It was saddened her a little she would never get that time with him again. But she was trying to look twords the future just like her gift always did.

Mizumi moved back a few paces and began to twist her staff in a slow arc from hand too hand getting ready to do something that Strix had most likely not seen. She gave him a crooked smile and said "I think you will find this interest..." SHe stoped mid sentence her attention now obviously focusing on something else. Her eyes slipped out of focused and her hands missed the staff all together and she dropped it and it clattered to the ground. Her mouth went slack and her arms limp.

She was seeing a field and someone she didn't like was there. Laughing. She could not tell if it was at her or someone else. maybe it was someone close she couldn't tell...

Outwardly Strix could tell something was wrong because her breathing increased and her eyebrows pulled together with both fear and worry.

Strix responded immediately, tossing his practice sword back to the student he'd borrowed from and yelling "Circle up! Magic attack!"

The students moved almost as quickly, forming an outward-facing circle around two of their number, who stood back to back in the center of the circle, hands glowing with elemental magic. Strix threw up a thick antimagic field around only himself and Mizumi, then drew the Blacklade, pressing it to the exposed skin of her hand as he looked for an outward threat. "Mizumi? Talk to me! I can't help you if I don't know what's happening!"

The laugh turned into an audible human voice in her mind it was clearly female but she had never heard it before but she had heard the same malice before from the mage that had captured her.

Mizumi was violently thrown from the vision her body reaction the way it would to extreme motion too quickly and her stomach turned and she nearly vomited. She gasped and said "Dammit what did you do to me. Why did it stop!" she winced a little holding her head as a sudden head ache over came her and winced away from the light. She was having the same sort of reaction head ache as if she was violently knocked out of a vision. She knew shortly her head ache would get too the point where she would not be able to even open her eyes to let light in with out her actually losing her breakfast.

Strix shifted his stance to face away from Mizumi, his sword held ready. "I used the Blackblade and my magic. What happened?"

Strix kept his stance ready, but one of the students brought water to Mizumi, offering her a drink. After a moment, the girl also laid her hand on Mizumi's forehead and sent a soft wash of cool healing through her. "Are you okay, sensei? Can we get you anything?"

Mizumi sighed a little with relief from the energy. It was not enough to completely stop the head ache but some time and quiet would calm it and she answered the girl before she did Strix and said " No dear one that a helped a lot thank you." She smiled at the girl softly with genuine gratitude. she then sipped the water slowly and said this time directed at Strix " My gift is foresight. Your...blade ripped me from a vision violently." She then paused thinking about it further and said " I have the same gift as my grandmother Mizumi...whom I take the name gifts and swords."She knew she needed too keep up the lie if she could knowing it would be hard too keep it up but she had too at least try at least tell she knew for sure she could truly trust these men.

Strix sheathed his sword, the turned to kneel in front of Mizumi. He started to speak, then paused to look at the students, who all suddenly had things to do on the other side of the room. "Mizumi. I think you've dropped enough hints for me to figure out who you are. I won't judge you for it, if that's what you fear. And this is the last time I'll speak of it, unless you raise the topic yourself. Now, tell me what you saw. From what I've read, we can expect it to be true."

Strix took Mizumi's hand in his own to feed her a bit more healing energy. it was less specific than the student's, filling her body to ease her aches. She could almost feel her bruises shrink and vanish.

Mizumi sighed and said "Not here. Someplace a lot more privet then this. And...hell I will tell you why I need too keep this such a secret." She pulled her hair out of its braid and ran her fingers through it to brush it out the head ache and aches now gone she felt a lot better. her red eyes seemed distant as she thought but it was pretty clear that it she was not going to speak another word tell he got them someplace privet.

Strix responded by pulling Mizumi to her feet, carefully aiding her balance, but not so much as to wound her pride. He waved back the students who stood nearby, then silently led her out a back door into an alley. It had some trash bins neatly lined up along the sides, and seemed to be closed off from the main street. About half way down the alley, Strix climbed a ladder set into the wall of a bakery.

On the roof he stayed low, moving as quickly and silently as she'd ever seen a human move. after a few blocks staying hidden behind the peak of the various roofs, he jumped another small alley to a small balcony, waving Mizumi inside.

In the building she recognizes the smells and sounds of the forge, right down to Vulpes' voice chatting away with some woman. The room itself was a small study, with books on each wall and a desk in the corner. Strix closed the doors to the balcony, then slid a bookshelf along rails set into the floor and ceiling. with a dull thump, the room went eerily silent. finally, Strix spoke. "Safe room. No one will hear us here. Tell me what you saw."

Mizumi sat down and sighed her long hair falling over her face. She smiled wryly and said "I saw a field and heard a voice. It was female and dark...it was not good. I have heard a similar voice once before..."She stopped and bit her lip pushing her hair out of her face.

She pushed her hair back and said "I came to be in this time by a spell... A spell cast by a very powerful mage. I was taken from my family in the night and forced into a coffin deep in the vampire mountains and when I woke up i was 3000 years out of my time. That voice reminded me of hers...it wasn't the same exactly I just have a very very bad feeling about this... I do like it and with out more of the vision I don't know how to find that field." she pinched her lips together and started to play with a strand of hair. it was obviously a sign that she was in stress and it was a habit she had too calm herself.

Strix nodded, pensive. "It sounds like we should start looking in the mountains near where you were imprisoned." He cocked his head, as though a new thought jumped into his mind, and he frowned a little, "Unless you don't think you can go back there. I'm not going to force you to face that, if it hurts too much. I'm sure we can find a starting point somewhere."

Strix began pacing in the tiny room, looking alternately at the wall, as Mizumi, or at the bookcase. "Did you know this mage's name? If she was powerful enough to take out one of the heros from the great war, then she must exist in a history text somewhere."