trans_9 | A girl who can fly should never fall on her sword [Closed]

She was looking at it entirely wrong. Signum was, and had been, a friend first, and when she had been in a bad place, she hadn't thought she could turn to him. It wasn't making a friend out of an enemy; it was reminding a friend that even in the worst of times, she was not alone.

"As for your Barriers... Could you put one up here and now? Before you worry too much about needing some counteracting agent I'd like to try something."

Did it always come back to experiments for him?

Well, she hadn't really expected friendship to continue through almost killing him either, hence the discontinuity of her perception.

"Only for a few seconds. Mages from my world can sense these things, and if I were them, I'd assume this to mean I was in here trying to attack you again," Signum says, then closes her eyes to concentrate, holding Laevatein in a clenched right hand.

Immediately, the color of the room changes and a feeling of stillness and arcane dimensional shifting occurs as the room is turned into a very small Barrier, out of phase with reality.

Aibghalien.... had good reason to forgive someone turning on their comrades due to outside causes.

"...after what I've done in here..." He shook his head, glanced to the far end of the room (which, fortunately was far enough away to put both Signum and his collection of magical items well out of range of even a 40' radius burst) and spoke one single word in the language of magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magesDisjunction.htm).

Signum blinks as the Barrier is instantly broken, normal reality shattering back into place. She's used to seeing such fields overwhelmed by force, or collapse due to interference from Anti-Magic Fields (there is a reason those are only used by people who want collateral damage), but the feeling of that spell from Aibghalien was akin to having built a 6000 square foot, two-story greenhouse, and watching it shatter and collapse from one precisely-placed hit from a regular hand hammer.

"...whatever that spell was, it's impressive," Signum says, again impressed by the breadth of Aibghalien's magical style compared to her own simple combat spells.

"It's one of the most powerful spells in magic," Aibghalien said. "And I always keep it memorized at least once, just in case."

He grinned at her, then sobered. "I was, I think justifiably, afraid of what it might do to you were you caught in its radius. But from an external vantage point it would be easy enough to target without endangering anyone or anything inside."

"A trump card against anything magical," Signum falls back into her habit of summarizing Aibghalien's point, "including general field effects. It could certainly prevent me from doing anything too insane."

"If it makes you feel better, by the way, I don't think I'd disappear if such an effect hit me. I was merely a construct, or manifestation of an artifact once, but my existence is independent of it now, and I'm more or less a living creature. You could permanently damage Laevatein, though, and I'd ask that you be careful of that."

"I'd still rather not risk it, both for your own sake, Laevatein's, and the fact that if in the course of a conflict with you, I suppressed your ability to fly... it would probably not be pleasant."

He put that image out of his mind. "In any case, I think the many virtues of having you out and fully-functional far outweigh the very slim chance of potential risks recurring. My official position as a Magic Department representative, if you will." He grinned.

"Don't forget that if you dispel my Armor without actually reversing the effect properly, I might end up naked," Signum supplies helpfully, mostly just to see Aibghalien's reaction. "That kind of spell actually does replace our clothes, not just cover them."

Unable to fault his logic, and feeling all the better for being surrounded by masochistically supportive people, Signum relents her bad mood somewhat. "As a warrior, and your junior in the Department, I can't argue with that," she replies. "When the TSAB caught us the first time, they just pressed us into their service and were done with it. Nanoha will almost assuredly decide the same thing for me this time, if no one else is angry enough to demand something harsher."

She sighs, slight smile fading back to her normal neutral expression. "I just want to do more to apologize to the victims, really."

Signum teasing him is so far from his image of her that he doesn't recognize it as such, but it earns a bemused grin all the same. "Well, I won't hesitate to toss a dispel magic or two next time. No permanent damage possible to Laevatein possible, and Celena isn't the jealous sort..."

Good. For all that she had any number of people she knew from her own world around here, Signum had always seemed a little lonely, just from the way held herself a little aloof and played the 'calm warrior woman' role to the hilt. "I'm sure we can find a way to put you to use," he said. "Some project to improve life on the ship."

Congratulations on being the fifth or sixth person she's ever even considered joking around with, Aibghalien. Erio may have beaten you, but she has an image to maintain in front of the kids.

"I won't hesitate to do anything you feel would help," Signum says, "Except subject my armor to that spell you just mentioned. And for the sake of my sanity please don't tell Hayate or Zwei about that."

"Well, I've been working on my own project to enhance your Devices in my spare time, since your sort of mages seem to possess more raw magical strength than I can imagine," he said. "But that's really my own project, as beneficial as it would be if you all could cleave through the Ohm like so much pudding. But I will certainly keep an eye out for possibilities...

"Though mind you," he said, looking up at her, "I don't actually know the full range of your abilities."

"My spell repertoire's actually very simple," Signum says. "Even Vita has more spells than I do...even if they're just different means of smashing things. To start with, Laevatein is a transforming weapon... (http://nanoha.wikia.com/wiki/Signum#Powers)"

"Much like a sorcerer from my own world," Aibghalien said. The fact that he said the word without a hint of contempt spoke volumes about his general respect and fondness for Signum. "Great power across fewer potential outlets for said power. Though that begs the question, what limits the number of spells you know?"

"Nothing specific," Signum says, setting down an empty wineglass after that long, thirst-encouraging spiel about her abilities and shrugging. "I have a style that works for me and a suite of spells to suit it."

"Also, I...don't have any real skill with spells that aren't protection or direct damage, other than the ones that were more or less built into me," she admits. "It's simply the nature of my training and how Laevatein and I convert mana to energy. I could whip up a new way of lighting someone on fire in a day if I had to, but learning even a simple bind spell could take months. I always had Shamal and Zafira to rely on for that. And spells with elemental properties other than fire are right out," she adds as a matter of course.

The unseen servant, still hanging invisibly about, refilled the wine glass as a matter of course as Aibghalien considered. "So it's mostly a matter of energy manipulation, then. So an enchantment which empowered you and-or Leavatein would really only increase your strength, not your breadth."

Signum nods in agreement. "The Belkan style is you do one thing, and you do it very well. That one thing, generally, is point-blank destruction with your weapon and element of choice. If you want variety, ask Nanoha or another pure Mid-style mage."

"That implies some rather cynical things about the world, but never mind that," he said, waving it off as he thought. "So if we want to make some 'grand penance' or I don't know what, we'd need to find a circumstance where pyretic destruction is called for. Actually, that's starting to give me an idea."

"Well, we are in a war. That's kind of my specialty. And I'm not looking for a grand gesture, either," Signum comments. "I just want to help more."

"Your first proposed act of reconciliation was ritual suicide," Aibghalien said with a playful smile. "Forgive me for thinking that for a mage whose specialty is 'catastrophic destruction', 'grand' pretty much goes with the territory."

Not that he had any room to talk. For a generalist wizard he certainly did enjoy his explosions.

"When I briefly engaged Ohm forces some forever or so ago, among their number were a few who seemed capable of manipulating fire or a very similar manifestation. They were a greater threat than the more common and numerous Ohm present at the time, and I've considered that we need more effective protections against them. Since strength is a concern for any counteractive force, perhaps yours is sufficient to be a benchmark?"

"Am I really the only person on this ship who was created in a culture where knights offer to do that?" Signum wonders, before dismissing the subject with a wave of her hand.

"So, you want to test your defenses against my fire spells, is that it?" she asks, wondering again about the elf's gluttony for punishment. "Or simply compare my offensive potential to our enemies'?"

"In human culture back home, a paladin -- a holy warrior in service to a god," Aibghalien said, not quite keeping his disdain for religion out of that last word, "would be stripped of his or her powers on committing an evil deed, and would be required to perform some great act as atonement if they ever wished to redeem themselves. I imagine that most of those great acts were likely so dangerous as to be effective suicide even in success. Still, that seems to me a much more useful method of --"

He snapped his jaw shut on the words and glared at her. "Don't you take one ounce of inspiration from that, Signum. I swear to you I will burn off as much of my life force as it takes to wish you back to life."

"Ha. No, I think good and evil are a bit too malleable to want to do that exactly. I've never precisely been religious, either," she responds, sipping her drink.

"Actually, the contemporary Belkan faith is...well, was not particularly concerned with the esoteric or abstract morals, or even the afterlife. Even if I was one of its knights, I doubt the Saint King's teachings would have instructed me to do anything too self-destructive. It would have likely been the same route of making myself useful protecting people I'm already taken," Signum guesses.

Not that she was ever able to take the Saint Church seriously after finding out Vivio's true identity, but she decides not to share that with Aibghalien. Her own personal history was one thing, but that of her youngest friend was something else entirely.

So long as she wasn't going to go throw herself into some 'for the greater good' suicide mission. That was his main concern here.

He waved a hand to indicate the matter settled. "In any case, yes, I do think it would be wise to prepare defenses against known threats. I think the Department as a whole needs to be a bit more active, and that seems to be an obvious area for us to work in."

A girl who can fly should never fall on her sword [Closed]

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