Caelum of the Skygaurd(orgoth, R-1 rank up)

Octavia sat on a hard wooden chair with a stiff back. Hargen, leader of the skyguard stood behind his desk, arms crossed staring daggers at her. He hadn't spoken in some minutes, after telling her to sit. He opened his mouth to do so now, but Octavia spoke first. "I'm sorry." She said. He snapped his mouth shut and glared until Octavia had the good sense to break eye contact and drop her gaze in a sign of deference. She respected Hargen enough to not try be defiant at this exact moment. "First, you go to get a Wyvern, and come back with an Eldross after riling up the local poacher population." He said. "Sealie would have died if I didn't help." She replied and she felt his withering glare.

"Then you decide to antagonise the toughest warrior in the oculi, going as far as duelling him and almost getting yourself killed." "He was hurting my friend. Besides, my plan worked, everyone is watching him. He hasn't touched Eliza since then." Hargan scoffed at her. "Then, not one day after being put back on duty you decide to go hunting your mother's killers, risking Eliza's life in your stupidity." He said. "How was I supposed to know they'd be there? You sent me to scout Karem, and I was doing that, i just got a little-" Hargan slammed his fist down on the table. "Stop! Stop interrupting me. Stop undermining my authority at every turn." He said. She looked at him. He was red in the face. She'd never seen him quite so angry. She should look away, but instead she felt her hackles rising.

"You are the most obtuse, disrespectful rider that I have ever had to deal with in this outfit. If it wasn't for who your mother was, I'd have given you the boot from the Sky Guard after the Armagand debacle. But now you've gone too far. You endangered your own life, you're comrades life and you're wyvern's life. There is nothing I can do." Octavia looked at him, shrinking down. "Please, dont kick me out!" She said. He smiled. It was an angry smile. "I'm not going to. No, this is worse. You're no longer acting Caelum." He tosed her a rank pin. Octavia frowned at this, until she realised what he meant. "You wouldn't. You cant." "I can. I have. you are now Cealum of the Skyguard, approved by Alura while you were recovering from you're latest fiasco. Maybe the leash of responsibility will bring you under control."

Octavia stared at Hargen. She opened her mouth to speak and he cut her off. "Dismissed, Caelum. Get some rest." Octavia stood and left the room, dazed.


Octavia had wondered about the halls in a daze, eventually finding her way to one of the large open training rings. The place was deserted, since most of the skyguard would be out on drills or missions at this time of day. She walked up to one of the training dummies and stared at it, before punching it. It barely budged, staring at her with its mocking eyes that someone had painted on. She hit it again, harder, and flinched. Her knuckles were still bruised from beating the face of her heanta prisoner in. Thinking about that woman's mocking grin made her angry and she hit the dummy hard. There was a crack as it's head popped off and she stumbled into the dummy, trown off balance by her strike. The head landed and rolled to a stop, staring at her. Mocking. "Stupid dummy, I'll wipe that grin off you're smug face." She said, reaching for her weapons that weren't there. She looked around and grabbed a training sword, then started wailing on the dummy's body, burning off her pent up energy. Then she took a swing at the head on the floor and missed, the sword slipping from her grip and flying into a wall. With a curse she kicked the dummy's head away.

Eliza sat in silence as her mother examined the bloodied and tattered mess that was the dress her daughter had been wearing when she had suddenly sped off to help her friend. The silver-haired Asentari had managed to rescue Octavia Velerius from the clutches of the Heanta of Clan Xakoris, though Eliza had sustained several wounds in the effort. The physical damage had been healed, but Eliza's favorite dress had paid the price. The quest was not without reward, however. Not only had Octavia been retrieved, but they had managed to capture Veseria of Clan Xakoris. The Heanta had been a tough and formidable opponent, but Eliza had managed to use her arrogance against her, and had eventually bested and captured her. Veseria was now in the custody of the judiciary of Eapara City, where she was being interrogated for information of her Clan's movements in the Kri'Lak Badlands. Eliza sighed, but her mother simply smiled.
"Don't worry, we can salvage this wreckage." Narissa put the tattered apparel aside and studied her daughter. "But something tells me that you're not worried about just your dress." Eliza shook her head.

"No. I fear for Octavia. She traveled to the Blackspires looking for the ones who killed her mother, and she found some of them. I fear she is being consumed by rage and hate." She looked at her mother with a deep grey gaze. "I fear her quest for vengeance for may destroy her." Narissa poured tea into the cups that sat on the table between them, before gazing at her daughter through a screen of gentle steam from the teacups.
"Indeed? Well I don't fear for her." Eliza looked at her mother with a surprised expression on her delicate features.
"You say that with remarkable assuredness." Narissa smiled and reached across the table to squeeze her daughter's hand.
"I do. You see, she has you." Eliza raised an eyebrow as her mother continued. "You forget that, as your mother, I know you very well indeed. You don't open yourself to people unless you genuinely care for them and they're good people. Now I don't know her as well as you do, but she seems like good people. You'll help her through this, because you're both good people."



Eliza strolled towards the training rings, eager to get back into the swing of things. She missed the morning drills while she recovered from her injuries, but now she wanted to catch up to prevent herself getting any kind of ring rust. She was dressed in simple black training garb, with her armor being stored in her quarters while off-duty, and her usual tiara-like headpiece was replaced by a black headband tied at the back. As she approached, she heard a commotion from one of the larger rings, which was unusual for this time of day. Most of the other soldiers and recruits would be either still out on drills or getting lunch, so Eliza decided to investigate the disturbance. She rounded the corner and instinctively caught the dummy head as it flew at her from the boot of the ring's sole occupant, a blonde-haired and dark-skinned woman with a familiar face and expression of discontent. Eliza smiled sheepishly at Octavia.
"I'm sorry. I did not mean to intrude."

Octavia looked up as Eliza caught the dummy head in her hand before it could collide with her face. Eliza looked gave her a sheepish smile and apologized for intruding. Octavia tried to casually step in front of the battered dummy. "Hi." She said with a guilty glance towards the destruction she had caused. "You're not intruding. I was just..." She looked at the dummy head, and her discarded sword. "Training. He had it coming." She said, walking across the room to retrieve the weapon. She tried to school her features into her usual more calm demeanour. Even though their friendship was well established by now, she still had trouble opening up to people, and didn't want to bother with Eliza with her problems. Which she had done. Hargan had been sure to point it out.

She looked at the blunted spatha in her hands, then up at Eliza. "So... I've been promoted." She said with a grimace. The idea of being Caelum was not appealing. While her mother was alive she only wanted to work with her, and after she'd died she just wanted to keep to herself, and her wyverns. She'd never wanted to lead, or cause trouble. She wanted revenge, but she'd suppressed that side of her, until she had met Eliza. Armagand had woken the dragon. Capturing Vesiera had refocused it to her brother, the heanta who had killed Octavia's mother. But now that she'd had time to calm down from that encounter, she was able to see that she was strong enough kill him. Not if Vesiera was telling the truth, atleast. She had barely survived her bout with Armagand. Who was one of the Elite guard's strongest warriors, but not the strongest.

No, She was pretty sure the strongest member of the Elite guard stood before her. Something had changed in between the events at the gala and her duel with Armagand. She'd noticed it when they trained, and confirmed it when Eliza killed a small army of heanta to save her. Octavia had trained under one of the best members of the sky guard. But after, she'd never bothered to improve or expand. She trained with Eliza, but she didn't train Under Eliza. "Eliza, you're my friend. You're also the strongest warrior I know besides Hargan, but I already know everything he has to teach. I need to be stronger. I need a master outside of the sky guard. Will you help me?" She asked.

Eliza watched as Octavia tried to move in front of the heavily smashed up training dummy. Eliza was unconcerned, as she had smahed more than her own fair share of training equipment in her time. What did interest Eliza was what Octavia said next. She had been promoted to Caelum of the Sky Guard. Normally such a promotion would be cause for celebration. Octavia, however, looked distinctly uncomfortable with the news. Eliza moved to a bench and set her pack down. "Congratulations. Though something tells me that is not what you want to hear right now." She watched Octavia as she seemed to wrestle with something inside. Eliza knew all to well what could happen if one bottles things up for too long. She sat down on a stooland lay her gear on the ground before fixing her gaze on her friend. "Speak your mind, Octavia. Maybe I can help."

Octavia did as Eliza asked, though what she asked still came as a surprise to her. Octavia asked for Eliza to be her teacher, having apparently decided that she needed further study outside of her training with Julianus Hargen, leader of the Sky Guard. Eliza's eyes widened for a moment. Octavia stated that the reason for selecting Eliza was that she was the strongest member of the Elite Guard. Eliza wasn't sure about that, but if her friend was looking for help to get stronger, then she could no less. It would no doubt be a challenge for both of them. Eliza had trained alongside Octavia in recent times, but taking her on as a learner was an altogether different proposition. "I... I am honored that you think so highly of me, but are you sure this is what you want? I've never taken on a student before. I don't want to let you down."

Eliza congratulated her, but guessed correctly that she didn't want to hear that. "No. Hargen knows how to punish me, it turns out." She said. She spoke her mind as Eliza requested, and Eliza met it with uncertainty. Octavia waved away her comment about letting her down. "Oh please. After everything we've been through together, do you really think you can disappoint me now? Worst case scenario, it doesn't work out. I might not be a good student." Octavia said. she walked over to a weapon rack. "I can fight, but there are things I need to learn." She said as she examined the training tools, not quite looking in Eliza's direction.

"In the academy, I was bullied by Darius. I embaressed him by running rings around him until he couldn't fight. Its all well and good when I can jump around, but what if I'm trapped in tight quarters, like that old orken tower we fought Vesiera at?  The answer is I get my ass kicked. Eventually Darius cornered in the academy me and thats what happened. After that Hargen took me under his wing. He taught me that I wasn't fighting, I was only running away. He trained me to use my speed to fight properly. But even when i faced down and beat Darius, I had space." She wondered if Eliza had been present the day she'd dueled Darius. There had certainly been a crowd.

"When I faught your father, I had space. I'm not fighting in the academy anymore. Or the arena. I wont always be on my wyvern, or out in the open. I might be speedy, but you're far more versatile in combat. That is what I need to learn now. To not just use speed, because Otherwise I'm still just running away. Atleast think about it." Octavia said. She picked up a long training sword and gave it a few swings.