Lanayru Mining Facility [Squishy Panther] [COMPLETE]

Lanayru Mining Facility
-Idris Johansson, Hylian Wiseass and Spellcaster (1/5/3 Hylian) [Squishy] Reward: Blizzard.
-Laurel Veranius, The Noble Prodigy (2/5/2 Hylian) [Blonde Panther] Reward: Shock Enchantment, +10 Rupees.
Ambient music

All day, the skies had been overcast. The winds had picked up early in the morning and not died down all day, either, making for a very grey and gloomy-seeming day. Yet, the winds were not overly strong and no torrent had poured down from the clouds, so on the outskirts of Hyrule Castle Town, the sound of a horse's hooves was very clearly audible over the din of the wind.

Laurel had donned her mantle and climbed onto Marich's back, setting out for an abandoned mine in the Northern Hills. From what she had read, this 'Lanayru Mining Facility' had once, long ago, been used to gather a resource called 'Timeshift Stones.' However, it had long since been abandoned, closed up, even, following some sort of landslide. Still, in its heyday it had been home to a lot of machinery ran by electricity magic, and if her sources were to be believed there could still be traces of said magic in the mine. Well, Laurel thought to herself as she dismounted her steed, it's as good a place as I'm going to find to learn to bind electricity.

There was an old, decrepit shelter in a corral with a rotten fence near what she assumed to be the entrance, and with Marich's reins in one hand, she used her other hand to test it. The wood that was still actually standing seemed solid enough. As long as the stallion didn't kick it or try to bite pieces off of it, she believed it would make for a fine place for him to stay sheltered from the wind and any rain that might fall after she went in.

Seeing a blunt hook in the corner of the shack, she removed Marich's tack and hung the bridle on it, putting the saddle under it. Marich immediately ran off, jumping and bucking his pent-up energy off of him, but didn't try to jump or kick the fence. Smiling, she turned around to the cave entrance that vaguely had 'Lanayru' engraved on a rusty bronze plate above the opening. "Well..." she said, drawing her rapier and concentrating on warmth, "Let's make a light and get going, then."

Laurel entered the mine after binding the essence of flame to her sword, but the light that came off of it wasn't as bright as she had hoped. she barely saw the floor she walked on, let alone the walls around her. At least it spread some degree of warmth, she supposed, and she made a mental note that the Fire Enchantment was offensive in nature, meant to burn through enemies and flammable materials the blade touched rather than making it serve as a torch.

She gasped when she heard something behind her, and she turned around, holding her dimly red-glowing sword out front of her. Behind her, holding a small flame that spread more light than seemed natural, stood a very well-dressed man. He was obviously of a station similar, if not equal, to her own, and if the flame as well as her magic senses were any indicator, he was a scholar or at least user of magic like her. "Who are you?" she asked, neither lowering her blade nor dispelling the fire on it.

Laurel was slightly surprised to get a sneer in return instead of an answer, and she muttered to herself, "You little arrogant..." before retaking control of herself. "Do not insult my intelligence, good sir," she said, more audible. "The flame in your hands, as well as your aura, gives you away. You are a spellcaster; you are never unarmed."

She kept her sword where it was, but slowly, realisation began to dawn upon her. "Wait a minute... dear Mother Nayru," she muttered. "You're one of Johansson's heirs, aren't you?" She knew who Lord Idris was, of course; born as the only male heir to a house rich with offspring. According to her mother's logic, he should be desperate for a wife, and thus she had pushed Laurel forward to Lord Johansson many times. However, although Laurel had seen him on formal occasions every so often, one thing was clear: Her mother was dead wrong. Judging from the way Lord Idris treated his peers, indiscriminate of gender, told Laurel that he was most decidedly not looking for a wife.

She hadn't seen him in a little while though, and not because she had been buried in scholarly affairs. "Weren't you involved with that debacle with the bombing the other week..?" she muttered, clearly audible. It was just a rumour- but a rumour that had been repeated many times over in the noble circles. Laurel had some degree of confidence in distinguishing bogus from rumours worth remembering, and this one had been... interesting.

When she found herself identified and her own suspicions confirmed, Laurel finally lowered her rapier upon being asked to. Those of House Veranius were well-known to be gifted sorcerers- and even if their feats were often a little exaggerated, they would be enough to give another noble pause before he'd try magically attacking one. "I am," she said, confirming his assertion. "I am Laurel, Lady Arianna's youngest." She didn't know if she bought his story about not being involved with the bombing, but she would leave it at that; he had something she needed.

"I'm here in hopes of learning new magic. If you have so much free time on your hands that you can afford to pay a visit to this backwater, abandoned, and poorly-maintained mine, then I'm sure you can spare a moment to give me a light. The floor here is treacherous and I won't find what I'm looking in the first ten feet of the first shaft."

She was always in luck. Idris lit her way, and as she had expected, the ground was so uneven that without light, she would likely have fallen several times. She followed behind him, dropping the enchantment on her sword, but after a few minutes of walking in silence, she saw a different light source. Now excited, she pulled her skirt up ever so slightly, and ran forward... only to arrive at a scene both wonderful, alien, and melancholic.

The Lanayru Mining Facility made no secret of its purpose. All over the place was alien machinery, long since fallen silent as the magic powering it had run out, ladders to get around, and railways to get the precious TImeshift Stones to the outside. Laurel now realized that she and Idris had walked over just one such railway, long since disintegrated from lack of use, its territory reclaimed by nature. Between machines, maintenance paths, and ladders, sand had piled up.

To Laurel's disappointment, however, she didn't sense any magic. Maybe she had to go deeper in?

"Shht," Laurel said, holding up one hand as an additional signal that he had to be quiet. She didn't sense any magic that required her concentration, but she thought she'd heard something... And sure enough, the moment she took another step forward, something popped up from underneath the sand. It resembled a large, spherical, yellow toad, although she couldn't be certain because half its body was still submerged in the sand as though it was water. It looked at her with black pupils stuck directly onto stalks,as if it was waiting for her to do something. When she stepped back, the beast hopped up and spat something at her...

A ball of electricity.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, "That's proof there's still power here!" She dodged the ball, leaping forward to run her rapier through the monster's forehead. As she came close, however, the amphibian dove back under the sand, dodging the sword. And that wasn't the worst part- as she looked back, Laurel realized she had sunk into the sand up to her ankles. Quicksand. Great.

Laurel froze in place when Idris told her to remain calm and remain still. She KNEW that panicking while stuck in quicksand was a bad idea, of course, but actually staying calm was easier said than done. She inhaled deeply, trying to calm her nerves, and reached towards the sash that Idris tossed towards her. Fortunately she hadn't sunk away too far- only up to about her calves. With her fellow noble's help, the blue-haired enchantress found her way out of the danger and quickly got back to her feet.

"The point stands," she said before Idris could call her out on her recklessness. "That beast was using electricity magic, which is what I'm looking for. In order or that thing to use it, it has to have been influenced by some remainder of the magic that flowed here in ancient times and powered these machines." There was still some power here... she hadn't been mistaken. "If only we could somehow access the ancient flows," she muttered. "We came three hundred years too late... if only..."

"I most definitely could." Laurel had followed Idris blindly, trusting his confidence and figuring that she DID owe him her life. She could bitch at him later. Seeing the small, blue stone in its red metal, rusted-over pedestal did rouse her magic senses even further, and her scholarly nature sprang to life as well as she whipped out her rapier. "In fact, I think I shall." She lashed out once, a good portion of the blade clanging loudly on the rock. The sound echoed through the room ominously, but that was not what made Laurel step back.

The Timeshift Stone was a marvelous, breath-taking material when brought to life. The moment the enchantress' sword hit it, it glowed a much lighter blue and propelled itself into the air slowly, hovering about an inch above its pedestal. More impressive, however, was what it did to their environments. From the location of the stone, a light blue border seemed to spread across the room. Everywhere it passed, rust disappeared from the walls, quicksand disappeared into thin air, and machinery came to life as though it had never stopped. The entire process took less than a minute. A minute after which the Lanayru Mining Facility had come to life, with loud noises and almost alien sights.

But most of all, Laurel noted to her great satisfaction, the sensation of the Electricity magic was much stronger now. "Yes!" She said, springing up in a most unladylike display of almost childish enthusiasm. "I knew it! This is THE place to learn it! Come on, Lord Johansson! We have much to explore!" With that, she seized his wrist with the hand that she didn't use to hold her rapier, and dragged him off towards a ladder. She figured that from the ledge that it led to, they could oversee the room a bit better and work out a plan.

"Hmm," Laurel said, not really answering Idris' question. She'd closed her eyes, allowing her to better concentrate on the current of the magic. With her finger, she traced the line she saw in her mind's eye. When the line ended, she opened her eyes, only to pout right away. "That's on the other side of the room," she complained, "and with the electricity running, it's dangerous to walk anywhere here." Anyone with eyes could see that she was right, especially from this vantage point. On several walls, there were large grinders that could crush the two spellcasters in seconds, with very fast treadmills leading to them. They would have to cross at least two of those in order to reach the door that the magic radiated from most strongly, and Laurel didn't know if she trusted the totem-like towers that had sprang up when she had activated the Timeshift Stone.

She looked to the side, but they were on an isolated tower-like structure. "Looks like there's really no way around it- we're going to have to survive the grinders." She leaned on the railing, resting her head on her arms. "Maybe if we could jam the treadmills with something, we could get by them... I can't run fast enough in this skirt and besides, the mechanism would outlast us."

Laurel's face lit up as Idris used Electricity Magic of all things to short-circuit one of the grinders. However, it had been magic of a volatile and short-lived nature; nothing like the relatively easy-to-control current she needed. Studying his spell would be of no use to her, but it HAD given her an idea. Lifting her skirt slightly, she hurried past the treadmill in front of the grinder that had stopped. It was safe now, yes, but this was a magical environment, and she didn't know if the machine would recover from its overload and start back up when they least expected it.

Once she was on the small strip of land between the two grinders, she heard Idris telling her to wait before he would repeat his spell on the second one. "No worries," she said, smiling reassuringly and raising both her arms as she tried to get a feel for the currents running through the second grinder. "I felt something familiar when you used that spell. It's not too dissimilar from a Magic Bolt, I think I can..." she trailed off, not finishing her sentence and instead shutting one eye as she looked at the grinder. Yes, there was definitely a current of bright white magic running through it. She reached out, both with her hand and with her mind, and tried to grab hold of it.

Not bothering to explain to Idris why her hand started to turn white, she opened the eye she had shut and made a motion with her hands as though she was pulling something back. As she did so, a current of electric energy was drawn from the machine, creaking and sending sparks flying everywhere in protest. In the same motion, she doubled back on her hand movements and made a pushing motion, forcing the energy back in.

The consequences were spectacular. In its heavy protest against being bound to anything other than its anchor, the magic had doubled or maybe even tripled in strength, and when she had shoved it back into the machine, it overloaded with a loud booming noise, stopping dead in its tracks. As a result of the magical surge, a significant knockback had sent Laurel onto her back, and she now stood up. "As I thought. It's an enchantment, meaning the energy can be manipulated by an enchanter." She looked at her hands, which had blistered a little. "I'll need more practice before I feel comfortable summoning it though."