DOTRT: The Maesters Purge

==On The River Dienne==
A slow breeze steadily wafted down the River Dienne, catching the sails of the river boats and pushing them slowly inland. The myriad of coloured cloths, making the simple trade caravan look like festival procession. The winding river twisted along the floor of the mighty valley headed toward the mountain range where the citadel capital was set.
The trader boats from the coast were heading in for the local markets carrying their wares to the capital, Versonne. The nation of Lavoygne had become famous for its liberal trade laws since its cultural renaissance a decade ago. It had created own niche in the world and The Grand Bazar of the capital was said to be a place that you could buy dreams if you had enough coin.
Aboard one of the trader boats sat a young man in search of a dream, having purchased his passage to the capital he sat on the prow waiting for the city to come into sight. Others who wished for travel were aboard ship, but all were being made to work for their passage. This had made the young man a source of curiosity amongst the crew, when the had pressed the captain's mate for details all he had been willing to say was "His name is Dante."
Dante had noticed the amount of attention his behaviour was receiving, but was paying it no mind. In his line of work this kind of attention was not unusual. Those who could use magic were rare in these times and a sorcerer like himself were even more so. The most common kind of magic users were the Maesters and so when people thought of magic users that's what they saw. Old men who had spent decades in an Ōrātōrium to learn their craft and incantations, who carried their Grimoire Tomes everywhere. So when they saw Dante a young man with no books and a sword strapped to his hip, no one even thought he could use magic. Dante didn't mind this though, to him it was like a permanent disguise that only came off when he decided.
From his perch on the prow he could feel the natural flow of mana washing above the water. To a sorcerer like Dante mana flows were the true face of the world. The mana flows existed everywhere unconsciously effected by all living things, twisting and swirling around life and death like a river of energy. Dante had learned from previous experience that the most interesting and exciting events whose prelude were always a rapid and contorted flow of mana in the air. He had learned to watch the flow of mana for interesting movements and for a few days now the mana flows had been shifting. Powerful flows were all headed inland towards the great mountains where Versonne sat at the crux of the nation's trade routes.
It was these unusual patterns that had drawn Dante in, where there were powerful flows there was usually money and adventure to be had. He laid his sword across his lap as the surge of excitement filled him once more. He had never seen the mana flows move in such a big way before, whatever was coming was going to be massive.
He looked out at a nearby town as the flotilla rounded a bend in the river. The town square was open onto the banks of the river, the open are filled with people surrounding a man on a podium. The people seemed to worked up into a furvorous fury, chanting and pumping their fists into the air.
Dante leaned forward on the prow his hand out of sight from the rest of the crew. He began manipulating the mana around him, using it to control the wind the was blowing across the town. With a slight pull the changed the wind's direction just enough to carry the sound from the square out to the river.
".......they are the true enemies of Lavoygne!! Using their power to control the people they have made themselves the new aristocrats!!" The people roared out their angry at the statement. The rhetoric intrigued Dante, it was simplistic yet seemed to resonate with the gathered mob. "We cannot allow this to go on!! We must drive them out, show them that their kind are not welcome!!" Dante rolled his eyes at the us and them mentality. "We must drive out all those who use magic!! We must build a true and pure world!!" The crowd cheer viciously as the man held up an emblem on a staff, a red and grey star. He watched as the people picked up their sticks and farm tools brandishing them in the air; cheering and following the man with the star topped staff.
He ran his fingers over the hilt of his sword the wind returned to its normal direction, it would seem he had found something interesting after all.
==The Outskirts of Versonne==
As the sun set on the great capital city, there was a great deal of commotion on the streets. The crowd were rushing back and forth with a sense of almost panicked urgency. Some people were barely paying attention to where they were going. One man ran straight into a woman much smaller than him knocking her to the ground.
"You should really watch where you're going lady!" He glared down at her "Short people like you should just get out of the way." The woman leapt to her feet and as the man went to push past he got a short sharp knee to the groin. "I'm not short, you graceless oaf!" The crowd quickly parted for woman, no one else willing to risk incurring her ire.
Her face was set in an annoyed pout as she walked through the open path. Her golden amber hair blew around her face as the early autumn winds swept around the mountains. Her travel cloak of shimmering silver was wrapped tightly around her concealing the majority of her form from the eyes of passersby. Yet her unusual hair colour still drew attention from those she passed.
"Kiara! Kiara!" The red haired woman turned back to see a young woman chasing her down the busy street. The woman ran up to Kiara and threw her arms around her shoulders "You can't go! Please! I love you!" Kiara silently cursed her Nymph blood for the way she looked, some people were so vulnerable to them it was almost annoying.
She sighed as the woman who chased her let go "You're a nice girl, Dea, but you met me last night. We barely said two words to each other. You should go back home, the boy at the tavern must be waiting for you." Dea blushed and looked down at her feet, kicking the dirt nervously. "Am I not pretty enough?" Dea asked sheepishly and Kiara had to keep from rolling her eyes.
Why did people always think that looks were all that mattered? Were they all really that shallow? She decided to let the girl down easy. "I am celibate Dea. I don't have relationships." Dea's face dropped her disappointment obvious. "I...I..I'm sorry." The girl turned on her heel and fled.
Now the entire crowd were staring at her and her annoyed pout became even more pronounced. "Mind your own business!" she snapped at the group of women muttering to each other and rather unsubtly pointing. She took a moment to remember the directions an old woman had given her before all the commotion. She needed to head south along the great causeway into the merchant quarter where she would find The Great Bazar.
Kiara had come to the Grand Bazar in search of the most rare of all her herbs. Her proud heritage gave her free reign to go most places as she pleased. Yet upon reaching the borders of Lavoygne, the soldiers on guard had treated her as a common traveling wench. This whole country was beginning to annoy her, she was a former priestess of the Nymphite Pantheon. 
The Nymphite Pantheon was the centre of all religious worship in the world. Its influence great, the cost of which was equally as great. The shrine maidens of the Pantheon were bound to 50 years of service in the shrine of shrines. Only in very special circumstances were Shrine Maidens given release from that service. So when most places discovered her identity Kiara was given freedom to do as she pleased, within reason.
Another person shoved into her as the crowd thickened on the causeway to the merchant district. There was a great deal of shouting as the crowd all seemed to be moving in one direction. There were shouts coming from various points of the group, voices raised in anger. Whatever they were shouting about they were truly enraged, far more than Kiara had ever seen in one crowd before. 
As she stepped into the merchants quarter, she felt a hand slide down her back then give her bum a sharp squeeze. Whoever it was had just made the worst mistake of their life. From the pouch on her hip she quickly drew an Ofuda, paper talisman, with her left hand. She made a quick step forward before spinning on her right foot, her right arm outstretched as graceful as a dancer. She backhanded the man behind her with dizzying force. As the man staggered her left landed squarely on his chest, planting the Ofuda on his clothes. As the man dropped there was an almost imperceptible spark.
The man convulsed on the floor for a moment before lying still, breathing hard but definitely unconscious. The crowd around her all gasped this time and busy air on the bridge went silent.People began muttering darkly, glaring at her angrily "How could she bring him down?!" "It must that!" "She must be one of them!". She had no idea what the people were referring to, but she felt it would be best to disappear into the market district quickly.
She turned on her heel and moved into the crowd ahead of her, who distracted by their own need to reach the shops, had not noticed the commotion behind them. As she slipped out of the sight she heard the angry shouts start up again with greater intensity "She's a witch!" "Find the witch!" "Burn her!"
"Since when did it become okay for those bigots to call magic users witches again?" She thought to herself angrily. "Were they calling elves 'Sharpies' too?" She pulled her hood up and stormed away in disgust at the disgraceful display of public bigotry. She refocused her mind on her business, finding a shop that was selling Seraphim Crowns. The rare Seraphim Crown herb that allowed her to unlock the true potential of her powers. "Let's see them dare call me witch then!"
==Versonne Docks, Market District==
Dante became increasingly glad he had not overly used his abilities as the barges moved into the capital city that evening. Snippets of conversation from the docks wafted out to where he sat. "Filthy witches!" "All magic users are evil!" Wipe them out!" He shook his head in disbelief, what had the magic users in this country to become so hated.
He reached out with his his sixth sense and tested the mana flow, it was reaching its critical mass. Whatever was going to happen here was going to happen soon and it was going to be big. He gripped the hilt of his sword and centered himself, pulling the mana streams to test if the change in flow would effect his powers. He felt a surge of energy as the mana flow practically crashed in around him to the point the beams under him began to tremble with energy. He quickly ceased his efforts lest he give himself away unnecessarily. His pulse was racing as he his mind grasped at all the possibilities he could be walking into. Whatever it was he'd never seen the mana flows this heavy, this event would most likely change the world.
As the barge pulled alongside the dock, Dante moved to the stern and thanked the captain for his help and gave the crew a tip. The last thing he needed was a grumpy ship's crew feeling short changed and following him.
With a spring in step he leapt off of the barge into the bustling dockside. He slipped his way through the busy dock workers, following his sixth sense and the direction of the mana flow. His hand keeping a grip on his sword hilt, as he weaved from side to side making his way towards the district of tall buildings that seemed to be the mana flow's destination. He could hear voices reverberating between stone walls of the surrounding buildings. He felt a thrill race down his spine as he quickened his pace even further; he knew voices raised in anger all too well, having faced down more than a few angry mobs.
He dashed around the final corner and came across a confused, yet distinctly angry mob. With the echo from the stone walls silenced he could finally hear their shouts clearly "Find the witch!!" "Burn her!". The mana smashed and swirled around the crowd like a maelstrom of trouble; Dante had to steel himself for the onslaught of anger pouring out from the crowd. He could see a few of the more Cro-Magnon like men picking up heavy objects to use as weapons. Things were going to turn very nasty here, very soon. He drew level with the mob and did his best not to draw attention to himself with his movements.
The people in the lead started grabbing women at random trying to find their target in amongst them. Their actions causing a sort of rabid fury to start building in the mob. Every person they stopped who wasn't their target on served to increase their fury. Just as the mob was becoming desperate a voice called out to them "The enemy are ahead in the market district! Follow us comrades! We will show you the way!" A group of men, carrying the same grey and red star banner Dante had seen earlier, beckoned to the crowd to follow them. The men cried out a chant like a battle cry as the ran after them "For a true and pure world!", the crowd having now truly become a mob echoed the chant with righteous fury. 
Dante ran after them as they swarmed behind the star banner, chasing those who had called them to action. The mob chanting the phrase over and over like a mantra "For a true and pure world! For a true and pure world! For a true and pure world!" Dante felt a chill run down his spine as he followed; he'd seen angry mobs before, these people were ready to kill.
He dashed quitely along the same route as the mob, looking for a safe vantage point from which to observe the chaos. The people working themselves deeper into a frenzied fervour; some of them eyeing Dante's sword hungrily, obviously wanting an upgrade from their heavy blunt objects. Dante kept well out of their reach and one hand on Gai An Lei. Not that the blade would have been of use in the hands of anyone else, except maybe as a club. Slipped out of direct sight down an alleyway and behind some old looking empty crates. A merchant had obviously decided they weren't braving an angry mob to recover. 
Dante stood quietly watching the crowd as they obviously flailed around looking for whatever victim they had been chasing prior to his arrival. He could hear the confused shouts echoing around the square. "Which way did she go?!" "Find the witch!" "For a True and Pure World!". He breathed a sigh of relief that the 'Magic User' had escaped the mob's ire. He looked around as a beautiful golden amber haired woman skidded out from an open doorway. The two looked eyes for a long moment, before Dante remembered he was supposed to be one of the crowd. 
He raised his fist like the members of the mob and said "For a true and pure world....". The moment he said the words, Dante could tell it was a mistake to say them to that particular woman. Her eyes became so cold that he felt as if the atmosphere had chilled around them. In a split second the woman's hand lashed out and a blade like object materialised out of thin air. It streaked across the gap between them flying fast towards Dante's neck. His quick reflexes saved his neck that day, with a suddent urgent lean to the right moving his body out of the objects path. It shattered against the wall behind him making a loud crashing sound and dropping to the floor. It had been an obviously sharp piece of ice, which Dante had no idea what ability it came from. Yet he could sense the magic in it, whoever this person was they were obviously magical. 
He looked up from the floor to see that the woman had vanished into the distance. Leaving him to explain to a rather murderous looking crowd, who he was and what the loud crashing noise had been. He sighed internally, this was not the start to an adventure he had been looking for. 
== The Grand Bazar, Versonne ==
Kiara's heart felt like it was pounding out of her chest, as she managed to shake off the trailing mob. 'What is wrong with these people?' She thought bitterly as she sat in an empty doorway. She took long slow breaths to steady herself. The shouts of the mob were fading away in the distance. 
==Later Bits==
*It was irrational......illogical. He had met the woman once and yet he felt as if he was being irrevocably drawn to her. As if some force beyond science or magic was pulling him towards her. A string of feeling from his heart leaving his chest in search of something his mind refused to comprehend. 'Why?! Why did he feel this way?!' He racked his mind for an answer. 'Was she playing with him? Toying with his affections with no intention of returning his feelings?'
*He stopped himself mid-chain of thought 'Return his feelings? Was that really what was going on?' Dante stopped pacing and sat down trying to centre himself reaching out with his senses for the calming influence of the mana flow.
*Moon Goddess is goddess of justice.
*Small girl shields a kind maester from being hurt by the mob.
*Moon Goddess steps in