My Words, in Ruins

**Users Involved:** User:Ash9876, User:GranCrux, User:Sakura0Xavier,
**Date Started:** February 10, X943
**Setting:** Fiore, Bosco (Etched Ruins)
**Characters Involved**:
* **Ouroboros**: Shaka
* **Swan Hymn**: Dante Aria, Bryce Myerscough, Penny Rankin

## Engraved Caution

"Hmmm..." A grey-haired man looked towards the job postings, his eyes squarely landing on a very specific job. He picked up the parchment of paper and read it carefully. His eyes went from squinting to glistening in an instant, and aloud he said, "Etched Ruins in Bosco!? Never before seen magic script?! That's so cool!"

He was unashamed of his passion for this job description. There was nothing more fascinating to — most — mages of Swan Hymn than being presented with a new magic theory! Dante Aria, a graduate of the Houdini Magic Academy, was clearly thinking so.

"Hmmmmmmm..." As Dante quietened down slightly, he saw the details of the Job posting, and noted that it was a B-rank job, along with requiring a minimum of three individuals to undertake it. "Tch, I can't go on the Job alone..."

He turned to face the rest of his Guild members, most of whom were busy trying to do their own research, or whatever else they were doing. "Hey! Who wants to join me in exploring newly unearthed ruins and reading unidentified magic text!?" Dante exclaimed boldly. When it came to his passions, he wasn't even the slightest bit reserved.

Penny was in a rather weird mood. Though still her timid self, avoiding all social contact with anyone when possible, she had felt at ease for once. This was for the rare and unique chance that Cain Kaufson, a member of the Broken Wing team, had left on some sort of mission. He had left earlier than expected, something that worried most, but to Penny this was a sort of freedom. Free from the bully from hell.

Earlier on she had asked Bryce if they could go on a mission themselves, mainly so Cain couldn't use his mission as some sort of leverage as he often did. She asked her team, shocking them as she often sat in a corner refusing to go anywhere but the guild, and eventually she managed to convince Bryce. Bob and Aezora Crazzus did not agree, waving off that they had their own things to do, but they wished her well.

With this sort of determination inside Penny, something she has been lacking for many years, she was making her way to the job board. The thing was, she was still Penny. Instead of a direct route to the board Penny sulked through and between areas in hope no one would see her and so by the time she go there she had noticed her fellow guildmate, Dante, had made it to the board. Penny waited in the shadows for him to leave.

Penny's luck - or 'unluck' - made things turn out differently. She covered her ears over the years, yelping a little at it. *What was everyone's need to shout? There was no danger around, it's only a job!* she had thought as first and then realised this was her chance to get a job. Penny moved softly towards Dante, trying not to make too much sound, before tapping him gently on the shoulder.

"I... uh, Mister Aria," she spoke in her soft, almost whispering, voice and addressed everyone as formally as possible. She sighed and built up some confidence before going back to her usual voice with no change at all. "Bryce and I would... ah, we would l-love to help," she closed her eyes, finally getting the message across, but by now her hands and legs were shaking on the spot. She took in a shaky breath before forcing a smile, looking up to Dante and silently hoped he would accept someone who timid and weak as her.

"Oh." Dante stopped his exclamations and listened to Penny. He didn't know many of the Guild members for very long, actually, as he was a student until about three months ago. While he interacted with some of the Guild members, it was actually his first time talking to Penny. "Ah, Penny-san...you don't need to call me Mister Aria, just Dante will be alright."

Dante moved onto Penny's acknowledgement of his request. "Ah, that's lovely! Let's sort out mission details then. Where's Bryce-san right now?" Dante asked her with his eagerness, but trying to lower his voice a little bit.

As Dante accepted Penny's request, she smiled softly. She was quite proud of herself for not ceasing up and running away from a new person, she would write this later in her diary for sure. She stood there for a few seconds saying nothing and staring off to somewhere before connecting her eyes back to Dante, shifting between him and the ground as she usually did when talking.

"Ah, Bryce. He shouldn't be too far away," she muttered before looking quickly around. She had no idea where Bryce said he would be, she had been a bit too excited and left quicker than she should've. Penny twiddled her fingers a bit, embarrassed as the realisation she had ignored Bryce despite how kind he was to her all this time. Once again she seemed to have stared off to space, it was known to her team as a 'Penny Thing', much like the twiddling of her fingers that she stopped now, dropping her hands to her sides. She flashed a quick, timid smile to Dante.

"He must be, uh outside or..." she paused, already knowing what she was going to say but deciding to take a breath in, almost like she needed to breath in that second. "or Bryce will be preparing for the mission, I-I told him I would, ah," she stopped and looked at the ground. It was weird to her to say to anyone she had proposed a mission, even if Dante knew nothing about Penny. Instead she smiled again, walking towards the outside of the guild. She looked back for a second, giving a glance that he should follow, but said nothing.

Penny had been concerned about leaving Bryce behind, when in actuality, it was the other way around. The blond boy was making his way back inside the guild hall after running off not too long ago, he rubbed his cheeks which, strangely enough, seemed to be red. As he drew near, one could hear him murmuring to himself "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry." He repeated in a continuous loop. Stopping before he bumped into Penny, who seemed to be looking behind her at the time.

"Yo, Penny." Bryce stated, he continued rubbings his cheeks yet straightened up his expression and posture, appearing nonchalant as usual. "You manage to find us a job, or would you mind me taking a look?" The young boy asked. Unlike Penny, he didn't fear engaging in social interaction. In most cases, it was the lack thereof that hurt him most. He was happy that he was able to find company amongst his team at least, even if most people feared him due to rumors. He could only try to ignore them, because whether he wanted to fight it or not, they were true either way. What he had been, what he was.

Penny nodded and gestured to Dante, not really answering to either questions that Bryce asked. It took her a little while before she realised. "Mister Ar-" she stopped, embarrassed for a second and spent a while collecting her self before retrying to speak. "D-Dante has one," was all she could managed before sulking low once more, moving to almost hide beside Bryce. It was fairly common to Bryce at this point.

"Yep, I do! Let's discuss the details at a nearby table." Dante gestured to the nearby table, and went towards it, and awaited Bryce and Penny to take their seats. As they did, Dante began to speak, "So these ruins are supposed to be in Bosco. They possess an unidentified magic script, which means not many people besides us would be able to understand the language. We need to probably scope out the area for magic items as well. It'd be dangerous if other Dark Guilds got a hand on something unsavory..."

Dante was blabbering a bit. When he was passionate, he tended to ramble on without realizing. Whether someone stopped him or not, was only up to chance.

Penny wobbled on the stool, nodding and note-taking information in her head. An unknown language did catch her interest, it had been a while since she had heard of anything ancient other than her own magic - as well as the few other mages who wielded similar types. She didn't speak, taking her chance to calm down and collect her thoughts. If Dante and Bryce could do all the talking, she would be grateful for the seconds of silence in her own head.

As Dante rambled on about the job, Bryce did his best to catch on to the important bits, sadly, this meant he had to listen to all of Dante's words to pick and choose what he deemed important and what was simply throw away information. Much like Penny, Bryce wielded a form of Lost Magic, having read and deciphered the language in the tome that granted him this magic, Bryce was somewhat versed in comprehending the language of magic from days passed.

Bryce would eventually wait for a moment where Dante's talking had calmed down a bit, pressing a question. "So, this magic script, is there any information on what it could possibly contain, or is it all just a blank slate?" Bryce already assumed no one knew anything about it's contents, although he didn't want to allow Dante to keep talking about things that did or didn't make much sense.

"And, just how well known is this mission? If we're running the risk of clashing with Dark Guilds, I think you'd rather tag along with some wizards with better aptitude of their magic." Bryce stared at the bracelet he always wore on his right wrist, gifted to him by a strange man roughly three years ago, ever since he donned it he'd always felt more at peace with himself. Strangely, it was when he was finally feeling most comfortable with himself that his control over his magic declined, and drastically at that.

Penny stared at the bracelet on Bryce and said nothing. He had a point for both but part of her wanted to go now, for all she knew Cain would be coming back in any second, causing the end of happiness to Penny once more. She nodded before shaking her head, realising her mistakes. Silence for a little bit as she opened her mouth, thinking hard on what she will say. "I-I can do what I can to, uh assist you... somehow" she added the last bit with very little confidence, biting her lip. She also had very little control of her magic but for opposite reasons to Bryce. Her spirits weren't exactly the friendly types.

"Dante," Penny started, once again holding her breath for too long and thinking too much on what to say despite knowing exactly what she wanted out of him. She shook her head more to herself before talking once more, her voice even quieter, becoming quite hard to hear at this point from the guilds normal chatter around them. "I am so so sorry but I do not mean any, urm, offense. I do not know what magic you wield though," she then went back to being mebrasssed, relaising what she had said may be taken the wrong way. "And you must not know of ours, we s-s-should plan first, know our weaknesses!" A smile sigh escaped. *Why is conversing with new people so difficult?*

"No information about the magic script is known, unfortunately...That's the problem we are having." Dante responded to the first question Bryce had, before mulling over his second question. "Ah, the Dark Guilds shouldn't be any issue. This information was very recently revealed publicly by the council, and they are quite vigilant of spies in their ranks." Dante then thought about what Penny said, and realized he didn't know either. He was so excited he forgot about mission efficiency! It was a trait that Nolan always told him he lacked.

"I'll go forth with explaining my Magic first. I use something called Flow Magic. I can manipulate the flow of any magical power, whether it be within my own body or in the air, through the creation of a magic circulatory system. Like this!" Dante gathered his magical aura, which had a soft green color, in his hands, before spreading his hands away from each other. The end result was numerous vein-like apparitions appearing in the air, which held their place. "I can both enhance my own physical power with this, or support my allies by giving direction to their Magic power. What about you two?"

Penny smiled softly, it was a simple form of magic that could be used in many situations and something about that caught her interest. When the conversation was passed to her though her smile faded. She felt her magic wasn't as grand as Dante's seeing as he seemed to learn his magic for better reasons than her. She clutched her fists and nodded, once again to herself. "I have a lost magic. It's known as F-Fear Magic. It makes my fears into spirits like a Celestial Spirit Mage just they follow their own... ideals. If they see me as weak they won't allow me to do, uh well not do, more so, they won't allow me to live or be seen next to them," she waved it off before nudging Bryce. She didn't want to focus on her mistake of this magic and would rather let Bryce take the wheel. With another glance at the bracelet Bryce had, Penny sighed. The two weren't exactly the strongest when it came to control of magic.

Bryce listened as Dante described his magic, he was already aware of Penny's own, but what Dante wielded was something rather intriguing. A magic that could essentially manipulate the flow of magic itself, the young boy had been exposed to some interesting forms of magic through the Houdini School's Library, yet Dante's magic did seem to be something special. Bryce could only wonder what other functions it had. Feeling the tiny elbows of Penny jab against him, the mage cleared his throat before starting.

"I guess it's my turn huh?" Bryce chuckled softly, remembering older times. These memories were bitter sweet, the fun that came with being around those whom he cared for and those whom cared for him. Yet at the same time, he'd known that their, no, his actions caused pain to many people. The idea almost made him tear up a bit, but not enough to do what would usually happen under such circumstances. "Like Penny, I use a Lost Magic. It's called Arc of Sorrow, although the name says enough, it's pretty complicated in actuality. See, essentially my magic allows me to attack one's emotional state and weaken them emotionally and destroy their will to fight. Although my magic is primarily the manipulating and destruction of one's emotional state through sadness, I can technically stimulate other emotions as well, depending on how one copes with grief. Cain, for instance, tends to get more aggressive when my magic takes effect on him." Bryce could go on and on explaining the functionality and mechanics behind his magic, though he doubted the trio had time to sit here all day talking about his magic.

Bryce gave a brief sigh, reminiscing about the days his magic was more effective in a battle, he nearly overlooked the biggest issue. "Though, for some reason, I can only manifest my magic in the form of a pathokinetic aura that forces anyone in the vicinity to cry, enemy and ally alike. It's somewhat useful at halting enemies but, it's too much of a double edged sword." He explained.

"Man." Dante sighed out loud, as he looked towards his two partners for this mission. "I'm kind of jealous. You guys get to use *Lost Magic*. Although, it doesn't sound like an easy time for sure..." Dante mumbled to himself, seemingly trying to figure out some things. "Alright, I think I have a pretty good idea of how we synergize. We don't have all the time in the world, though, so let's start heading off to the location, shall we?"

Dante stood up, expecting Bryce and Penny to follow suit.