taxonomites | [Location: Holo Taxon]

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[Location: Holo Taxon]

Briar buried each of his hands in a jar of the temple's medicine supply, green energy flowing from his fingers into the dried plants. The medicines were due for a renewal, and this would double their strength. They would be needed.

The Yanxing emperor had decided his empire was not vast enough, and his troops were coming. A temple might be a terrible thing to target, but it was a strategically sound one. Living Circle temples were centers for mages and healers, and they would be as vital to the defense of Gyongxe as civilian militia. Briar's first priority was always Rosethorn and Evvy, but doing everything he could to help temple mages and healers survive the onslaught came in a close second. Time was limited, and he set aside his current jars to move on to the next pair.

Bells rang, a warning rather than a call to service. Briar's head snapped up. Extending his magic through the network of plants in and around the temple, Briar withdrew as several of them died. The temple was burning. Where were Rosethorn and Evvy?

Briar ran toward the fires rather than away, keeping an eye out for Rosethorn's familiar green magic as he went. She would always be where she could do the most good, unless she were looking out for someone. He stopped very briefly to pull a jar of burn salve and three cloth-wrapped balls of thorn seeds from the kit slung over his back, then broke into a sprint. He had to find them.

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While electricity flew from her arms into the hearts of her enemies, a blur of brown and green flew past her. She did a quick double-take and broke off the energy, calling out to him. "Hey, kid! You okay?"

"Not a kid, and I'll be fine as soon as I find my my family." Family was the quickest word for what Rosethorn was. Teacher, foster mother, the biggest influence in Briar's life. And Evvy was his student, his responsibility until he got her home and into the hands of a stone mage he trusted to take over her training. They had to be here somewhere.

Briar nodded toward her opponents, releasing his knives from their wrist sheaths. He settled easily into a strong stance, ready to act as needed. "Are you alright?" he asked right back. Weather magic might have more battle potential than most other types, but magic was always draining and war magic added an emotional toll on top of the cost in energy. Gwen was also not wearing temple robes, but she could be temple trained without being a dedicate. He was, after all. Her concern for him told Briar that she was on the right side here.

Family. Everyone had something they were trying to find, here. Or running from. For Gwen, it was the good guys--Angel, Connor, even Spike--who she sold out a year ago in L.A, and the bad guys too.

She flexed her fingers and balled them into a fist, feeling electricity crawl up and down her arms like a million little vines. The smile she flashed the boy was confident--like it hadn't been so long ago that she'd done this very thing. "Sure. I got this," she answered, sending a bolt of electricity at one of the various creepy-crawlies in her view. When that was taken care of, she looked back at Briar.

"You look like you're not having the best day either," she remarked. But really, who was?

Lightning. Electricity. Gwen. Taxon. He'd escaped Gyongxe once. Gyongxe didn't even exist anymore, just another part of the Yanxing empire now. This had happened already; it was just another nightmare now. He hoped it was, at least. "I've had better," Briar admitted with a strained attempt at nonchalance, adding bitterly, "Welcome to Gyongxe. Watch out for the invading army."

Briar turned and lunged, stabbing an enemy who was trying to sneak closer to the pair from his side. Apparently he had assumed that at least Gwen would not electrocute her own companion. "Using me as a shield is only effective if I won't attack you," Briar remarked dryly. He wasn't a weak point.

Briar wasn't really surprised that Gwen handled battle magic more easily than Tris did. He was still amazed that she'd made it to adulthood without breaking, considering she had never learned to control her power. If Gwen could at least use it to defend herself, Briar wasn't about to hold it against her. Tris couldn't stand killing with magic, and Briar certainly got no enjoyment from it, but every one of the four siblings had gotten their power tangled up in death at some point.

She had a quip on the tip of her tongue--really, she did--but then he turned around and did something that caught even her off-guard, and she gave herself a moment to be impressed. Kid definitely had a few tricks up his sleeve. And if those tricks happened to serve her--so be it. She wouldn't turn him away.

"Not bad," she remarked, regarding him with acceptance and a little bit of intrigue. She remembered something from a long time ago--what seemed like a long time ago--something about magic. Unfortunately, it was a day Gwen had chosen to let grow hazy in her mind, until she met with Long again. "Gyongxe, huh? Never heard of it. But...that explains a lot. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know the way out of here, would you?" She shrugs, pulls away and unleashes a surge of electricity to a nearby foe. When she faced him, her face was twisted in the grimace brought by some memory. "Because last time I had to throw down like this? Wasn't pretty."

Briar caught the look Gwen shot him after he moved. With only a twitch of his mouth to hint at a smile, he informed her seriously, "I always have a couple tricks up my sleeves. That's where I keep my knives." He also had tricks in his belt pouch, and in the kit on his back.

Banter was good. Banter would keep Briar from panicking. Maybe. Of all the places from his own world he could be, why Gyongxe, and why now? Hadn't he returned enough times already while he slept?

He shook his head. "I can't leave yet. If my foster mother and my student are here... I can't leave them here." He looked down the hallway in the direction he'd been heading. "There's flames one way and the other... won't be pretty either."

"So I see," she replied with appraising eyes. He was good, if not young and cocky. That part of him she knows well, having recognized it in herself--especially when she was a kid. Looking to prove herself, show off her special skills to the big shots who had presidents' faces spilling out of their suit pockets. She wouldn't have gotten half as far as she did without that fire--but she made a lot of mistakes along the way, too.

One thing she didn't have was family. She had the luxury of looking out for herself and only herself. So to Briar's objection, she gives him a stern, frustrated look. "No one's here, kid. Not really. Time to look out for yourself. Hate to say it, but Taxon's a whole lot better than...whatever this is."

Gwen hadn't seen most of what Briar could do yet. He wasn't showing off; if he were, he'd have done something flashier. He was trying to save his magic until absolutely necessary. Briar wouldn't consider himself cocky, especially not here. It was bravado rather than anything genuine, with the temple's alarm bells echoing in his ears. The flashbacks had started, and a few tolls of the bell were accompanied by views of things he knew would happen soon.

He didn't want to leave Gwen to fend for herself, but she was doing it well enough that Briar hoped she'd be fine. "I'm sorry," Briar told her, mouth set in a stubborn line , "but I can't take that chance. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to Rosethorn or Evvy and I could've prevented it." If Gwen left, she was doing so without him. He indicated the direction from which he came. "If you want to go now, go. The side gate might still be accessible. Down that hallway, take your third left, then the first right after that, and go straight till you get to a door."

The first whiff of smoke reached him. This wasn't good. He didn't have much time. "I'm going that way," he told her, pointing the opposite direction. "If you can't get out the side gate, you'll have to also. Crawling will be your best bet once you get to the fire or," Briar's throat tightened and his voice hitched just a little as he finished, "the bodies. I can give you something to help with burns and smoke inhalation, in case you need it."

She shook her head, wanting to argue but knowing it would do nothing but waste time. The kid was stubborn, and if he wanted to go off and be the hero, she wasn't going to stop him. She knew someone like that, once, and when it came to his family, Gwen would have had to pull him away kicking and screaming.

The air smelled like fire and ash, and Gwen thought of doing just that. Maybe because he reminded her so much of Connor, or maybe because she'd already killed one of Taxon's finest, she didn't want to be responsible for another biting the dust. Maybe helping the kid out would put a couple more checks in the Plus column, write off some of the bad.

And yet, her flight or fight response was kicking in and flight was winning by a long shot. "Damn it," she muttered. Her instincts won, and she took a few steps toward the side gate. "You're on your own, kid. And hey, listen to me." It was no more than a small consolation, but it was the least she could do and it didn't make her feel any better. "If you run into trouble and you need a little lightning on your side, call me on the tablet, alright? Don't let this place eat you alive."

"Wait," Briar said as she turned to go, reaching into his pack. "In case you can't get out the side gate, take these. The salve's for burns, and the packet will make a tea that'll get whatever you inhale out of your lungs. Coughing that stuff up is... unpleasant, but it's better than more permanent smoke damage." He tossed them lightly to Gwen one at a time. It was that or put them on the floor, since he'd thought quickly enough to remember he couldn't touch her. Briar wanted to avoid making her think about that any more often than she already had to. "Medicine's my most useful contribution in a crisis. Knives are third on the list." Briar didn't elaborate on what came second. Gwen wasn't the only one with combat abilities that went beyond physical strength.

"Thanks for the offer," he told her, "I promise I'll keep it in mind." Grimly, Briar added a reassurance. "I've survived this once already. What's one more time?" One more time was a whole new round of nightmares, but at least Briar knew what was coming. His chances of making it out were higher this time around.

She caught the stuff with her one gloved hand. "Thanks," she said, inspecting them. Medicine's my most useful contribution in a crisis. Knives are third... She couldn't help wondering what nifty little skill was tucked between the medicine and knives, but now wasn't the time for that conversation.

With these and the glass figurine she'd tucked safely away in a crevice a few blocks down, she'd have to find some kind of a pack or purse. Wouldn't be too hard, she figured. If what Briar said is true, there'd be plenty of bodies to lift one off of.

That idea didn't exactly made her feel the warm and fuzzies, but she couldn't run around in this death trap without her hands free. She made a mental note to find the dragon and a pack, and start looking for the nearest door out of here.

"That makes one of us," she answered with a mysterious smile. Maybe he made it through a hell like this twice, but she didn't exactly survive the first one. "See you on the other side, kid. Don't do anything stupid." And with that, she was off.

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[Location: Holo Taxon]

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