58th day of Frost, 117th year of the Age of Steel
The loud ringing of metal against metal woke Riven up, startling him almost to the point of making him jump out of bed. It took him a while until his eyes got used to the new brightness in the room and allowed him to recognize the place he was in; the room looked even more impressive lit by the soft illumination of an overcast sunrise. The wooden walls were adorned with paper paintings and ornate metal embellishments, disks that depicted scenes and sceneries. His heart still rushed by the startle, he looked around; he knew about wake-up clocks, but he had never used one. He suddenly found the source of the alarm: a floating filigree bell that kept ringing powerfully. Riven grabbed it, trying to shut it off; to his surprise, it kept ringing in his hand, but when he pulled a little, he stopped ringing and suddenly felt heavy. Guilty, he tried to put it back in the place where it was floating, and it stayed there, softly spinning, the ringing muted. Such an amazing system. Even Riven couldn't figure out the functioning.
But apparently, someone wanted him to wake up. Probably the orkhan woman from the day before. "We'll see what to do with you in the morning". The words resurfaced in the Avialae's mind; what did she exactly mean? Actually, how could she seem to know so much about him? Naked as he was, he looked for the robes she had mentioned, and he found them. Lucky for him, he had already seen monks in Kalzasi before, so he didn't have much of an issue putting those wide pants and loose toga-like tunic. His wings hadn't been a problem; the garment tied under them, leaving a shoulder and almost half his chest barechested, but it fit well. The cold didn't bother him anyway, but the Temple was rather warm compared to the space to the other side of the window. Not even the Argent Knighthood had such a powerful heating system. He finished getting ready. Of course, he had no shoes, but he didn't find any either. The nun couldn't have forgotten about something like that, he was sure. If he had no shoes, then he probably wasn't meant to wear them, for whatever the reason. Uncertain, he just pushed the door open and walked into the corridor that had welcome him last night, radiant with the first lights of the morning. Some young monks were walking through it, sometimes looking at him, then going back to their own business. He walked up to a sunlit atrium, the biggest space inside the main building.
The nun was there, apparently waiting for him. She was looked at with some sort of reverence, and for that reason, when she noticed Riven (not too hard to do), other orcs watched the Avialae with reverence as well. Riven didn't know there were so many students at the temple; for some reason, he assumed they were around ten people, but the ones in the main building were at least three times that. And he guessed there was more. He approached the woman; she was sitting on the edge of a fountain made of pristine metal, with orbs floating around a larger sphere over the small pool. The waters moved calmly, emitting a very soft murmur. Riven suddenly felt drawn to the fountain, after being in a space made of wood and steel, with only air around him; not the reassuring presence of metal or the rich appeal of water near him. He felt drawn to touch it... but the calm gaze of the Orkhan moving towards his hand stopped him in place. He probably wasn't supposed to.
"Good morning, Riven. I hope the room I prepared has helped you have a restful night." Now the monk knew his name; and he hadn't said anything at all about who he was. His complexion showed deep surprise, and before he could ask anything, she smiled slyly, showing her short tusks. "Before you ask, the Temple visits Kalzasi often and has powerful contacts in the city. It doesn't take many questions to know who a man like you is. About your troubles... Trust me, some displays of magic and actual emotional turmoil are loud screams for people that can actually see, like me." She said, waiting a moment of silence until Riven opened his eyes wide in realization. Of course, she was a Semblance magic user... and an impressive one. He had practically been shouting and kicking stuff up in the mountain, discharging uncontrolled amounts of aether. She smirked after he noticed, and turned around; a swift move was enough to untie her dark robes around her neck, showing a small, faintly glowing rune. The rune of Semblance, of course. "But there's some details I still ignore, aside from the fact that you need help as well, boy. A message has been sent to Kalzasi; the Novalys family has been notified of your stay here. You can leave for the city whenever you want... but there must be a reason why you left. I still sense the fustration piling up, Riven. The world around you feels it." She mentioned with an elegant movement; the surface of the water under Riven's left arm was full of ripples that rose and fell quickly in response to his agitated state of mind.
The Avialae lifted his hand in surprise, staring at the agitated water. She was right. There was something piling up in the bottom of his soul and he couldn't figure it out. "I just don't know what it is! A week ago everything was going on as usual, I was working on my investigation tasks, and suddenly... well, the storms came and I lost control of my magic. Everything is... too unbalanced, too unfocused or volatile to really trust. Small things I manage to control most of the time, but..." He showed the nun, the water slowly lifting into a small stream, obeying Riven's will, and forming a slow spiral, a vortex that danced upwards until it was disconnected from the pond, floating by itself. But suddenly, his rune heated up and the vortex started to tremble, suddenly collapsing and water droplets splashing both the Avialae and the nun, who stared with both interest and a concerned look. Riven's facial expression turned bitter. "Apparently, not even that. The connection I have with the elements... I don't know, it's warped. It's like..." he stopped, dead silent. He really didn't know how to express that. The bond he had formed between him and the elemental powers he wielded was something hard to put into words. "like there's a part to them that you never knew, all along?" She asked, putting a hand on Riven's knee. She was right; it was exactly that. Partially, they were the same elements he could manipulate... but there was something that he had always ignored, and now that he was conscious of it he couldn't handle it. "You're right... but there's something else. I've lost control myself. I don't have any kind of conscious restraint, it's... nerve-racking." He said, sighing. He was visibly worried; Riven was slightly afraid of his own unbound magic now.
"I haven't introduced myself. I'm Master Nikuno. Adress me however you'd like; you're not a monk here. I have other subjects to tend to... but the Temple doesn't refuse help to the ones that come here seeking it out of need... and I personally think you qualify. Even if not everyone agrees here." Riven gulped. Master of the Temple was a big deal. He knew there was a Grand Master over her, he had overheard Lord Savien talking about it once, but still, second in command... "Thank you, Master. I just... I don't know how to deal with this. I didn't even come here out of my own will." He said, pausing. He was going to sound crazy. "It's just... I mean. The winds pushed me here. I don't know how to explain it; this way was the only way I could properly fly. My rune was... beating, the whole time. It feels like it has a heart of its own." He said, looking down at the pond and extending his palm over it, the ripples appearing again. She nodded. "I understand, I guessed so. There was a current leading here... but, believe it or not, the source wasn't us. It was you. I think your own power has led you here, somehow, hoping you'd understand. The storms have brought you here, one way or another, and now the Temple will offer you help. Trust me, I'd rather be back on my forge, but I can't leave a lost rogue sorcerer loose in our main building" She said with a smirk, getting up. "Now follow me, we have work to do." She said, walking out of the main building, grabbing a large coat to wear over her robes in the entrance. Opening a small door, she revealed a bridge that led to another stone pillar with a small stone building on it.
"Be a gentleman and at least dispel the winds around us as we cross the bridge, Riven. You'll be able to do that, right?" She asked, not even looking at him as she beckoned the Avialae closer and began walking in. Focusing on the wind around him and extending both hands, Riven tried to stop it with a wall... but the result was something more like an air blast, an explosion that pushed the winds towards the other side. Still not useful, as it pushed the wind in the opposite direction for a second. Fustrated, he created a strong current that he managed to stabilize; the blowing wind managed to split the incoming wind current to blow over and under the bridge; it was tasking... but Riven had something to prove. By the time they had crossed the bridge, Riven had used a huge amount of power, much more than what a shield would have used. "You realize how unefficient that was, right? I think I'm starting to see what the issue is, Riven. We'll train here; it's one of the old forges. I figured that it would be easier if you weren't close to any wooden walls."
