The Sentinel stared upward in silence. He had made his way slowly through Orion, taking his time in staring at the tower, and then again at the Throne. He wondered at the height of the former, and the nature of the latter, unaware that his stone's last owner had made much this same journey once upon a time.

He didn't--he couldn't--hold his predecessor's magic, however: his corruption rendered that quite impossible. And so he, unlike Black, could not peer into its history. Instead he found himself simply staring at the forum: at the dusty pit below, and the ancient, worn stone benches carved into the cave's very rock that ringed it.

He wondered what this had once been used for.

"It wishes to see more closely," he murmured aloud, barely a whisper of a rasp. But if the voice could not be noticed from a distance, the bright blue wings that sprouted abruptly from his back could: a shimmer of light and color that danced across the Forum's stone, and lifted the Sentinel into the air. Gracefully his lean form rose up, the wings barely beating, trails of ethereal fireflies in his wake; and softly they sent him down, his feet touching on the dirt at the forum's center and taking his weight back to earth.

He looked around, there, the wings lingering for a time, and then knelt; his left hand slid down the haft of the upright halberd as he inspected the ground below.

It smelled of old metal--or blood. His other hand ran softly over it, over the ash and bone chips in the dust.

What was this place..?

The Sentinel looked up and around from his position in the center of the arena, and pondered.

@James

James stepped around the corner of the Throne and nudged the black rock out of the way. He'd visit with Pride later. There was someone else here he wanted to meet.

He took flight, thankful that his leg wasn't as sore as it had been a few days before, and followed the Sentinel, gently landing behind him.

"Hello," he said softly, and peered around, slowly walking forward to where Astraea had once stood, "A grim place, isn't it?"

He stood where the deer had, once. Where he'd announced Vargas' plan and that he were to become a Master. What a day that had been, sitting among the great, powerful gembound of the caves, him being only a small foal at the time.

"Master Vargas and Master Astraea once stood here," he said, "It was a great meeting. Gembound of all kinds gathered here. Dragons, monsters, regular animals."

A wisp formed above his head, casting a purple glow over him and the area around. It chased away the shadows and gave a bit more depth to the area.

James turned to face Sentinel, wings tucked in, "Who are you? And what brings you here of all places?"

@The Sentinel

He whirled at the sound of someone landing next to him, on his feet in a heartbeat with his halberd out and pointed. He stared, unblinking, as the stranger spoke; but it walked past him as if he mattered little, talking about... history, it seemed.

The question seemed to be friendly enough, however, and he'd lowered his halberd a tad and was about to answer when James created light. The Sentinel backed away, flinching in dislike at the sudden glow.

"It creates light," he rasped, voice a hollow echo, "where it is unwelcome."

That was one way to greet someone--but as far as the Sentinel was concerned, coming up and blinding someone was rather rude. Shadows roiled out from the smoky blackness that already shrouded him, slithering to cover him, then the area around them, then much of the arena. It wasn't pitch black, as he'd have preferred--but it was dark, now, and he could see clearly again.

"It is The Sentinel. It seeks experience. Has the horse-with-wings things to teach?" he asked it bluntly, skull-like face peering closely at James.

@James

Emotions were muted with Tahi's disappearance into his chrysalis. The fight had taken a lot out of him, and the discussion afterwards even more so. He needed time to recharge, but in that time, he found that anger came quicker and happiness was nothing more than a thought.

And so a frown crossed his face, and he stubbornly kept the wisp close, the thing pulsing with a soft light. He looked down at it and then at the Sentinel as darkness closed in, and then he realized something.

"You're chaos-bound," he said, and shrank back, his last encounter with such a being having not gone well at all.

"I'm sorry," he said, though he really wasn't, "If you take back your shadows, I'll take back my light, okay? Neither of us like what the other is giving, so let's compromise."

James reluctantly snuffed his wisp out of existence, shuffling nervously in the dark that followed. He hated the dark and the shadows that held monsters within, waiting for a slip up.

"Teach?", he said, and a memory came to the forefront of his thoughts, of him suggesting some kind of class for young gembounds to learn from.

His face softened and he stared at the ground, before sighing, "Alright. I can... I can teach you to counter magic."

James' head flew up and he nodded once, "You'll find many magic users in these caves, some with physical capabilities. You'll need to judge for yourself if they are both and act accordingly. A plain magic-user you can possibly counter with physical attacks, for example, and weaker gembounds typically make up for it with magic as well. But stronger gembounds with both physical capabilities and magical ones are formidable and hard to fight against, but not impossible."

A little bit of his drive seemed to come back, along with a sparkle in his eye, "For now we'll start with me. What do you think when you look at me?"

@The Sentinel

The Sentinel stared, taking mental notes.

Chaos-bound. What was that-? He did not know, and he made a mental note to ask it. James seemed somehow disturbed by the shadows, and the Sentinel could not understand why; his head tilted to one side, the shadows remaining, at first. In fact, he wasn't even sure how to retrieve them. He looked around, and focused, but they remained spread all around. He didn't comment on this; didn't explain that he had tried and failed. It somehow seemed irrelevant.

"The Sentinel does not know this phrase. 'Chaos-Bound,'" he repeated, carefully, and then waited, as if expecting a definition. Then he went on: "Why does it dislike the shadows? This is so it can see."

In fact, the Sentinel had only ever experienced a life where one saw better in the dark: he had never thought, and never known from his mostly-blind mentor--it hadn't ever come up, as the Sentinel hadn't ever really cast his magic back home--that it wasn't the normal state of being. He had never complained about his vision--he had simply assumed it to be how things worked.

As for teaching, James seemed willing enough: and his lesson came out in a swift flood, so that the Sentinel had to fight to remember it all.

He was hardly well-travelled, but he'd sparred enough to know that magic was entirely unlinked from apperances. With a rasping inhale, he gave his answer, settling his halberd's butt firmly on the floor. "The tiny serpent held magic to throw the Sentinel through the air. It knows that it cannot tell magic by appearance. The beast with hooves is large: it holds the power to run, or to fly. It may make lights. It has many colors. That is all it knows," he added.

It was a rather matter-of-fact list.

@James

ONE instance of

strong language

James breathed out, "There are a lot of creatures who see using light. If we even it out so that it's dim, but not dark, and not light, then we can both see comfortably."

"And chaos-bound refers to your magic, the magic that you used to make it dark," he said, "I am... familiar with it. There were two creatures who used it to hurt me, and I'm not very fond of it for that reason. Draconua tried to burn down my home, also, so..."

James swallowed and shook his head, "Anyway... yes. That's good. Not judging a book by your cover is good, but there are physical weaknesses you can exploit even if you can't determine magical ones. When fighting a magic user, they're a wild card. A unknown variable. You could fight a lesser deer and only worry about it's horns, but a greater gembound of the same size and shape could be able to strike you with lightening."

Referring to his boyfriend, of course.

"Alright, Sentinel, I don't think explaining will be very useful here," he said, "In shorter words, the faster you gain the advantage, the better. Magic users are fantastic at both holding out and ending a fight quickly if they use a powerful spell or a weaker one to push you away in order to run."

James planted his feet, "Alright, I want you to touch me. I don't want you to harm me, or I you, I just want you to try and touch me. Do whatever you must."

For all of two seconds, the shield flickered into existence. Just as he was about to tell Sentinel to go, it exploded.

"FUCK."

The kicked up dust cleared and James stood there, looking immensely pissed off, his entire front covered in grey dust, his eyes standing out hilariously, and then he just took off running instead, "Have at thee!!"

@The Sentinel

The Sentinel stared, still looking almost constipated as he tried--and failed--to draw back in his shadows.

"The Sentinel did not know. It sees in bright light..? -It cannot summon them back." This was added almost mournfully; he wasn't sure how to retract his darkness.

Something he'd need to work at, then.

When James told him to touch him, he pulled out the halberd; but when the shield burst away, he turned to flee.

There wasn't more than a split second to react--James was swift as he wheeled, legs long, and his voice came only as he lurched into motion; but the Sentinel at least had long reach. He leapt forward, sweeping the halberd down and around in an attempt to knock the stallion's hind legs with the haft--careful not to cut into them, at least; with luck he might knock him off-balance mid-movement.

He wasn't lucky, though--and James was already moving off; the Sentinel swept into the dust of the arena and stumbled, missing him completely.

Round: 1/?
Attempt: Trip James with the halberd
Defense: none
Injuries: none

@James

James ran a slow lope around Sentinel, taking in mind his injured leg. It may not hurt as much anymore but it was still sensitive and could be hurt all over again.

He'd felt the swish of the halberd as Sentinel tried to grab his leg, and narrowed his eyes, peering at him and trying to determine power level. If this creature was a spawn of Vargas (judging by the copious amounts of eyes and arm spines, it most likely was), then it had to be physically powerful, but if it were asking for teachings, then it wasn't experienced yet.

James turned his head and narrowed his eyes. If he did this right (and the sudden and enthusiastic surge of magic suggested he had), the Sentinel would go flying backwards... and then be set down on the ground gently. So far his strategy seemed to be keeping distance between them.

@The Sentinel

Round: 1/?
Attempt: Gently throw Sentinel away... gently...
Defense: N/A
Injuries: Tender front foreleg from previous fight.

He had nothing to use, really, to close the gap. And he reflected as he sailed through the air (by now at least a little familiar to him) that perhaps magic was more effective than his Master claimed.

In any case, it seemed that the horse could see well enough in his darkness, regardless; the Sentinel ceased making any attempts to disperse it.

He considered briefly, but found himself (to his relief, though he noted it wasn't a true combat experience now) set down quite gently. It has a powerful control over its magic, he decided.

Perhaps he could use the tactic, then, that he had used in the past.

The Sentinel dropped his halberd, abandoning it for now, and then shoved down to all fours--where his lanky limbs served him better for speed than strength. He burst into a four-legged gallop, trying to gain a little ground on the fleeing, winged horse--but he doubted he'd get particularly close.

Round: 2/?
Attempt: Catch up on all fours
Defense: none
Injuries: none

@James

James turned to see Sentinel chasing him and kept up his pace, prey instincts telling him to run. He kept calm, however, and inhaled, exhaled, and readied a spell.

Once again his magic sparked to life willingly, and there was a tiny bit of amusement welling up in his chest as he realized that if he kept this up, he could probably just stand still and keep gently throwing Sentinel away.

'Maybe that trial wasn't for nothing,' he thought in amusement, his magic much more lenient, coming to his aid reliably, for once.

Hopefully he didn't jinx it-

@The Sentinel

Round: 2/?
Attempt: Gently throw Sentinel away... again...
Defense: N/A
Injuries: Tender front foreleg from previous fight.