Last Starborn

Of the three people following Yarrow, Ash recognized only Gardenia. It made a bit of sense for her to show up: those with the ability to appraise others without an item to aide them were generally strong healers. The other two were unfamiliar and one of them was not dressed like a priestess but like a fighter of some sort.

Gardenia smiled slightly, "I'm one of the leading priestesses of the temple. We have one from each of the three main classes of healer that follow Lord Sidus that act as a panel. I represent the Starlight Priestesses of the temple, those who focus on healing but will also use magic to fight when they must."

With a slight glance she passed the introductions off to the next priestess, "Starward Priestess, Fi's my name. Ro thought you would take to the magics I can teach you quite well. Perhaps I can change your perspective on defending others."

The last woman grinned like a cat with a particularly nice toy in its sights, "Fel. Saw you playing about with those daggers earlier. I think I have a trick or two to show you," she jerked her head upwards, towards the open rafters of the room, implying she'd been lounging there. Ash took note that she'd have to pay more attention to her surroundings considering she wasn't used to people going unnoticed around her.

Ash's gaze slid back to Yarrow as he turned and asked who would go first for teaching her. After a bit of debate, Gardenia was chosen and stepped forward.

Ash already knew a bit about the magic Starlight Priestesses used, considering Luri was one, but had never actually learned to use it herself. It had always looked beautiful to her, though, even when used to cause harm rather than heal.

Gardenia's teaching started with a lot of theory on how the priestesses used the power of starlight to care for others as Lord Sidus cared for them. It all sounded a lot like her job as a Starborn unicorn, just a little different. Eventually the time came to learn and Ash wielded the magics as if they had always been her own. She frowned, though, feeling something ever so slightly off with the magic use but unable to pin it down.

Those were the base spells from which most of the other magic she would learn would eventually be derived. With practice would come confidence and with that she'd gain the ability to alter the spells to suit her needs.

Fi nodded slightly and motioned to Yarrow as soon as she was done learning from Gardenia, "Let's show her a thing or two, Ro," was all she said.

Yarrow grunted slightly and left his own shield on his back, shifting his sword into both hands in order to put more power behind the blows. He charged the slender healer, someone that certainly couldn't block the blow as she seemed entirely unarmed. She had several rings on her fingers that were clearly magical focuses, but no weapons of any kind. She did not attack others at all in her fighting style.

The shield spell that intercepted the sword, forcing it to slip to the side as if she'd parried it with another blade was beautiful. Seemingly crafted of the night sky itself, Fi called the shield to stop every blow as if she was personally wielding it. Ash had always thought of defenders as front line fighters, as ones that personally took the blow for someone else. Fi was clearly defending but in a proper battle she would be further back and provide that defense to others rather than herself.

As if to accentuate that, Fel rushed in with twin daggers, slipping past Fi to clash with Ro, "You look bored, Fi. Let's spice this up just a bit," she grinned as her dagger darted past Ro's defense to bite into his side only for the wound to disappear almost immediately as Fi cast a healing spell, "Defend whoever, heal whoever, it's all the same to me," she laughed.

At first, Ash noticed nothing strange about Fel's fighting, she used twin daggers to deal quite a lot of damage swiftly though they couldn't bite as deep as a longer blade. Between Yarrow's defense and Fi's healing, though, she seemed to be making no headway and would likely be overwhelmed before long. Despite that, her speed allowed her to slip blades past Fi's defense spells as well as dodge the worst of Yarrow's blows.

She was taking damage, though, and would eventually lose. A few moments after a particularly hard blow that should have at least slowed her, Ash finally saw what was going on. With each strike of her blades, each small wound she opened on Yarrow, Fel was stealing his magic to heal her own wounds before Fi could mend them.

Fel jumped away slightly, obviously noting Ash's observation, "You're a sharp one," she said with a grin as she turned her attention completely towards Ash, clearly done with fighting, "I'm a Starstriker Rogue. I use the magic of my enemies to heal my own wounds before their healer can get to them. My art is all about timing, knowing how long it takes to cast all of the spells in a healer's arsenal and just how much magic I can steal in that time. While I'm not sure you'll ever become a Starstriker yourself, I think you'll be able to make use of this."

"I look forward to seeing what you grow into," Fel continued with a sharp grin, "With that in mind, I think you should learn your spells properly and have a spar with us," she cleaned the small bit of blood from her weapons before sheathing them, "I'll even play nice and pick some sparring weapons for it."

Ash nodded slightly then spent a little longer learning from Fi in a more direct way, eventually learning the base shield spell. Fi also helped her with the spells that Fel had demonstrated, working with her until she finally received all of the notifications for learning them.

She touched the magic within her to cast the Starshield spell to practice it, finding herself scowling. Something about it felt just a little off from the casting she was used to. While she had no problems with the idea of a sparring match, she wanted to find the root of the feeling before starting and asked for a bit of time to do so.

Fel crossed her arms behind her head, looking a little bored, "If it takes too long, you might do better to figure it out in a fight," she advised.