Legend of Renalta: Reborn (IC)

[Kadaeux]

The goblins step into the hallway, not finding any guards there. Not yet anyway. A few feet to the left was a room with the door left open, to the right were a couple storage rooms and then finally a hall splitting off to the right in a T-section. Further down the hall they were presently in, at the end, was likely the warlord's room.

Zex and Xez look at each other cautiously but Ranathrox moves forwards cautiously. The place had gone mad. The Scorpions caution gave the Goblins the chance to try and sneakily get a look into the storage rooms and the room on the left only proceeding if they didn't see anyone.

There was nobody in any of the rooms, though the room in the left contains an unrecognizable, evicerated corpse. The other hall seems empty as well, and merely leads to a staircase.

Ranathrox moves towards the staircase the Scorpion forcing the Goblin brothers to force it. Their standing orders to protect the Scorpion they weren't about to disobey their master, though Zex was supremely discomfited by the body. One could only get so eviscerated by something powerful with a lot of anger.

As they enter the hall and get halfway to the staircase, they hear a few guards voices at the top of it. It seems they only had a few seconds to decide what they were going to do before guards would enter their hallway.

Zex and Xez look at one another their minds ticking quickly. With a moment of silent agreement they put their Blunderbusses onto their backs in their holsters and gripped their spears with both hands as they decided to creep quietly up the stairwell making themselves hug the walls as closely as possible. Ranathrox sensing danger moved behind the brothers as they advanced up the stairwell his tail raised high over his head ready to strike.

One guard starts descending down the stairs, mace still on his waist. He seemed a little tense, though it was understandable for the present situation. "Hello?" He asks.

Ranathrox moves suddenly with insectoid speed its tail lashing out to try and catch the man in the chest as the two goblins thrust forth with their spears as they had been taught so many years ago.

The guard is stabbed in the chest, unable to cry out for help and quickly going limp against the scorpion's tail. There were no more voices nearby that they could hear.

"Zex, check him" Xez said as he watched up the hall. Zex does a cursory search. "Nuffin. Not even a bleedin coppa coin." Zex seems disappointed but the brother soon proceed up the hall with Ranathrox leading the way, but slowly, they heard voices before, either the guard was alone and talks to himself or someone less courageous told him to check down the stairwell.

They get to the top of the staircase, entering another hall on the second floor. On the opposite end was the guard captain's quarters. The door had been busted down--It seems M'yon's body was found. The armoury is empty of equipment as well. There are two rooms on the right with closed doors, on the left was the guard captain's office with its door open, the armoury with its door open, and M'yon's quarters with its door open. There was another staircase on their immediate right that led to the third floor.

Ranathrox moved confused for a moment. It knew forwards. But... Zex and Xez see the hesitation of the Scorpion and move cautiously. People had been through here recently and this was too quiet. Deciding that forwards represented too much of a danger the Brothers decided to be at their stealthiest and took the staircase to the immediate right. With all the trouble on the second and first floors perhaps the guards had cleared out of the third?

They reach the third floor, a long hall moves forward with several rooms on the left that seemed primarily made for storage. The smoke was thickest here, and on the other end of the hall was the generator room to the right. A young woman stumbles out of one of the storage rooms, looking at the goblins. "Oh, thank goodness. I'm not alone here." She says in relief. Past her was the end of the hall, on the left was the training room with a dead ogre in it. The right, the anti-magic chamber.

The Brothers are startled by the womans appearance, and Ranathrox flinches at something they don't see. Probably the smoke or something. Something just seems... off. Xez and Zex decide that cowardice is the better part of valour and the woman just feels out of place panicking they head right trying to avoid the woman. Right into the anti-magic chamber.

She follows them, up to the edge of the chamber and then looks inside. "Wait! I'm not going to hurt you!" She says, whimpering. It seemed she didn't want to be alone. The anti-magic room was bathed in a red glow, and it common tongue it rang out. "Warning! Low reserves! Mages still using magic may harm themselves! Warning! Low reserves!..." What that meant, the goblins couldn't possible know.

Xez was, arguably, the brighter of the two. Panicking he turned and climbed the chair that unknowingly was left there by Xixis. Looking at the controls he did the only thing that came to mind. He flipped all the switches and pressed the green button. Zex was less intelligent and pulled out his Blunderbuss. "Keep away lady." He said frightened. Ranathrox had retreated slightly taking his cues off of the brothers.

"Warning: Impending Overload." Those words. Those words the goblins knew. The woman opens her eyes widely for a moment and then immediately runs away, not even attempting to explain why.

Zex and Xez look at each other and run. They emerge into the hall and head for the training room. There was a hole in it that they saw before. Maybe it was a way out. Ranathrox no longer moved slowly enough to keep up with his handlers as his master wanted. It knew that something very very bad was going to happen.

As they enter the training room, they find that the sand bridge was gone. The moment the shaman had left, he no longer had boosted magic, and thus could no longer keep the sand bridge up. Ranathox can make it down by climbing down the outer wall. The goblins... Well...

Ranathrox paused allowing his masters bodyguards to catch up. Zex grabbed onto the Scorpion, his master could ride it for long lengths of time. Surely it could bear their weight long enough to reach the ground. Xez on the other hand didn't wait. He dragged one of the bodies to the hole in the wall and pushed it off the ledge before jumping after it hoping to land on it. Ranathrox clambered down the stone trying to keep stable with Zex gripping tightly.

Xez free falls after the corpse, slamming onto the metal experior and breaking half a dozen bones including his spine and his legs. He dies instantly on impact, painless at least. An explosion rocks the third floor, the wall just above the scorpion and Zex blowing out with a couple pieces flying several hundred feet through the air before landing in the city. The scorpion nearly falls, but keeps itself on the wall thanks to the aged quality of the stone leaving enough knicks and cracks for the scorpion to grasp at. Zex hangs on for dear life, nearly falling off but managing to hold onto the scorpion's pincer until they reach the ground, safely.

Zex looks over at his brother tears unbidden come to his eyes. He couldn't remember even a moment of his life that wasn't spent within ten feet of his brother. Not when they ate, drank, whored or pissed. And now his brother lay dead and broken. He walked over rubbing tears from his eyes as he closed his brothers open, and very surprised, eyes. Taking the Blunderbuss and belt with powder and shot he slung them over his shoulder. His brother would want him to have them. Lifting his body onto the Scorpion which seemed to sense the mood Zex turns to Ranathrox. "Take us to the Master." Without another word he followed the Giant Scorpion.

[Brovo]

Kouri looks at the door to the warlord's quarters, opening it quietly with keys she grabbed from his body. They had nowhere else to go. The main chamber ball was a death trap. Her own powers of fire and destruction were addictive right now, even if she could fight through half the garrison it would consume her. With any luck they could hide in his chambers until they could think of a better plan. Maybe some of their comrades would reach them? She opens the door, slipping inside to see a moderately sized chamber with a king sized four post bed, several dressers and mirrors, a couple paintings including an excessively large one of... Of... Herself. She stares at it, remembering that she was only a legend. Still. It was... Creepy. She looks back to Alex, Salini and Jamiahl and ushers them inside. "...Alex?"

Alex walks in, readjusting the jacket over herself. She was growing increasingly self-conscious of her... more natural state as they had traveled throughout the keep to reach the room. Her eyes light up at the sight of the dressers and she immediately makes her way to a dresser. As she opens the first drawer, her cheeks seem to light up in flames and she quickly closes it. Perhaps, it was better they had their encounter elsewhere and the original plan fell through. As she goes through the dresser drawers, she finds more and more attire obviously not meant for day-to-day wear... So much female clothing, she wonders if perhaps the warlord was a cross-dresser... Only to likely, given his mental state. Finally, she comes to a drawer of regular clothes... Men clothing. With a sigh of relief, she quickly pulls on a pair of leather leggings and discards the ratty jacket in favor of a tunic that was a bit too big for her. "What now?" she inquires to everyone. They were, after all, cornered in a sense.

The brief surge of adrenaline... the rage... the hatred that had fuelled them... but most of all the grief... it was still shimmering beneath the surface but the rush it had given them was gone now and Salinï felt a little numb and looking at her surviving sister she could see that Jamiahl was too. Jamiahl had taken over the urn with Mesharra's ashes and just looking at it gave Salinï a pang of hurt that she had to tear her gaze away before fresh tears would come to her eyes. Salinï was torn she had wanted to look for Teila... Mesharra death... she would... she gasped silently, a tremor going through her body as she almost stumbled, the thought of Teila... brought a familiar warmth to her body but she shook it off, now was not the time for that.... Balancing herself again she and Jamiahl followed Kouri and Alex into the warlord's chambers.

Jamiahl was following her sister, cradling the urn, resisting the tears that she felt demanding to be released, she had felt something else besides the grief... the anger.. and the the hate... some other feeling and sensation... especially as she looked at Kouri... and the barely dressed Alex, letting her eyes wander over her legs before blinking and turning away. Something felt... wrong... and right at the same time... her cheeks became flushed before she stomped those feelings down... but they would not go away. Going inside the warlord's chambers she went to one of the dressers, shaking a little as she put the urn down and tried to collect herself... seeing the opened drawer that Alex had gone through her eyes widened however and she was letting a hand wander through the clothing... the fabrics... letting out a soft moan at the sudden touch of lace and satin against her fingertips.

Salinï had her eyes widened when she had heard the soft moan from her sister, the transformation... the energy they had burned into punishing the murderer of their sister... she gulped and looked away from her sister and tried not to look at Kouri and Alex, glancing at the wall next to their heads. "We need to get out of here... and fast..." She said with a small hint of desperation.

Kouri looks at the dresser filled with... Clothing... Shuddering. This is what the warlord would have expected from her, perhaps? Eugh. It was almost a good thing she didn't make it here. Her eyes quickly move to Jamiahl, hearing the moan leave her lips left her feeling queasy. Something was wrong. She looks at Salinï, noting that Salinï was avoiding looking at her directly... Kouri's eyes narrow a little. "Why? We may need to hide here for few minutes until we figure out where most of the guards are going. You have a map, right? I assume you found one?" She locks the door into the warlord's quarters, trying to keep guards out as long as possible.

Jamiahl's moan draws her attention for a moment, bringing a few curious thoughts to her mind before shaking them off. The night was beginning to get to her, wearing away at her and bringing her to act far less composed. No, not just tonight... All the building things since meeting Kouri, it was enough stress to have sent her over the edge earlier, bringing her into her other shape... Obviously, she was not the only one affected. Kouri seems rattled, and the remaining sisters were acting even more peculiar than normal. She paces the room, keeping an ear open to the conversation before pausing before the painting of the princess of Renalta. It was rather surreal, the depiction of her in the picture... A ghost of the real thing standing not too far away, in her opinion. She snorts softly and turns away from it.

Salinï glanced at Kouri as she adressed her, a involuntary shiver coming over her and her eyes widened for a second as she hugged herself while shivering. "We found a map... but the warlord dead... the field that prevented magic... obviously down... we need to run... get out... find... find..." Teila she was about to say but images swam in her head of Teila... and the ones she was now with... locked inside a room... "Find a way out of here." She managed to say before turning away as Jamiahl was putting will and effort into drawing her hand away from the dresser and grab Mesharra's urn once more.

Kouri points to the bed. "Put the map there, then. Maybe there's a way out we have not found." She moves closer to Alex, feeling unsettled. There was something about them, her enhanced magical abilities made her feel something was off. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was just the situation. "Alex, are you alright?" Kouri turns to Alex, resting a hand upon her cheek.

A part of her wants to draw away as Kouri touches her... After coming to, about ready to attack her.. She offers a wry smile. "Yeah, I'm fine," she mumbles, taking Kouri's hand in her own and lowering it from her face. There was still the taste of blood in her mouth, but she had managed to wipe most of it off her face. The wound to her chest was not bothering at least, having dulled to a itch as it was noticeably farther along the healing process than it should have been.

Salinï obeyed, desperately trying not to look at the two women, grabbing the map, which was thankfully not burned because she had placed it inside the sheath of her dirk before tossing it away in the transformation earlier she spread it over the bed... and stroked her hands over the soft covers of the bed, her eyes changing to black obsidian for a moment before reverting back to her normal, more human eye color as she jumped on the bed and curled up on it, stroking her hands over the covers... why hurry and rush out she was thinking... maybe there was no harm in just... enjoying herself for a brief moment...

Jamiahl was staring at her sister with wide eyes, licking her lips as she approached, not looking at the two women... standing over the curled up form of Salinï who was looking dazed at her sister... Jamiahl slapped her sister's cheek... hard... and the response was a brief moan of pain... and something else before her eyes became clear again... and frightened. Jamiahl spoke to Kouri and Alex without turning toward them. "We need to go... now..." Her voice was strained as she uttered those words.

Kouri grasps Alex's hand tightly for a moment, looking her eye to eye. "I don't blame you... If it makes you feel better, I was getting through to you... I know I was." Kouri pecks Alex on the cheek, then smiling softly lets go of her hand to approach the sister and their map. It was... A fairly odd situation, to say the least. One sister slapping the other. Wait... Kouri thinks to herself. Transformation... Like a vampire, or a werewolf... After effects? Maybe something else? She drifts a finger over the map to the Warlord's chamber, her eyes widening a bit as she notices a second path. "I need a minute... I think I can find where it is in this room with just this map. I know how to read maps." Kouri looks up and around the room. The painting maybe? It had to be that large for a reason.

Salinï felt the sting of the pain from Jamiahl's slap it made her mind somewhat clearer and she shook her head as she heard Kouri's words. "Yes... hidden passage... the painting..." She turned to the painting of Kouri and shuddered. "But something behind it.. guardian..." Her mind was becoming a fog of wild images and emotions.

Jamiahl took over, "Golem... there is a clay golem on the other side... or so we heard."

Alex gives them a sharp look, her lips drawn back into a snarl. Just barely, she holds herself from snapping at the two women for their behaviour and failure to mention this before. Instead, she turns back to the painting and tears it from the wall, snapping the cord from which it hung as she does so. Perhaps a bit more force than necessarily, but such a motion did a little to relieve her irritation. As she jerks the picture away, tossing it a small distance away, she freezes at the site before her... Indeed, there was a clay golem. The earthen monolith of a creature remains motionless before her, even as she holds her breath and backs away, a bit fearful of stirring it. Yet, it fails to react at all to her presence, as if it simply was just a statue.

Kouri looks at the sisters, then grabs the map and rolls it up. She didn't trust the sisters to keep it safe right now. "Lets get moving." Kouri states, simply, pointing down into the tunnel. Did their comrade's death mean that little to them, that they are already like this?... Or, again, was this something else. She looks to Alex, then to the golem. "I don't feel anything from it. I think it's supposed to be activated as a defense measure, probably by a key word." She slips past the golem, into a tunnel. "Come on, Alex." She says, smiling softly towards her and motioning her over. She would need Alex. Her melee skills would come in handy in these tunnels.

For a moment, she hesitates, looking back to the two women. Turning back, her eyes catching the light off the flickering lights in the room, they glint a predatory yellow as she moves into the tunnel, slipping around Kouri to lead the way. It was dark, almost eerily, but there were torches lined up along the walls, casting enough light to essentially make out each other. Her dark-vision helps her discern a little more in the dark, yet the interspersed lights were doing a fair job of ruining it every time they got closer to one.

The two sisters followed behind, Salinï looked at Jamiahl and shuddered before whispering, "I am feeling..."

"I know, I feel it too." Came the strained whispered reply from Jamiahl before Salinï could voice it.

Salinï bit her lip. "But we made sure that we... before..." She stumbled as iamges filled her head of what she would like to do right now... what a voice inside her soothingly was whispering she should do.... Alex in just that leather jacket from before... She slapped her cheeck again hard... "The transformation... we burned too much..." Jamiahl just nodded. "We need to be careful... contain it till we are out of here..." She barely saw her sister's face in the dark but the look she saw in Jamiahl's eyes was not comforting her at all...

The tunnel seemed to continue on down into the soil, then tapered off into a certainly man-made tunnel which stretched for several hundred feet. Likely an escape tunnel. Perhaps the golem would be activated when intruders attempted to enter the tunnel, not leave it? Kouri breathes a sigh of relief, then looks back to the two sisters. "What is wrong with you two?" She motions Alex to stand beside her. "We need to know if there is something wrong, and if we can alleviate it or if it will have to wait, because your comrade is dead, and I don't think we have too much time before guards decide to check the warlord's room!"

She looks back at Kouri for a moment. "You really think we can help them with... this? You saw what they became, you know can see the difference in them, now.." She casts her gaze upon Salini and Jamiahl both, stopping on the latter. "This is wasting precious time we probably don't have, Kouri, we just need to leave, all of us. We'll address everything later," her thoughts drift to Mesharra for a moment... Her own strained control then around the woman... With how Salini and Jamiahl both had behaved in the room, it probably was a bad idea to be held up.

Both sisters were not moving, obscured in the dark tunnel as both Kouri and Alex spoke and then they moved as one forward, their faces slowly revealed in the light of the next torch. Two pair of eyes stared at Kouri and Alex, black as night... pure obsidian as they looked over the two woman in front of them. "Pray... tell... what you were thinking of... alleviating it for us..." Salinï was saying in a throaty whisper as she let her hands slide over her body. Jamiahl's eyes turned back to her regular color for just a second, looking frightened at both of them before her eyes cahgned back to obsidian and her frightened face burst into a smile, licking her lips.

Kouri stares for a moment, almost frozen in a mixture of fear and... And something else. Something she didn't want to acknowledge. She shakes her head quickly, looking away from the pair and taking a couple steps back, deeper into the tunnel. "I... I think this is something... That I will not be helping with." She states in a shakey voice. This was... The worst possible time for this to happen.

She freezes for a moment, spying the two women's change, their eyes glinting dark in the torchlight. A growl bubbles from her throat. "Enough, the both of you," they were still too close to the keep, still needed to escape... Inside, a battle was warring over to give in to what was happening and to run for her life, her instincts running rampant. However, she stays glued to the spot, just barely because of Kouri. Too much has happened already, she would not abandon her to the assassin's while they were acting like this.

The two sisters looked at each other, smiles as the stood together and caressed each other, planting a soft kiss on each other's lips, their arms around each other as their heads turned to look at the two women. It was Salinï who spoke: "If you will not help us... perhaps the other..." She focussed her gaze on Alex, "Who was bare before our sights just moments ago might do..."

Jamiahl chuckled, untangling herself from Salinï as both sisters approached Kouri and Alex slowly. "Enough? We haven't even started yet... Why don't we show both of you... the gifts the Lover has granted us..."

Kouri pushes Alex back a little, trying to keep her out of harms way as she moved forward to meet the sisters... And to slap Jamiahl across the cheek, grabbing Mesharra's ashes from her and shoving it in Salinï's face, making her see the small urn that now contained the corpse of one of their long time comrades. "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO MESHARRA WHEN SHE ACTED ON INSTINCT! When she gave into anger and struck out based on what her gut told her to do!" Kouri steps back from Salinï & Jamiahl, making sure to keep out of arms reach. "This was your friend! Family to you! And now she's dead! Don't repeat her mistake! Think! Use your minds! We're still in danger, we're going to DIE here if we don't keep moving!" Kouri takes a deep breath, making sure to stand in front of Alex, keeping the urn ahead of her to make sure that it would be the center of focus for the sisters. "Get a hold of yourselves! You're professional assassins, we made a blood debt, now ACT LIKE IT!"

Salinï's mind was filled and obscured with a mental haze that seemed only intent on lust and satisfying her need to feed her hunger... then Kouri's words came through and most of all the urn with the remains of Mesharra. She let out a gasp and then a sob as her grief, which had been buried due to the lust and hunger resurfaced, she started sobbing but then other emotions resurfaced that had been buried as well... the anger and hate. "You... YOU DARE! SHE DIED PROTECTING YOU." Eyes filled with pain and hate now looked at Kouri, one hand went to her whip-

But was swatted away. "No."

Letting out a angry hiss Salinï turned and looked at her sister, who was not looking at her but at the urn in Kouri's hands. "She is right Salinï."

"SHE-" She was cut off as Jamiahl palced a hand on her sister's lips. "Kouri... is right." She said with finality. "A contract has been signed, we are in danger... now is not the time..." She looked from the urn at Kouri and Alex both. "But if we don't get out of here fast..." Slowly Jamiahl's eye color changed back and she looked... embarrassed if not apologetic. "Then we will lose control... more so than you just witnessed." Salinï too was calming down, sobbing as she fell to her knees. "Salinï... get up." Jamiahl said as she stepped toward Kouri and extended her hands toward the urn. "Give her back... please."

Kouri bites her lip, a wave of regret moving through her every muscle and vein. This was... Exceptionally cold. Yet it was necessary... She ponders it for a few moments as she hands Salinï the urn, slowly and softly. "...She died bravely. If she were a Renaltan, we'd have buried her among the royalty." She says quietly before turning back to Alex, her eyes still filled with regret. Ahead in the tunnel it split off two ways. One seemed to lead north, the other east. "I don't know which way to go..." Kouri says, looking at her map. It was... Not detailed to this point. She looks at Alex, then looks away. Was this what her father meant when he told her that she was befit to be a politician, not a general like her sister? She shakes her head. Now was not the time, for the sisters or for her.

Alex looks at the assassins with a sad look, "I'm sorry about Mesharra." She focuses her gaze upon Salinï, "If it is anyone's fault, it's mine. If I could have kept control of myself... And killed Ishcar before he... Well, then it wouldn't have happened." With that said, she returns to Kouri's side, looking down the split passages. "Hmm..." she raises her head, taking in the scent of each way... Only neither of them varied, the air was still stale and earthen down each. If anything, it was a good sign that they both lacked other... foreboding smells. "I think we should be fine either way. If not, we'll just trace our way back and take the other route."

Shamed and saddened... but no longer feeling the hunger like it was before Salinï got to her feet, muttering. "Grief... hunger... those can wait... I will take solace in the fact that this angel who killed her is no doubt right now being acquainted with Mesharra's darker side in the hells." She spat, rejoining her sister, fighting back another sob when she looked at the urn. "I want to get out of this cursed place."

Jamiahl stroked her sister's shoulder. "We will." The usually silent sister had spoken a lot as of late and she would probably speak more soon enough as her eyes were much like her sisters, filled with grief and pain. "Lead, we will follow."

Kouri takes the tunnel heading north, a few steps in the entire tunnel shakes with a distant explosion, Kouri stumbling as a migraine hits her. The ceiling starts to collapse at that part of the passage, Alex and Jamiahl darting into the east tunnel to avoid the debris and Salinï diving into the north tunnel. Stone and sand quickly pile in, and within moments, the group of four is separated into two groups of two. On the bright side, at least none of them could be followed now...

[Gat]

Getting out of the keep had not been particularly difficult for Os'Falan, the few guards still at the main door thought it only natural that anyone still sane would be trying to flee the chaos that had broken out in the ballroom, besides which Os'Falan was just one of the musicians as far as they were concerned. And so as it were Os'Falan strode out the main door of the keep unchallenged.

Amazingly he managed to keep ahead of the news from the keep as he waked quickly through Southblood to the Scorpion Bar. Thane still perched on his shoulder gave the occasional chitter, warning about unexpected obstacles on the road. He sounded somewhat anxious to Os'Falan's trained ear, and little wonder when one considered there had been so sign of the others since leaving the ballroom and making their way out of the keep and through the city.

“Thane calme, tout sera bien, tout sera bien et toutes sortes de choses seront bien.” Os'Falan told Thane in an attempt to sooth him, it had a marginal effect at best as far as Os'Falan could tell. So instead the bard tried a different tack, he whistled the tune of an elven lullaby. After a while Thane stopped fidgeting as much and seemed to relax some more. At least until the pair made it to the front door of the Scorpion Bar, at which Thane stood straight on Os'Falan's shoulder for a moment before letting out a pitched whistle of his own and bounding off towards the keep once more. Os'Falan thought little of it initially, thinking it simply the marmots worry about his friends hitting harder now that the bard was back at the bar himself. Shaking his head slightly Os'Falan pushed open the door to the bar and stepped in, it only took a moment to feel the stark difference in the bars atmosphere as compared to his expectations.

The scorpion bar was oddly silent, the lights were dim but Os'Falan couldn't see that obviously. He heard a pair of boots lightly touch the floor, the leather was old. Very old. Each step reminded Os'Falan of some of the most graceful dancers he had ever heard, each step moving with a sort of suave purpose that few in the world still possessed. Yet the voice. The voice came out chilled, with death on every syllable. "Ah... Os'Falan. A bard, aren't you? I was expecting you would arrive with companions." She said in a somewhat worried tone of voice.

"Masterbard, Mi'lady." Os'Falan replied without hesitation as he made a short bow. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage, you know me, yet you have not introduced yourself." He said after a moment, deliberately ignoring the companions comment for the time being.

The woman sighed, then hesitated a few moments intentionally in front of Os'Falan. In those few moments he heard no heart beat, no breathing. This woman was not alive, at least not by traditional line of thinking. "Is it really all that important, master bard? I'm the one who hired you and the others. I thought it would be a kindness for you to meet your empl--" An explosion rings off in the distance, Os'Falan heard a dagger whiz past his head to hit someone in the throat, dropping dead nearly instantly. She passed by Os'Falan, her cold skin brushing past his almost as though to intentionally confirm anything he might have thought before. "You're blind. How unfortunate." She picked the pocket of the dead man, grabbing a rather heavy sounding guard's wallet. "...I'd say your friends have been busy."

"They never struck me as the kind to do things by half measures." Os'Falan said as he turned to face the sound of the woman's voice. He had come across a few odd people in his travels, had stories and ballads in his head about dozens more. Usually however the ones he had meet personally were alive. He wasn't quite sure what to think about this woman, except that she was surely dangerous. "An unwelcome guest I assume?" He asked her more calmly than he felt.

"Why yes." She stood back up slowly, handing the gold to Os'Falan and touching his shoulder softly for a moment. "You don't have to be nervous. If I wanted you dead, you would be by now." She let go of his shoulder and passed him to head back over to the bar. "I am your employer, Os'Falan. That is all you need to know for now. When your comrades come back here, I will let you know more. If they don't come back soon, I'll just tell you and assume you're the only one who made it."

Slipping the gold into one of his belt pouches Os'Falan felt more than a simple touch on his shoulder as the woman walked towards the bar. A sense of coldness, finality, death maybe. he also had the sense that there was now a chain of sorts being spun out between the two of them. none of this felt real exactly, there was certainly nothing physical in them. Magic then... though nothing Os'Falan recognised, it wasn't effecting his thoughts, or having any impact on his body that he could tell though the feel of the chain was slowly spreading down the length of his spine. Maintaining an outward appearance of calm Os'Falan made his way to one of the chairs nearby and sat down.

"Then I suppose we may as well make ourselves comfortable in the mean time." He said with a smile that was mostly forced.

"Yes... Yes we shall." Os'Falan could almost feel the woman's icy stare and grin, yet she seemed insistent on playing this game with him. At least, for now...

[Tempest]

Alex looks at the wall of rock, dirt, and shifting sands with horror. Apparently the explosions were not quite done... The first may have saved their lives, but this... Someone in their entourage was going to get a tongue lashing for excessive use of explosives with allies still trapped within buildings. She coughs a bit, the grit in the air scratching her throat as she looks around, trying to determine who was with her... Her eyes widen a touch at the sight of Jamiahl... Alone... with her. That would mean Kouri was left alone with Salini. A flicker of worry runs through her as she gets to her feet, brushing herself off. "No way out but forward, huh," she comments.

Jamiahl blinked and shook her head, the tunnel collapsing... was not what she had expected, sucking in a deep air of breath she slowly rose to her feet, patting off dust and sand of her borrowed clothes. Then she flinched, closing her eyes as she felt the hunger making it's presence known again, not as... bad... as before but the feeling was worse enough that she felt it clawing at her mind, whispering in a soft seductive voice but she blocked it out or tried to. Stumbling she fell against Alex, her hand touching her shoulder and arm briefly before Jamiahl pulled away, the palm of her hand a little warmer as she shook her head and hissed through her teeth. "Yes... no other way out..." She looked back at the collapsed tunnel, a flicker of worry for her sister... and Kouri. "No other way..."

A tremor runs down her spine as Jamiahl comes into contact with her. It fades after a moment as they wait in the dim. Reaching back, her hand rubs over her neck, trying to work away any last bit that would remain, "Hopefully they're both safe." Quietly, she begins down the tunnel, her mind racing. It may be better, the exit blocked off, halting any pursuit... Yet, maybe the real trouble now were the two assassins, who now had Kouri and herself divided.

Jamiahl bit her lip, the pain replacing some of the hunger she felt nagging at her mind and clearing her head somewhat, taking deep breaths while she extended a hand to the wall for support as she walked with Alex. "They.. are safe... your... Kouri... is strong... stronger than me or my sister." She said slowly, as if struggling with each word before she finally was able to relax, the whispering voice at the back of her head was still there but she was in control... mostly.

A warmth swells inside of her at the mention of Kouri's strength... She honestly was an empowered woman, after all she had been through. A slight smile spreads before dropping as she looks at Jamiahl. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt in the cave-in?" she asks, reaching out towards the youngest sister for a moment, before drawing her hand back, remembering just a few moments prior.

Sensing Alex reaching out, Jamiahl flinched and all of a sudden the whispering voice at the back of her head became louder, the words and sentences became all the more clearer and understandable and she stumbled again. Her voice... when she responded to Alex was barely a whisper. "I am not hurt... but neither am I alright..." She looked up and turned her head to look at Alex, her eyes were once again black as night. "The need... the hunger..." She licked her lips and... shuddered, the darkness fleeing from her eyes. "It is there... and will not leave..."

She stands still, captured for a moment by her peculiar eyes... Thoughts swim through her head before she looks away. Guilt floods through her mind as she remembers Kouri... Her love, the one she is devoted to. She could not have thoughts like that. "Just... hang in there, Jamiahl," she mumbles. Hunger, the word rand home for her, bringing up ideas about how she herself could be when her feral side began to consume her. Yet, that was not what the assassin was speaking of.. Not a desire for blood and harm to the living.. She steps away from Jamiahl, keeping against the opposite wall as they continue on.

Again Jamiahl manages to push back the hunger and the voice, even though her body ached and craved for something to satisfy the hunger her body.... which she... was suffering under. She bit her lip again, drawing a little blood and just nodded, keeping silent otherwise as she continued walking, albeit slowly before picking up her pace a little.

Alex feels over the tunnel walls. They must be heading east. "Have any clue where we might end up if this passage keeps its course?" she dares, trying to fill the eerie silence as they go.

Jamiahl was moving cautiously, slowly... then she stopped... and started to move with more purpose, removing her hand from the wall as she seemingly did not need to steady herself any longer and she walked with purpose. "I have no clue..." She whispered, reaching out with a hand to cup Alex's cheek and turned her head before she could resist and drew the werewolf's eyes to her own, which were again as black as obsidian and where showing a myriad of emotions but most of all lust... and a deep hunger... "What I have a clue about... is that you... have a most... alluring body."

Now, she simply cannot look away as Jamiahl holds her gaze. "You really think so," she mumbles, a slight smile coming to her lips. "You... are quite a sight as well," she breaths out, her thoughts racing, flooding with increasingly more vivid images.

Jamiahl's lips erupted in a smile as she kept eye contact with Alex. "Thank you for your compliment." She lets a hand from Alex's cheek to her shoulder, trailing with the fingertips while she continued smiling. "A compliment... should be rewarded..." she murmured as she stepped on her toes and leaned in, bringing her lips closer to Alex, her intention clear.

Alex seems a bit dazed but draws away, giving Jamiahl a small push away. Her heart is racing in her chest, she takes a slow breath, looking away, "No, no... It's fine. I don't need any... reward," she stammers out. Her hand goes out to her chest, willing for it to calm as she picks up the pace, needing to get her distance.

The refusal, briefly disrupts the fog that had seized Jamiahl's mind, she was about to call out, tell Alex she was sorry when the need... the hunger came back, pushing her rational mind back. The demon inside her had smelled hesitation and would not be denied that easily, chuckling and with a smile she went in pursuit of Alex. "Alex... wait... did I offend you?" She was saying, letting her eyes wander over Alex's body. "I merely thought... to see a... similar hunger... would it not be good to satisfy it... at least a little bit..."

Alex chews the inside of her cheek as she looks back for a moment, before turning away again quickly. Kouri was in her mind, and she was thoroughly convicted to not let in... but it was oh so tempting. "You... didn't offend... but.. no, it wouldn't," her mind was convinced otherwise, however. Yet, she was not about to let onto that.

Jamiahl caught up and grabbed Alex gently by the arm... and turned her around... licking her lips as she looked at Alex. The lust... the hunger... the demon filled Jamiahl's head her nature to satisfy her hunger had almost completely taken over. "You deny yourself the satisfaction of feeding your hunger... but your eyes... your body betrays you..." Step for step Jamiahl closed the gap between herself and Alex, till she was inches from her face and whispered. "Your words betray you as well... you said you did not need a reward... you did not say that you did not want it at all..." She sighed and pressed a hand behind Alex's head... and leaned in, making contact with her lips.

Alex lets out a small noise of protest before returning the kiss. Her hands move to Jamiahl's waist, holding her hips. Surrendering, for a moment what was unfolding. How bad... could that really be? Just a kiss, her mind tries to rationalize.

Inside her head the hunger cheered and she closed in, with the intent to bring the she-werewolf over the brink. Kissing her back and with surprising strength for her smaller size compared to Alex grabs and pushes Alex against the tunnel wall, not stopping kissing her till she breaks away, her black eyes staring into Alex's own, whispering while caressing her cheek and neck. "It is never wrong.. to answer to your desire..."

She does not fight against Jamiahl, her breath catching in her throat... She wants this to happen, but.. "But, Kouri," she barely manages to get out...

"Will understand... she wants you to be happy.... this will make you happy..." Jamiahl murmurs, the lust and hunger overtaking her completely... her hands starting to wander over Alex's clothes... down her sides and waist...

She would not, though... She would feel hurt, if not outright betrayed. Alex grits her teeth before shoving Jamiahl away. Panicking, she takes off at a mad sprint, intending to flee this tunnel, from Jamiahl like a bat out of hell. The previous ideas of her and the assassin are instead replaced by those of Kouri, with tears in her eyes. At that very image, tears pick up in her eyes as she realizes just what she had done and was ready to do.

Seeing Alex run brought a chuckle from Jamiahl's lips. "Run, run all you want... there is no escape..." Laughing she gave pursuit, and finally manages to catch up, jumping, pouncing on Alex's back and dragging her to the ground with Jamiahl on top of her. Black eyes stared down at Alex's face, eyes that would not be denied, she would take what she want and she would take it now. She reached for Alex's clothes grinning, "Do not fear... I was taught by one of my sisters in the arts of the Lover... I was taught by... by... Mesharra..." Too late the demon knew she had made a mistake and Jamiahl wailed, rearing her head back, her grief once again pushing back the lust and hunger, one of her eyes rmeained black but the other was once again steel grey and looked pleadingly down at Alex. Her voice strained as she spoke, "Alex... knock... me... out... NOW!"

Overtaken by the woman, pinned beneath her and seeing so close the conflict waging within her, Alex did not need to be asked twice. Quickly, she strikes Jamiahl. Perhaps with a bit more force than necessary. The girl goes flying back a tad, as Alex remains on the ground, catching her breath and trying to make sense of what just occurred. A sense of doubt at having struck her flickers through her as she stumbles to her feet. She wants to resume her escape, but seeing her unconscious, thinking of the loss of Mesharra not long ago, she sighs and picks the woman up softly. She would at least get her to somewhere safer than a tunnel that had already collapsed once. After that, though... Alex shakes her head. "Trouble... Nothing can be simple, now, can it?" she grumbles, walking towards the exit, laden with Jamiahl.

[Slade]

Xixis walked away from the keep towards the Scorpion Bar confident that the job would be done. Sisera and Braekre walked along carefully with the Vampire Braekre seemed to get along so well with. The night was cold and the sound of trouble at the keep was echoing through the night. And yet even the thieves and cut-throats had taken to their hiding places. When a play for power was made it generally paid to be off the streets. Nursing his ribs he smiled. "I think that went rather well." He commented aloud.

“Went rather well for us, I hope the others have fared alright.” Sisera piped up. He was in the back of the group with his long white over-coat hanging on his shoulder, shaking off the guard armor. The mediocre iron was starting to chafe and he frustratingly kicks off one of the greaves into a nearby gutter and begins to work on shaking off the other one. Performing a humorous hob-walk and making sure to stay as close to the group as possible.
“So are we heading back to the bar?” Sisera asked. His weariness and… other things starting to kick in.

"Best if we did. Get the last of our pay for the job, and honestly, after tonight I might look at getting out of Southblood for a while. Things like this rarely go unnoticed."

As they reach the scorpion bar, Xixis & Sisera both feel something with a large amount of magical power within the building. This kind of magic was only held by a few of the elite of the world, the kind that could drop an entire room of people with a twitch of their finger. The door to the bar was open and inside they could see Os'Falan sitting on a stone chair. Nearby, there was a woman in heavy brown leather clothing; a robe, a hood, even gloves and boots. Very little skin on her forearms showed, and it was pale as the moon that was starting to rise. "Ah... More of my employees. Xixis and..." Her eyes wander to Sisera. She grins as she pulls her hood back. "...Sisera."

Xixis walks in suddenly very wary. But he was used to working for the powerful from time to time. "Our Employer, you'll forgive me but you have me at a disadvantage, you know us but I don't know you. No doubt intentionally." Xixis moved into the bar and yet made sure to put distance between the... woman... and himself. Braekre notices this and places himself slightly between the Shaman and the woman.

“You?” Sisera says underneath his scarf, surprised and wary of the figure. Oh yes he knew this woman; wife of the Abomination. Of course he didn’t say that out loud, one didn't say the name Sarah Darkhammer lightly. He knew that lesson far too well. He looks at Xixis standing his distance from the woman. Smart move but it would prove futile if she did feel like slaughtering them. But he knew Darkhammer, at least he knew her better than most. Being a powerful fire mage did have its advantages at one point a thousand years ago. He walks over to the woman, having finally kicked off the remainder of the armor and threw on the white over-coat to keep himself warm from the sudden draft that blew through the room at Darkhammer’s appearance. He sits down on a stone bench a few feet across from her, he didn’t care if he kept his distance or not. With this woman, distance was merely an illusion; no matter how far you were she could still kill you.

“I’ve changed a bit” he said with a touch of shame regarding his face as he tightens the knot of the scarf.

“But you are a Flower that never wilts it seems.”

Sarah walks over to Sisera, placing a hand on his shoulder and with an almost familiar feeling settles in. Yet, towards Sisera, it was peaceful and cool rather than the feeling of death it gave to Os'Falan. She runs a dead, yet human-looking finger across Sisera's cheek and smiles softly. "Yes... I know... Typhon burned you. If it makes you feel better, I neutered him about two hundred years ago. Now he's just... Always angry." She says with a sigh, turning and glancing towards Xixis though raising an eyebrow when she fails to make eye contact with him. Smart little green shit he was. "So. I suppose you want your money?" She looks to Breakre, and in a moment Breakre seems to tense up and then calm. "Breakre, you simple beast, please do give this to your master." She hands the bag of mixed gold and silver to Breakre, and then glances to Xixis again. "If I hear you run off with this money instead of staying with the princess, I'll find you. And Breakre will kill you for me."

Xixis refused to look at her as he turned his gaze to the Orc. "You hold it." He considered the womans words. "Don't waste my time with threats cold one. You pay me and i'll stick with them, you paid so I don't see an issue." He didn't bother to utter the words But don't fucking touch me. There was no way she'd have missed the distance he put between them. "Which brings us to the next point... would you like this Rat Skull Charm?" He held it out on a necklace. "It's yours for one gold."


Sisera eye quivers for a moment at Darkhammer when she mentions Typhon. Pure blinding rage full of insanity and memories, especially memories. He stands up and digs his finger nails into a nearby wooden table and he grits his teeth in a suppressed fury.
“I cringed in heavenly flames for over 900 years. I don’t even know who I am anymore!” He snarls at her, his confused savagery rising in him. He wanted to force feed Typhon his own intestines for millennia and then break his mind completely. As Typhon broke his and warped him into some twisted version of himself.

“I” He mutters at Darkhammer, feeling his rage turn into a slow melancholic depression.

“I” He falls on his knees and hangs his head low; his spirit broken only by his own sense of loss.

“I just want a bed and something to eat” he murmurs silently.

Sarah looks at Sisera, and shakes her head. "Wow. That's just... Pathetic." She points to a door to the right of the bar. "Several rooms. There's also a basement located behind the counter through a trap door but I'm saving that one for a trio of assassins I know." She looks to Xixis, and then giggles. "Fine, fine." She grabs a coin from underneath her robes, and then holds it out to Xixis. "Come here boy, come here."

Xixis turns to Braekre. "Go collect the payment please. And pass her this once she turns it over." Mentally he tore at himself. Ah well. Maybe there was another nice Rat Skull. "I'm sure you don't mind, you may be my employer, but I just plain don't trust you."

Sarah shakes her head, pocketing the gold coin. "No no, I noticed that. You would miss it too much. Not as amusing then." She takes a few steps back from Xixis, towards the counter, pulling out a small book and tossing it with a surprising amount of strength in front of Xixis. The book was in goblin tongue, and read 'Shaman's Powers'. On the front of the book, in gold embroidery was the author's name. An elder goblin of Xixis tribe ages ago, the one who started the long line of Shamans. A very powerful goblin indeed.

"The princess must succeed, for my sake and for yours. If she fails, in about ten years something will plague this world with such ferocity and darkness as to wipe away even Malaki and I." She sighs, grabbing her bow from behind the counter and pulling the string back a little to test it. "Of course, we have other plans in case she dies but... She seems the most likely to assist us all."

Xixis examined the book his every sense straining for anything out of the ordinary, other than the already obvious. "If this is genuine... then no further payment will be required." He touched the book very lightly. To his tribe, and him personally, if the book were the real thing it was worth more than every coin he'd been paid so far. He gently turned the cover like a parent checking their babies breath as they slept. For if it were the real thing it would also be very old. And to think the woman threw it carelessly across the room. "I don't suppose you can elaborate on this threat?"

Sarah glares coldly back to Xixis. "No. There are minions everywhere listening." She turns her head away, and then mutters just loud enough for Xixis & Sisera to hear as he passed by to take his private room. "Don't trust the assassin sisters. In their blood is treachery itself. The kind that risks us all. That is all I will say." She waits until Sisera leaves, then slips up gracefully to sit on the bar itself, crossing her legs and looking at the door in a perfectly still manner. "As for your book, I found it in a worm's lair. The locals called it the 'Asimov worm.' I also found a bleached skeleton there, goblin bones most likely. The creature is out of your league, but me, well..." She takes off one of her gloves, her bony fingers exposed in the light as she examines her hand casually. "Let’s just say that I have the touch of ten thousand years."

Xixis simply couldn't help it. "Yes. Well not all of us attempt to bed strange worms named Asimov. It may be out of my league. But ... thank you for this."

"Hah." Sarah scoffs as she remains upon the counter, putting her glove back on. "I've but one lover, and he is far more fearsome... And larger... Than a worm." She pulls an arrow out of her quiver, it was made out of bone except the tip, which was made out of an extremely well refined silver. "And now we wait..."


Sisera nods and picks himself back up, ignoring Darkhammer’s comment. He didn’t care what that she thought. Maybe if he said it enough times to himself it would come true. He shuffles through the hallway and goes into the last door on the left and slams it shut behind him. More of the group was coming soon and he didn’t want any part of the reunion. Not now, not in his current mental state. He didn’t want people to see him like this. Throughout the night Sisera had kept up the pressure on his mind and it wasn’t till now that things were starting to collapse. Better here than in the middle of the palace he figured. He looks around the room: fairly cozy with a table and a water basin next to it and on the table are a bottle of mead and a small basket of fruit.

Feeling safe, he unwraps the scarf around his head and lays it down on the bed. He peels off his vest and shirt and soon Sisera can see all the burn scars on his upper body in the mirror directly above the water basin. His finger slowly traces one of the scars that twirls itself around his arm; feeling the rough scab-like texture of the burns. He does this on most of his body, as if bewildered and wondering where they came from in the first place. He notices one mark that starts at his lower Jaw and runs down to his neck. He could say they were ugly abominations and constantly think about how disfigured and disgusted he felt with them showing brazenly in his reflection.

Or he could move on from that one ritual and wash his body. He took a nearby rag and soaked it within the water basin and wiped his upper body down of all the dirt and grime he could get. The wet towel on his scarred abdominals gave him a strange but soothing sensation that calmed him down somewhat. He throws the dripping towel around his neck and sits down. With a shaky hand he pours the mead into a small wooden cup and takes a pear and begins chomping down on it. He realizes the last time he had eaten was on the boat. He finishes the Pear instantly and takes a mango and bites down hard into it. Sucking the sweet nectar until it was bone-dry. Sisera is already on his third cup of mead and slightly drunk when he smells something… smoke!

He looks down at the source of the smell. His eyes were once wide with hunger and drink but slowly began to shift into that half-closed state when he saw the deformed smoke dog stare at him. It looked like the same Dog that he created to spread smoke throughout the palace. It was a deformed ugly creature whose smokey body seemed to have seeped out of the top of Sisera’s bald frame. Sisera makes a slight grunt at this revelation and sees the humor in the sick poetry behind this. Surprisingly calm at what was happening.

“Please” Sisera speaks as he looks into the dog’s sad abysmal eyes.


“Please go away.”

[Andi]

Kouri turns back, spotting Salinï through a cloud of dust that was quickly settling. She was injured, one of her legs pinned underneath a couple of larger rocks. Kouri takes a step forward to help, and then grabs her head. She had a painful headache, and all the magical power she felt before was... Negated. That explosion, perhaps, had something to do with this. She shakes her head and looks to Salinï's arms, still clinging a fully intact urn. Kouri kneels down beside Salinï and quickly drags the rocks off of her leg. "Are you alright?" Kouri asks, her eyes full of worry for Alex but being unable to help her right now. Surely she made it. She had to have made it. There was no way Alex would die now... Just... Just no way. She would find her again, even if it took weeks in this confusing city.

The collapsing tunnel, the crash, Salinï had felt panic as it began and threw herself to the ground, protecting Mesharra's urn with her body, screaming as she felt part of the rocks fall on her and trap her. Trying to tug loose, while not wanting to let go of the urn she gritted her teeth until Kouri came and helped her, when she asked if she was alright she just nodded, waiting till she was free and while her leg was throbbing she could still feel and move it, just a bit painfully. "I've had worse... I think... assuming this tunnel is not a dead end." Her head was clear, the pain had pushed away the hunger largely and she slowly rose to her feet. "How about you."

Kouri nods in agreement, still rubbing her temples with the headache that plagued her mind. "Whatever it was that was empowering me is gone. I feel weaker." She offers a hand-up to Salinï, smiling softly. "Now, we have to get moving..."

For a moment she looked at the hand and the hunger came whispering in her head, but she managed to push it back with a combination of the throbbing pain and looking at Mesharra's urn before accepting Kouri's hand and nods again. "We should..." She looked back at the collapsed tunnel and then back at Kouri with a smile she hoped was reassuring. "They survived. I would feel it if Jamiahl was hurt." She tried not to show her worry though... the hunger was now pushed away but it could claw back at her... and Jamiahl was on her own with a equal hunger nagging at her mind.

Kouri nods, feeling a slight tingling sensation run up her arm though whether that was the headache or something else she didn't know. "I assume you can walk?" Kouri says questioningly, starting to move ahead of Salinï in the tunnel and lighting one of her hands aflame. Quietly the flame leaves her hand, and travels through the air slowly. Her head ached, but she could still use her magic. There was that at least... The fire could find the way out.

Her hand tingled from the contact with Kouri and it kept tingling even after she got herself a tight grip around Mesharra's urn as she took a few tentative steps, "I can walk at least." She said, looking at the far end of the tunnel. "I just hope we can get out of here soon..." She trailed off, moving in pursuit of Kouri, the whispers were at the back of her head, clawing to find purchase and she tried to think of something to distract her. "So... I suppose that having a werewolf... and at one time a vampyr then seeing demons has lost all it's charm." She said, making conversation.

Kouri shrugs, not turning back to face Salinï as her little scouting flame continued further into the tunnel, appearing dimmer and dimmer as it grew smaller and smaller the further it got away from her. "You don't even know the half of it, trust me." Kouri states dryly, looking at the walls. They were fairly smooth, and lined with wooden planks over the stone which didn't look very natural in of itself.

"Something tells me that would make a good story to tell-" She cut off, gasping as she fell down to the floor, she shuddered and felt something throb, a laugh at the back of her head and her hunger... or was it Jamiahl's... clawing inside her mind taking over, her body felt weak as she shivered and all she heard was this voice that told her to feed and that by feeding it would be all better. She tried to look at the urn... Mesharra's urn but even the thought of Mesharra was pushed away and she saw... felt her hands grabbing the urn and putting it behind her, tying it into her whip and placing it at her back, out of sight. At the same time she felt, she sensed her heartbeat getting closer, she smiled as sensed Kouri getting closer, saying something, seeing the light wash over her as she sat huddled against the wall, her head downcast and seeing a shadow of Kouri extending her hand.

Salinï looked up, smiling, her eyes black as night, purring even as she took Kouri's hand and caresses it. "Everything... is fine... or soon will be..." She said as she slowly got up from the ground, not breaking eye contact with the blue haired princess.

Kouri freezes as she reaches Salinï, her hand outstretched to help her up was now being felt over, that same feeling from before racing up the nerves of her hand and lighting them aflame in ways she wasn't familiar with. Her eyes remain fixated on Salinï's black eyes, the rest of the world around those two dark orbs seeming to fade, little by little. "...S-Soon... Will be?" Kouri manages to stammer out, feeling something foreign in her mind... And something very familiar in her gut.

Still smiling though part of her rational mind was trying to scream inside her Salinï kept staring intently at Kouri, intertwining her hand with hers, her soft fingertips caressing over the back of Kouri's hand. "Yes... soon... this whole ordeal has been... well shocking for us all... maybe it's time to relax... Don't you agree Kouri..." She trailed off and smirked as she circled a arm behind Kouri and pulled her closer and then leaned in brushing her lips against Kouri's. "Kiss me." She said softly.

Kouri feels something in the back of her mind snap. Some element of civility, of morality, of loyalty and more just... Gone. The strange, fire-like feeling filling her veins wove through her body at speeds she couldn't even register, as she smiled quite happily... Yet, there was a certain twist to that smile that made it devoid of her usually soft demeanor. Her eyes lustfully move over Salinï's body.. It was a... Far different sight than it was before. Deep in the back of her mind she wants to say no. She wants Alex to appear suddenly, to separate them, to drive her against a wall and slap her to stop her from doing what she was about to do, then kiss it better. Her lips slowly brush over Salinï's lips, then finally connect, her hands wrapping around Salinï's forearms tightly, getting warmer by the second..

Inside Salinï's head she heard someone laughing and a moan left her mouth as she kissed the blue haired princess back but something was wrong, she felt her body heat increase... which was nothing unusual, she let out a growl, screaming to be heard Salinï tried to push back her lust and hunger, even while her body craved it, needed it... finally she managed to get back in control at least partially as the hunger inside of her let out a scream of pain, her forearms, they started to get hotter than normal and seeing the glow coming from Kouri's hands she knew why. Gasping against Kouri's lips and stilld holding her in a embrace she moaned again, her body shaking one of her eyes turned back, her blue-steel iris returning in a sea of white once more. "Kouri... not like this... stop. You don't truly want this." Inside her the hunger cackled and whispered that she was lying, she wanted it and bad.

Salinï's words barely get through to her, though her sly smile doesn't leave. The feeling through her arms, and now her legs, her gut and her chest, it didn't leave. She takes a step back, placing a pair of fingers over her lips. "...What... Are you doing... To me." Kouri says, still unable to break eye contact with Salinï. Her hands were almost glowing red, but they dimmed quickly back down to normal temperatures. "Look away... Before you do something we will both regret."

Salinï tried to look away but once again her hunger took over, her one eye had a second to look frightened and horrorfied till it became black again and burned like coal in a fire with the lust and hunger that came from her stare as she looked at Kouri and licked her lips. "I am doing nothing you don't want to do yourself... all I do... is bring forth buried passions and emotions... and make you face them..." She whispered stepping closer again, backing Kouri against the tunnel wall with no escape. "And why would I look away when I see something I like... and what is it... that you mean by doing something we will both regret..." She smirked and extended her hand, going to Kouri's face. "Try to burn me... and all you do is fan the flames..."

Kouri's hands both light aflame, her thoughts race back as she closes her eyes forcefully, seeing just one image in her mind. The stark, upset look within Alex's eyes... How cold she went when she discovered that fiancé had left her. Kouri's hands burn brightly once more as she keeps her firery hands between herself and Salinï, though the feelings still ran through her veins maybe the open flame would be enough incentive to push her back, push her away. "No... No. No. I won't do that to her... I won't make her live through that again." She mutters quietly to herself.

It felt as if a wagon filled with stone had suddenly hit her at full speed, Salinï stumbled and shook her head, her eye color slowly changing back and she shuddered in fear at the scream of despair and anger from her hunger as it was once again buried under her resolve. "We... need to get out of here... who knows what Jamiahl is doing with Alex right now..." Salinï couldn't help but saying.

Kouri takes a step forward, opening her eyes. The feeling hadn't left her yet, the one Salinï forced into her mind. The one that made her feel... Far more than she ever wanted to feel. The only thing keeping her stable, the image of Alex, it quickly contorts with Salinï's words. Now in her mind she saw Alex, and Jamiahl... Alex's head striking the wall, her eyes rolling up into her skull, her leg running up Jamiahl's legs... Kouri's lip curls in a sinister manner, her hands burning hot enough for Salinï to feel right where she was standing. "...What Jamiahl... Is doing... To my lover..."

Salinï stepped back, all her instincts told her that she was in trouble, even her hunger seemed cowed by the appearance of Kouri before... though part of her seemed to get excited by this image of Kouri but she suppressed it. She let out a yelp as she stumbled and fell, crawling back in fear of the heat, while another part moaned in frustration inside her that she was escaping and not embracing this. "Nothing! She is doing nothing! It was the hunger talking! Jamiahl is much stronger than me she would never..." Salinï was saying, her eyes not letting go of the burning iamge in front of her.

Kouri raises one of her hands to lash out at Salinï, keeping pace with her, and then... She lets the fire go. The feeling dissipates, the wicked curl to her smile dies away as quickly as the fire does. Kouri keeps her eyes closed, a warm memory of Alex's arms around her, keeping her safe helped her regain her composure, her control over her power. She looks to Salinï for just a moment, and then looks away as she offers Salinï a hand up. "So this is your darkness, which you keep... Which you have as the price for your powers, isn't it." She says softly, trying to keep Salinï calm just long enough to get her to her feet. Then... Then the two of them could put some distance between themselves, and the chances of this repeating itself would be slim.

Salinï looked frightened, scared and shivered as she looked at Kouri when she said those words softly, she looked scared at the hand for a moment and then slowly, carefully extended her own and took it. A slow, smile suddenly spreading over her lips as she tightened her hold on Kouri's hand and looked at her again, gone was the frightened look, replaced once more with a smile and her eyes slowly changing back to darkness. "What do you know.... about darkness.... about a price for power..." She leaned closer against Kouri, holding her gaze. "Me and my sisters... Mesharra was the first to find out... we had demon blood within us... blood of succubi and incubi... the oracles of lust and pleasure... servants of Him... the Stranger... Lucifer... Baal... the Devil... many names... all meaning the same being. We made a pact with him when we found out... part of that pact is... that in return for the powers he gave us... every soul we reap... every time we kill... they get send to him... that is why we kill... why we became assassins... and why we hunt slavers... but these powers also come with a hunger... do you know what hunger is princess..."

Salinï slowly backed Kouri against a wall again, pressing one of her hand beside Kouri's head against the wall. "A hunger that eats at your body... at your soul... till you satisfy it or risk losing control... you have seen what happened when our sister died... imagine that happening again... while we need to feed..."

Kouri doesn't look Salinï in the eyes, she looks away. She keeps it this way, even as she is backed into a wall. The speech comes, a bit of terror reaching her eyes. So their deity... Is not a deity at all. She pushes Salinï back and away, her own hands lighting aflame once more. "Don't force my hand, Salinï. Don't do it. I won't do as you ask. I won't because it would hurt Alex, and me."

Salinï looked at Kouri's hands and the flames licking around them and laughed, removing her hand from the wall and let it graze over the flames. "Don't be so sure and confident in your flames... you know now what I am and who we serve... or at least have a... agreement with... one of the few who actually supports your cause..." Laughing Salinï stepped back and collapsed, crying. She looked up, her eyes back to normal as sobbing makes her body shudder. "The hunger..." She says through her tears. "You can't imagine what it is like... the need to feed... I need to feed... soon... or I will lose control... Teila... I... we... need Teila." Are the words that come out between sobs.

"Should I... Knock you out?" Kouri asks curiously, looking to a nearby torch still on the wall. One or two blows, surely she was strong enough to do it. Right? Right. She had seen Alex do it enough times. She could mimic it... Uhh... Maybe. "... Salinï?" Kouri asks cautiously, her flames lowering a little.

Her eyes widened and she scrambled off the floor and grabbed Kouri by the shoulders. "NO!" She screamed in the face of the blue haired woman, before letting go of her shoulders as if she was burned and took a step back shaking. "No.." She said more slowly and now in a frightened whisper as she hugged herself. "No... must stay awake... if I'm awake I am in control..." She looked scared at Kouri. "If I am knocked out as I am now... asleep... unconsious... then... the hunger will awaken... not me.." She turned away. "Just... let's go..."

"Alright.." Kouri states, putting up a small shield of fire to separate herself and Salinï. "I'm going to move ahead of you, keep us separated for your sake and mine. I swear, I'll find Teila for you when we're out of here. Just keep it together... And keep looking to Mesharra." Kouri turns and moves forward through the tunnel passage once more, one hand keeping control of the wall of fire which gave her slight strain to keep up. It wouldn't remain up for longer than an hour at the most, but that would be all that she would need. No escape tunnel would be that long... She hoped, anyway. Her other hand reaches up to her lips, a finger moving across them. They were wet, now, and in that moment she realized that if Salinï hadn't stopped... She looks to her hand, her eyes widening a little, then filling with sorrow. The shield of fire dims a little, her heart wrenching up inside. "I'm sorry..." She mutters silently to Alex, continuing further through the tunnel.

[Orion]

With nothing left going on inside the ballroom, but the increasingly small battle and no more guards running in to take the place of their fallen comrades Dean believed that the scene was about wrapped up. No doubt they were all preoccupied else where in the keep. He felt a bit of sorrow that Fiona had not made another appearance as he would have relished confronting the bitch. He chewed the inside of his lip for a second as he thought of his course of action. No doubt others from his group, the survivors at least, would have made their way out by now and would be on their way back to the bar to regroup. So of course that should be where he goes next. It felt odd though, being left to his own devices when there was so much that should be done. Should he search the keep one last time before heading out? Just in case someone important had been left behind? Or should he just submit to the fact that he was lingering for no good reason than to watch the battle.

He craned his neck upwards until the back of his head knocked against the wall he was leaning on, and a small sigh escaped his lips, pushing off from the wall he started to walk towards the exit of the building. While he didnt expect opposition at this point he was always prepared. Hand on the pommel of his sword, and moving slowly enough not to arouse suspicion or draw attention. A thought entered his mind as he recalled the Orc that had stood guard on their way in. Would he be an issue? Would he even still be there? Likely not. As Dean exited the keep his guess was confirmed as the gate was barren save for passerbys. Whether the Orc had run off to get reinforcements, joined the battle inside himself, or simply ran away was unclear, but given everything that had transpired he could hardly be blamed for leaving.

And so it was that Dean left the keep unaccosted. Thinking himself fairly lucky considering the ordeals some others no doubt had gone through to leave. He walked down the streets of Southblood doing his best to look the exact opposite of what he was. He was just another civilian with no idea of what was happening where, rather than being totally aware of the assassinstion that had just taken place. Already word was spreading of what had transpired. Dean being rather curious himself as tp what happened listened in as best he could on passing conversations. There was the idle talk of slave deals and who bought what. Of course that wasn't as interesting as the tall tales being spread around. Huge explosions caused by golems of fire and sand, shadows killing their own masters, and as always the equisitely beautiful women that they'd never seen before, with blue hair, or fiery red hair. Dean rolled his eyes finding it strange that regardless of where they went people always focused on one thing. To each their own, thought Dean. Made no difference to him.

Looking up he realized he had already made it back to the Scorpion bar. He felt much more relaxed at that point. Knowing he had made it back, and that hed be relatively safe inside with any others that had returned. He stepped through the doors and his feeling of relief was replaced by one of uneasiness. There was still a large portion missing, and the ones he could see where not in the best of shape. Os'Falan had made it, and seemingly un-scathed. Which was good. Dean had been admittedly worried of the old blind man going into the mission. Then again, would go out of their way to assault a minstrel in his condition? He shrugged realizing that the bard was perhaps the safest of them all except in the case of obstacles strewn randomly about a room.

He approached the bar hoping for a drink, but instead of a bartender was greeted by a pale looking woman he had very little interest in speaking with. Without uttering much intention, or caring for a response, he grabbed a bottle he hoped was filled with wine and returned to an unoccupied table. Setting the bottle down, and getting himself a litte more comfortable. Looking somewhat dazed, and possibly tired his gaze shifted from one group member to another doing a mental checklist of who had survived, and taking large swigs of wine at regular intervals.

[Slade]

Sarah quietly slips off the bar, and then moves with such silence that not even Os'Falan could hear her leave. Only slip off the bar. And even that was iffy. She moves to the hall with several vacant rooms, quietly opening door after door with the silence of a ghost until she reached Sisera's quarters. There, she spotted the smokey visage of a dog, and man talking to it. At least, he was once a man, though perhaps no longer such a fine thing. A broken toy more befitted him, trying to find its master, trying to find reason for why all the puppetry had since dissipated into nothing but a smokey vapor. She closes the door behind herself, and then kneels down beside him. "You seem troubled, but then... I haven't seen you in a thousand years...uncle."

Sisera quickly looks at Sarah and his eyes soften when the woman opens the door and closely it lightly behind her. He quickly gets off his chair and removes a blanket from the bed and wraps it around his shoulders. Trying as best as he could to cover up the deep red & brown burns and scars that riddled his otherwise decent body. He sits back down and looks at the dog. It was indeed going away, albeit slowly. Its body was melting and the smoke was seeping back into Sisera’s feet. As the Dog degenerated into a wretched mass it simply stood there and looked at Sisera with its black dead eyes; simply accepting its own temporary damnation.

“Please Sarah come in, and ignore that thing in the corner.”

Sarah shakes her head and smiles. "I've seen and killed stranger things in my time. A dog made of smoke means little." She touches Sisera's cheek through the veil, and continues to smile. "My, you seem a little more like your father. Hiding a scar. I suppose the difference is you hide physical ones."

Sisera shivers slightly from her touch. Not because it was cold but because feelings such as touch felt so different to him now. And a touch from her brought him back to how much he had lost and made him wondered if he had truly gained anything other than what appeared more and more to be a mocking dementia.

“My father was a politician at heart. Hiding scars was half the job description of the Steward.”

His hand grabs hers and holds it for a moment; he never had a mother, for she died in child-birth and for as long as he could remember he saw sporadic visits from this woman for most of his childhood. Both her and his Father would talk a great deal about “serious matters” of the kingdom and other ever growing dangers of various factions and tribes. Was it an impressive feat or a sad case that Sarah Darkhammer was the closest thing he ever had to a mother?

“What matters of course is who you hide those Scars from” he says to her, thinking of Kouri and feeling slightly ashamed for no other reason than the fact that it was just the norm now.

Sarah shakes her head, letting his hand go and standing up slowly. "You're thinking about Kouri." She leans back against the wall, not explaining how she knew. Merely that she knew. "If it comforts you to know, back then you were considered for her hand when she came of age." She states simply, looking up towards the ceiling. "I know because your father was proud of it, but at the same time negotiated it away. He didn't want you to be danger like she would be. Plus... The two of you didn't have the chemistry. Only a father's keen eye could see that." She rolls her gloved fingers along her arm, closing her eyes and smiling softly. "Your father hand a secret that he told nobody else... Maybe it would be appropriate for you to know now."



“Good thing he did waive it away, I could never have, well… I've known her since she was so little and I was becoming a young man when she was just weaning off her mother. I worshiped fire magic as my new God and nothing else.”

He looks at the scars that still appear on his neck despite the Blanket’s covering and looks at the wrinkles forming around his face and gives a slight chuckle.

“Things sure have changed huh, I’m almost 50.” He smirks for a moment before his face gets grim and serious. Talking of secrets with Darkhammer was a business one should not treat lightly. The fact that she was willing to tell him anything peaked his interest. And the even bigger fact that it involved his Father now made it a personal interest.

“I doubt there were things my Father didn’t expect to take to the grave. I was supposed to assume his position once old age got to him.” He says this with a sense of sadness, immediately surged with a feeling of longing for his long dead father.

“Well then what do you have in store for me?”

Sarah leans back, smiling softly. "You're related to Kouri by blood." She places two of her gloved fingers over her lips, as if to tell him to keep it silent. Then again, perhaps it was instinct. Was there any left in such an old creature? Who knew. "The documents to prove it are still locked in a chest in a hidden treasure room of the remains of Renalta's Castle. Amanada has made sure of that." She lowers her gloved hand, grasping Sisera's hand and kissing his fingers. "In all reality, you are her brother, given to your father to be raised in secret so that if the royalty were ever killed, a blood line member would survive. So, Sisera... Or, should I call you King?"




Sisera is in the royal infirmary, on a couch in the other room is a blue-haired ten year old Girl. Not even reaching Sisera’s waist yet. The girl was practicing a powerful spell and had burnt her hands badly. She is surrounded by two healers. Both in their mid 50’s who are attending to the girl. Sisera wants to go in and soothe the girl’s stifled cries. But the Women demand privacy for the girl and Sisera frustratingly throws them aside as meaningless prudes: he should have been there, he should have been watching over the girl more carefully. Children are curious, especially when they show to be as powerful of a fire mage as Sisera someday.

The healers emerge from the room and Sisera runs past them before they can object. He gives them a glare that scares them away, probably back to the King or Queen to complain about this “unjust treatment”. He turns and see’s the Blue haired girl standing there with her hands covered in a thick white cream with bandages wrapped around them. He wraps his arms around her and gives her a kiss on the forehead. He tells her that they should head back to the court-yard. The girl doesn’t want to leave. Sisera smiles and agrees. He’ll wait for the King or one of his servants to come and get them.

In order to pass the time he tells her stories. Stories which he heard from his Father and from all the books he read as a child. He knew other stories from Darkhammer, but he didn’t tell those: some were funny and heartfelt but were not fit for a ten year old girl with burned hands. He told her the tale of the Dragon Ink, the tale of Titan the angel of Destruction and Oblivion, He even told her the Legend of Renalta, though he tried to make it more exciting then what those dreary books had written. The Legend was of good people who made hard choices, powerful foes that had to be overcome and the love of two people who created the greatest kingdom the world had ever seen.

By the time he finished the girl was asleep in his arms. No one had come to take her back. He shrugs as he picks her up and carries her to her Castle, her home.



“I’m… sorry…. What did you just say?” Tears had started to trickle down his cheek.


"You're the King, by birthright." Sarah puts his hand down, and then looks him eye to eye with a grim expression on her face. "Just don't, tell anyone... The Gods have minions everywhere. Knowing that two heirs are alive and not just one would be... Poor for your health, and Kouri's health as well, and we can't have that now." She stands up slowly, taking a few steps away from Sisera as she ponders the situation. "Sisera... King Sisera... It rolls right off the lips, doesn't it?"


“Yes it does, but Queen Kouri has a much better rhythm.”

He leans back in his chair and takes a swing of mead, along with a bite of another pear from the basket. He wipes the tears away and looks at the corner to see that the Dog has completely dissipated and is nowhere to be seen. Sarah came in at the best time it seemed. She always had that… motherly touch it, even when he was very little and when he got upset and cried. She would just pick him up and look at him and he would subside right then and there.

“Kouri has been striving for this goal for Gods know how long. She acts more composed and Queenly than I’ve ever known her. She drives to do the impossible.”

Sisera returns her gaze. She was his mother. Not his biological mother obviously that was the… it didn’t matter. This woman in front of him was his Mother. He wondered for a moment whether this fact was good or bad but decided that at the end of day it didn’t matter, what was done was done. And Sisera couldn’t help feeling the way he felt about this woman who seemed to be as old as Mortals itself.

“I’ve wandered this now strange land for ten years. I’m just a burn victim with issues.”

He stands up and drops the blanket around his shoulders, revealing the hideous scars that wrapped around his skin and crawled over his Torso. He resisted his urge to cover up and showed her proudly what he had turned into.

“Sarah, does this body look like a King’s body to you?”



Sarah quietly walks up to Sisera, looking him eye to eye. The ethereal chain between them grew warm and even visible though it remained transparent. She extends the chain, and then loosely wraps it around his neck, pulling him over and placing her cold, dead hand upon his chest. His heart beat slower, the touch of death upon his body being this close to her. She leans in and kisses him; there was no sign of rot. It was just a cold, almost eerily friendly kiss, her eyes not closing before she finally ends the kiss. She then brings a finger down his cheek, across his lips, a soft smile coming to her lips. "I see a man with enough experience that I would call him King." She whispers, almost as if she was afraid the air would hear her. She loosens the grip of the chain, and then steps back from him, the chain vanishing once more. Had she gone too much further, it would have ended his life.

His eyes close as he embraces the kiss and feels the touch of death sucked into his very soul. Was this it? Was he going to die just like that? No. Just a feeling of a Cold hand that felt relieving on his disfigured pectorals. Like ice on a burn. She ends the Kiss and Sisera clutches his chest and looks at her, surprised and confused as hell.

“Well that was… different” he retorted. Not knowing how to feel about this situation. One hand she was a motherly figure to him. On the other hand, that was… very different. He didn’t say he wanted more, because more would kill him plus he didn’t think he could dig the whole chain things. Also, Malaki… oh fuck.

“Well you can make an old man feel like a confused young Lad.” He smirked back at her.

“But King or no King, I doubt Typhon is gonna sit back and let us sever his connection with the mortal world. He tossed me aside like a Ragdoll when I was at my prime.”

He stares at her for a moment, still bewildered by what had just happened. This Woman was strangely seductive and wondered if she pulled the same tricks on his father… his step-father.

“We probably have much to discuss concerning these problems. But we should wait until the others arrive. Kouri will surely want your advice.” He looks down at the last drops of mead in the bottle and swigs the rest down his throat.

“And I won’t tell her about our… relations. Not now, it’s a bad time. But when’s a good time to bring this sort of thing up?” He asks Sarah, not knowing what to do. He survived this whole time by just taking whatever abuse was dished out at him and keeping under the Gods radar. He used that strategy for ten years but it wouldn’t help him with this.

Sarah looks Sisera up and down, and then pulls her hood back over her head. "I will send her to your quarters. Here, give her this." Sarah holds out a small scroll with a magical seal upon it. "She'll know what it means." She leaves the room after that, leaving Sisera to inspect the scroll... It had the royal seal of Renalta upon it.

[Andi]

Kouri reaches the end of the tunnel, her flames burning brightly between herself and Salinï still. The fire grew dimmer however as she places her hand upon a weight covering up the doorway. It was the way out alright, but it was... Blocked by a wooden crate, and a heavy one at that. She sighs in annoyance, looking back at Salinï... Then letting the wall of fire die away quickly. "I can't open this by myself. It was likely made for the Warlord, who is stronger than either of us individually... Though together we should be able to push it away."

Salinï was still shaken by what she had, almost, done back there but it seemed because of that she could focus somewhat, the hunger was still there of course, gnawing at her and she knew that if she waited too long... that she would succumb to it and only be able to return when the hunger was satiated. Once the wall of fire dropped the hunger briefly seemed to swarm over her mind and try to take control to get at Kouri but she pushed it back, stumbling for a moment, holding her head, focussing on everything else besides the hunger till it finally was forced back to be just a insistent whisper at the edge of her hearing.

Taking a few calming breaths she nodded. "Yes." She simply said finally, slowly stepping forward and pressed herself against the crate with her shoulder, trying to keep some distance with Kouri. "I'm ready."

Kouri pushes with Salinï, the force of the two women being enough to get the crate out of the way. As they look around in the dark, Kouri feels rather lost. It was a warehouse near the Keep. Kouri could tell because there was a chunk of debris which had flown through the ceiling of the warehouse and was presently right in the middle of the floor. It was a large warehouse, and the crates seemed to be mostly cheap food and drink. It wasn't a bad place to hide an escape route, certainly, but it wouldn't have been Kouri's first choice. She looks to Salinï curiously. "Alright... Now what?"

She had been dusting herself off after pushing the crate away with Kouri and then started to look at her surroundings, something was... eerily familiar about this place. She moved around, slowly till she suddenly stubbed her foot against something lying on the floor, bending down and picking it up it was a rusted broken end of chain, with a iron collar at the end. There were other chains and collars she saw now, as if the people who placed these crates of food and drink her did not care or were afraid to move or clean up these chains, seeing them made her feel frightened for some reason till it all came flooding back.

A young girl chained up with those of her tribe, the only people and family she knew, told they were nothing now, slaves to be sold and owned by some fat slob of a merchant.

Then there were children, children everywhere, they screamed and stabbed and kicked and died around them.

A girl, similar eyes like her own and a pang of recognition of familiarity.

She was free and she grabbed the knife and looked down at the whimpering and crying meatbag of wine and flesh, stabbing, stabbing just to make the crying stop and make him just shut up, SHUT UP!

Warmth enveloping her, the girl from before, comforting her, telling her they should go and leave this place, this wrong city. They went and she was happy.

She gasped, she was on the ground, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed, she sensed Kouri behind her, no doubt ready to burn her because she might have succumbed to the hunger, she had succumbed but not to hunger, to her grief. "This place... I was about to be sold, to lose who and what I was." She said, standing up. "She came, she saved me." She kept saying, fumbling for the urn tied to her waist with her whip and looked at it. "Mesharra..." She said with a tear trailing down her cheek.

Kouri reaches out for a moment, wanting to comfort Salinï in her moment of grief but hesitates. Would this... Set her off again? She sighs, swallowing back fear and grasping Salinï's shoulder softly, reassuringly. "I'm sorry... I didn't know..." She takes a deep breath, then looks around the warehouse. There was nobody here, the doors to the city were left ajar. Lucky for them not to be locked in. "...Do you need a moment, or can we keep moving?"

Salinï turned to look at Kouri, her eyes... still their normal color, the hunger was pushed back even further now and she looked back at the urn containing Mesharra's ashes before tucking it back in place, tying it with her whip. "We should keep moving but... thanks." She said, standing up letting Kouri's hand fall away from her shoulder and looked around the warehouse a last time, almost imagining the ghosts of her past that haunted her with this memory. "This place, is a old scar but Mesharra healed it... in the past... and in the present." She said placing her hand on the urn with a half-smile. "Follow me, let's see if I still know the way out of this part of the city."

Kouri nods in agreement, and follows Salinï. In just a few minutes time they were confronted with a choice. Early nightfall had struck, the sun having hidden beneath the sand as stars shined brightly above. Salinï knew two paths from where they stood. The first involved climbing up rooftops and jumping and leaping in the dark. It was likely safer from ambush, though it would be difficult for Kouri. On the other hand there was the dark streets and alleys, but even with the commotion at the keep there was no guarantee that a band of slavers wouldn't pick their targets here and now, especially two women..

Salinï thought over their options, she had many times before simply crawled and traveled over the rooftops of Southblood with her sisters but that might be a bit more difficult for Kouri to keep up and the streets... well no doubt there would be a lot of people on the streets because of what was happening at the Warlord's Keep but not all those people would ignore two women, especially one clothed as Kouri was and without a slave collar or brand would be free picking for any band of slavers or simply anyone looking for some gold. She looked back at Kouri, "I don't know what might be wandering in these streets now with what has happened at the keep but the safer path is over the roof tops." She pointed at the flame Kouri was casting. "Best sniff that out, a moving source of light on the rooftops will attract unwanted attention." Turning back to the nearest buildings and looking for a way to climb up she nodded. "We wait here for a moment, let our eyes adjust to the darkness when you put that flame out and gather some of the rope, I'll climb up first and lower the rope so you can tie it around your waist and start climbing up." The rope was there mostly that if perhaps Kouri lost her footing Salinï could pull and make sure the blue haired woman wouldn't fall to the ground.

Kouri nods, snuffing out the flame and quickly moving to a nearby abandoned stand to steal the rope. She fumbled a few times trying to untie the knots, quickly realizing that the deft hands of a peasant working day in and day out to sell whatever strange smelling meats here was far above and beyond that of her own, dainty hands. She finally gets the rope as her eyes adjust to the darkness, then she looks to Salinï and nods, holding out the messy, but relatively coiled up rope. "Lead the way."

Taking the rope and nodding she started climbing the nearest building, taking a jump to jump up and clamber upon a stand and then started to ascend the building, looking for footholds and handlebars to lift herself up further up. Making slow, but steady progress, slipping once with her feet in some pigeon shit and letting out a soft yelp, cursing every winged rat of Southblood for a moment before she continued. Finally she reached the rooftop, taking a moment to gather herself and find something secure and strong enough to hold Kouri's weight to tie the rope one and then lowered it down to the ground where Kouri was waiting.

Kouri grabs the rope quickly, tying it around her waist as instructed and then climbing up the wall. She slipped twice, once in the pigeon shit which caused her to shake out her hand in disgust and the second time near the top when she started to feel a slight burning in her thighs. She suddenly had a newfound respect for Mikan, and all the other acrobats of the land... Wait, Mikan. She feels regret well up in her heart. She didn't find Mikan... Maybe Salinï did? Hopefully. She awkwardly climbs onto the roof, and then looks to Salinï, a burning question on her mind. "Mikan... Did you find Mikan? Is she safe?" Kouri asks with worry in her voice, standing up and quietly realizing that this dress was not suited for climbing. Yet another reason Mikan dressed the way she did. Aside from other... More obvious reasons.

Salinï shook her head, "Me and Jamiahl did not find her." She said, but before Kouri could process that she continued, "That Rheinfelder, Taigyn, Seoran and Teila found her however. Me and Jamiahl ran into them." She neglected to tell Kouri about the half-elf they had questioned and she had then killed. "She seemed... fine... knowing Teila she would make sure to heal her wounds." The physical ones at least, she added in her mind while she was busy untying the rope and wrapping it around her waist for later use. "They will have kept her safe, I have no doubts about that." She said, with a half-smile meant to comfort Kouri somewhat.

"Good..." Kouri says, a little regret in her voice as she untied the rope from around her own waist, then looked around at the rooftops. Some seemed connected by bridges. Others weren't. She guessed that some of these rooftops had businesses on them with the stands located here as well. Her eyes move towards the keep, widening. "...Is that..." A fire raged from the top of the keep, though it didn't seem to have the risk of spreading to other parts of the city. Images flash in her mind, ones of her home in flames. She then looks to Salinï once more. "I have no idea where we are going, so... Lead the way. As for Mikan... I hope so... She deserves better than this." Quietly in her mind she adds, 'we all do.'

Salinï also saw what had happened and what was still happening with the warlord's keep, part of her moaning in despair at the thought if it came out any of her sisters were involved their reputation for stealth killers was pretty much ruined. At Kouri's words she nodded and made to move when she stopped, looking back at Kouri. "Do you trust me." She said out of nowhere, looking at Kouri pointedly.

Kouri blinks, hesitating to answer that question. Considering what just happened? A thousand years ago she would have said no. Now?... "...Yes. Yes I do trust you. Why?" She asks curiously, though there was a hint of caution in her voice as the cold night breeze sent a shudder down her spine.

Salinï looked from Kouri at the rooftops and then back at Kouri. "Because I have not given you many reasons in the past hours to trust me or my sisters... Jamiahl... if I were to succumb to the hunger here... you would not be able to run far, that and you might be forced to depend on my to cross certain rooftops without any bridges." She said calmly, her calm demeanor was a act, the hunger still there but ever since the warehouse and the memories it brought with that place she was able to keep the hunger in check. She turned her back to Kouri and moved her body, loosening her muscles a little bit, warming her body a bit up further.

"Now then, the sooner we are back at the bar... the sooner you can be with your Alex." She looked over her shoulder offering a Kouri a weak smile. "I'll move slow, so you can keep up, like before, watch your footing and only make a jump or leap when you are sure you can make it, if not I'll help you." With a final nod the Crescent Moon sistet started moving, making their way over the rooftops towards the Scorpion Bar.

Kouri pursued Salinï over the rooftops, attempting to keep up with her and doing relatively well in her mind. In reality, Salinï slowed down every time she found Kouri couldn't keep up. A few rooftops away from the Scorpion bar however, Kouri started to pant, her face was flushed. This was too much running and jumping and leaping. She jumps after Salinï across a chasm a little too wide, and ends up only grasping the edge of the rooftop with her fingers. Every muscle in her legs ached. This was a poor decision on her part... Yet they were almost there. She could feel it. She could feel... Something... Strong nearby. Something foreboding. Something familiar. "Salinï... Help..." She manages between breathes, her chest heaving heavily with each gasp for the strange, desert air.

Salinï skidded to a halt and turned back, fleet on her feet back to the edge of the rooftop, getting on her knees and grabbing Kouri's arm with her hand, briefly her hunger became restless but she put it down and ignored it, her free hand going for her whip, setting Mesharra's urn on the rooftop and lash out with her whip to a nearby pole for extra support. "I got you, try to pull yourself up, slow and easy now." She said, trying to show her confidence to the blue haired woman.

Kouri slowly, but surely with Salinï's assistance pulls herself up onto the roof. She looks down, seeing a several foot drop to what would have most assuredly broken her legs, if not, her spine. She rubs her arms and then wrings her wrists, looking to Salinï and nodding quickly in thanks. "...I need a minute.." She continues to pant, trying to force herself to take deep breaths instead to slow her heart down. "We're near the bar, right? I can... I can feel something there..."

Salinï raised her eyebrows at those words. "Feel something?" She did not feel very comfortable hearing that, glancing at the way the still had to go she decided to keep her whip in her hand, securing Mesharra's urn with a end of the rope she carried. "We are near, yes... but we can rest for a short while. Sorry if I put you through this... I forgot this road could be too tiring to return to the bar, but this was... well somewhat safer despite that last slip." She chuckled before frowning, "That something you feel... good or bad?"

"...Powerful. I can't say good or evil... Just... Something with so much magical power it dwarfs mine. Easily." She lays back on the ground, still breathing heavily. She omitted the fact that it was familiar. She still couldn't put her finger on it, though. She looks out at the stars, her heart rate finally starting to slow down. She would be ready to get up and move shortly. "...Ever wondered if every star is just another realm? That one of them could be the realm of the Gods... Such a tiny little thing." She giggles nervously, trying to release the stress from the day, and from nearly falling several feet. "...Pretty, though..." Her thoughts move to Alex, and Mikan. To Dean, to Sisera, and to Taigyn... She had to keep them safe... Each a pretty little star in their own right, each deserving a better life than this.

Looking up at the stars as Kouri mentions them, "You know now who the entity is that is behind the faces of the Maiden, the Lover, the Crone and the Stranger... but still... the cult while serving... the Other... is found nestled deep within some societies here and they speak of many things, including the stars." She looks at those lights in the sky and smiled, "Like how the Crone once supposedly has been known to have foretold that a time will come when the stars in the eye of the night will turn red as blood and herald the beginning of the end." Something stirred at the back of her head and she continued, "But the Lover... she once said that most of her work is done in the light of those stars... the beginning of new life and pleasure..." She said, her eyes slowly turning black...

She bit her lip... hard... the pain flared through her and pushed the hunger back with a angry hiss as she tasted blood on her lips and shook her head. shivering a little at the sudden strength of the hunger. "Perhaps... if you have caught your breath, it's best we move again."

Kouri slowly stands up, having noticed the little change in behaviour from Salinï. So that was it, huh. She expected something more... Profoundly dangerous. "Alright... Uh..." Kouri says looking around. She might have known where to go from here if it wasn't for the darkness of night. "...Where to now?" She asks curiously, avoiding eye contact with Salinï.

Her eyes were still black when she turned to look at Kouri, but slowly changed back as she put all her will into the effort of keeping the hunger at bay. "This way." She said slowly and began to move in the direction of the bar, hoping that this last section of the trip would be met without any problems.

Kouri pursues Salinï, jumping across two more rooftops and stumbling at each landing. "Good thing it's not far." She says, jumping across another roof. She recognized the street now. They were just three rooftops away from the bar. A small smile reaches her lips as the deep breaths return. "Because I'm not sure how much further I can make it."

A smile played on her lips as Salinï spoke, "Oh I am sure." She said with a chuckle and suddenly turned around, closing the distance between her and Kouri in a instant and wrapped her hand around Kouri's neck, forcing her to look into the black pits of her eyes and at the hunger staring back at Kouri. "That you... we... can't make it..." She trailed off, caressing Kouri's neck with a grin.

Kouri's fingers at her side twitch as her eyes are locked with Salinï's hungry gaze. She was helpless but to stare, feeling its magic course through her veins and her mind once again. Her mind flirts away from the stars to other, far worse thoughts. "I... Alex..." She manages to stammer out, quickly realizing that they were indeed on a roof still, they were indeed alone. Nobody could catch them...

Salinï smiled wider, smirking at Kouri as she saw how she was on the verge of breaking her last shred of resistance to her. "Here we are... the bar, your friends... they are only a few meters away... a choice." She let's go of Kouri's neck and drops the rope on the ground. "Will you run... or will you stay... with me... where nobody will find out... what might happen..." She says in a hoarse whisper, leaning in and placing a soft, burning kiss on Kouri's cheek.

Kouri starts trembling, her hand reaching her cheek as she feels the kiss there. She looks towards Salinï once more, then looks towards the ground. "I... Wouldn't... Say no..." She struggles trying not to say it, but her mind was overcome with lust, as were her trembling hands as they reached out towards her, towards the one making her feel this way... Anything more like that... And she was done for...

A chuckle emanated from the back of Salinï throat and she grabbed Kouri's hands, holding them in place, preventing them from reaching out and touch Salinï. She moved bringing her head in close to Kouri's ear and whispered, "We shall remember your answer... next time..." She said ominously before pulling back with a jolt, letting go of Kouri and shuddered, her eyes changing back to her normal color, fear, lust, hunger, a myriad of emotions showing in her eyes as she crawled back, away from Kouri, gasping as if she was out of breath.

A single tear rolls down Kouri's cheek as her hands, shaking, return to her fogged vision. Those black orbs still pierced her mind, they were still there... Yet they weren't. She brings her knees up to her chest as she tries to recompose herself, trying to get rid of these feelings which she hated and yet at the same time, felt almost addicted to. She wanted to let go... She would remember this... One way or another...

Salinï got back on her feet, it seems the hunger had it's fun, she could sense it satisfied... for the moment... her control completely back over her body and faculties, she slowly approached Kouri, kneeling down in front of her and... cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder. "Kouri... look at me." She said softly, gently cupping Kouri's chin and bringing her up to look at her. "I will not ask for forgiveness, not do I expect it from you. Blood oath or not, if you wish me and my sister to leave you and your friends alone, all you have to do is ask... command us to... and... you did not betray your Alex."

Kouri continues to shake, yet slowly stands up. Perhaps it was a remnant of something more permanent in her mind now, or maybe it was a sign of her growing insanity. Maybe it was something altogether different. She grabs Salinï by the throat and looks her eye to eye. There was a fiery rage within her eyes. "I did. Just now... I would have betrayed Alex, like her fiancé did to her." She loosens the grip around Salinï's throat, then takes a step back. "...I won't order you away... I have few enough allies as is." She looks in the direction of the Scorpion Bar, moving past Salinï. "Just... Don't do that to me, please." She states as she leaps past another roof, then looks to Salinï for the rope. She had to get down off the roof to reach the bar, after all.

Salinï looked fearful as she looked at Kouri's eyes, seeing the fire raging within and cast her eyes down, chastised for what she... well her hunger... had almost caused, though part of her and not all of the hunger seemed to be both satisfied and disappointed that things had not gone further there on the rooftop just now. She watched Kouri as she stepped past her, she had sworn, upon her blood and that of her sisters that she would fight and perhaps even die to protect that woman, perhaps she should also protect her from Salinï herself. She shuddered, recalling those eyes of Kouri just now, then again she did not doubt that that one could protect herself well enough. Taking up the rope she followed Kouri, leaping to the roof Kouri had gone to and landed, rolling before she skidded to a halt. She was silent as she went to work securing the rope and instead of handing the rope to her, she threw the end to Kouri for her to catch, avoiding as much contact with Kouri as possible.

Kouri looks to Salinï, then hugs her briefly. "This is twice now you've helped me where I would have failed on my own... So that makes up for twice nearly succumbing to your... Urges... Just don't do it again, understand?" She asks softly before ending the hug, grabbing the rope off the ground where it fell and tying it around her waist, then descending to the street. Without looking back as she untied herself, she moved to the scorpion bar, wanting to get there--and to the company of others--as quickly as possible.

The hug and the words were not what Salinï had expected, but she took them gratefully, nodding her understanding when she asked. She made sure that Kouri got down to the ground safely and in one piece and then pulled up the rope, coiling it up and throwing it over a shoulder, deciding to keep the rope, you might never know when she could need it again. Kouri was moving ahead, not waiting up for her, Salinï could not blame her and followed, walking at her own pace, she was in control of herself now but with these recent lapses of submitting herself to her hunger did not bode well... she needed Teila... someone... to feed... and soon. Or bad things were bound to happen.

[Slade]

Kouri moves quietly inside the Scorpion Bar, spotting Dean and one of the goblins sitting with an orc. Sisera had left with that goblin--She had seen it herself. She frowns a little, and then looks over to the bar to see... No. No it couldn't be. "...Sarah." Kouri says with a fair bit of spite in her voice. Sarah merely turns and slides off the bar. Pointing towards Sisera's room in silence, she doesn't pull her hood back like she did with the others. Her face remains hidden. "...What's in that room, Xixis." She asks, attempting to pry him from his book.

Xixis turns to Sarah. "A smoke mage with more emotional baggage than the Maharajah of Easthold has gold coins." He said without really taking his eyes off of the book. "Welcome back Kouri."

"Well... Thank you I suppose." Kouri mutters quietly, passing by Sarah. As Sarah reaches out to tap Kouri on the shoulder, Kouri lights one of her hands aflame. "Don't even think about it. You never got your hands on Renaltan royalty before, you won't now." Sarah giggles. "Oh but I have already." Kouri narrows her glare, trying to read Sarah's expression but still unable to thanks to the hood. "...Hmph. I'll ask later." She passes Sarah by, only putting out the fire wreathed hand as she reached Sisera's room. She opens the door slowly, slipping inside and then closing the door behind herself for some privacy. "...Sarah wanted me to see you for some reason?... Is it about your father? I know they were close once.”

“Once yes. She was a close family frie- Sisera stops mid-sentence, realizing that his definition of family had now been altered to something entirely different. “It… it doesn’t matter anymore I suppose”.

Sisera was sitting on the bed and had thrown on his black shirt and vest, his scarf laid draped over his head though he had not bothered to wrap it around his face just yet. Small nicks and burns could be seen protruding from his neck and jaw. Fruit cores and an empty mead bottle littered the table and parts of the floor-board were wet from water spilling over the basin. Sisera observes Kouri, looking at her up at down; were there any similarities at all between the two?

“I have something for you… but first sit next to me. I need to see something”. He wanted to see her face up close. He’d seen it so many times throughout his younger years. How then?! How come he didn’t notice! Why didn’t he catch on the most important thing, the only thing that seemed to matter at this point?

Kouri complies in a curious manner, sitting down beside Sisera. She wasn't smiling; her skin was still pale, her hair dyed blue with just the slightest hint of black at its roots. Her dress was still the rather provocative dress from earlier, stained with a few droplets of blood. It looked more like a skirt with a horrible sewn on, sleeveless shirt by now and thankfully, it still managed to cover everything that mattered, though the skirt was a little small, reaching only her mid-thighs as she crosses her legs and crosses her arms over her chest. "...Well?... Are you alright?"

He looks at the dress Kouri had to wear for the ball. He felt disgusted and revolted by it: It was stained in blood, she was stained in blood. It’s not that Sisera was a prude-far from it-it’s just that Kouri was his… was his-

He raises his hand slowly and with thumb brushes it against her cheek. It reminded him of the time spent with her when she was a little girl. He loved that little girl; he would have done anything for her, given anything for her, died for her. In a sense though he already had done that last one, or at least it felt like the equivalent. All that time spent with her and he didn’t know. Why didn’t his Father tell him sooner? He rubs his thumb against her cheek softly, his eyes glistening in a pool of tears ready to overflow the dam.

“Same pale skin, same cheek, same nose, same forehead, same bones, same heart, different spirit yes but same love of fire.”

He lowers his hand and wipes the tears that are rolling helplessly down his face. He had never cried openly in front of Kouri, he kept himself restrained, at attention for her and to keep her from seeing things he would never want her to see. But all those protections and barriers just crumpled at that moment. This feeling of pure joy, confusion and irreplaceable loss hit him too hard. He couldn’t keep up the façade that he was all right and everything was fine, at least not now.

“It’s all the same… as mine.”

"Uh..." Kouri grabs his hand softly, pushing it down from her cheek onto the bed, her eyes looking into Sisera's eyes. "...We're similar, that is for certain... But we grew up together, that is normal." She looks away from his covered face towards the floor. In her mind she knew this wasn't him going after her like Ishcar or Typhon did years ago, no, his other hand would be going to other places if that was the case... It was something else. Her eyes then spot the royal seal on the scroll Sisera was holding, widening a little. "...What... How did... Nevermind. Hand me the scroll, Sisera."

Sisera sighs and hands her the scroll. “Sarah and I were having a… small talk. She wanted me to give this scroll to you.” Sisera looks at the floor and the empty mead bottle on the table, wishing it were full again. The moment passed and things were confused now; what seemed important he realized had to take a back seat to things of bigger relevance. Where Sarah got that was beyond him, but he knew it must have been terribly crucial. She pat’s Kouri on the back:

“Go and talk to Sarah before she leaves. She’ll have something useful to tell you I’m sure. The woman doesn’t show up without a good reason.”

Kouri looks at the scroll and smiles softly, looking at the seal. It had a slight deformation on the side. The royal archiver was... Special. That was for sure. She brings the seal up to her mouth and then whispers the key word used on most royal documents. "Peekaboo." The seal clicks open as she brings it down to open it and read it fully. She shrugs and then bitterly mutters the motto of the royal archiver. "Nobody would ever suspect something as simple as peekaboo..." She smiles a little as she reads it aloud. "Name: Sisera... Birth date... Heh, you're a little old now Sisera. A thousand and forty years old already." She looks further down, her eyes widening. "...Your birth parents... No, this can't be right. It just... It..." She finds the official signature of the royal archiver, her lips quivering a little. "Sisera, are you... No, no this can't be right. It has to be a trick. Who gave this to you?"

“Actually I’m believe I’m a thousand and”- Sisera jerks his head to Kouri and his eyes widen. Sarah had given him the Damn birth certificate! He stands up from the bed takes a few steps back from Kouri, thinking, wondering what the right thing to say was. If she was little and he was his old self he would have known the perfect thing to say that would make everything turn to smiles again. But he was clumsy and she wasn't little anymore. So all he could do was turn the chair to face Kouri and sit down. He removes the scarf completely and puts it on the table, his pale, bald, scarred head barren before his Sister.

“I told you, Sarah gave it to me.”

Oh the Gods he wanted to hug her and squeeze her tight and never let go. She used to hug him every day when she was a child. And because he was so tall she was only able to reach slightly higher than his knees. Thing changed so much, he couldn’t even dare to hug his fucking Sister whom he hadn’t seen since his homeland burned to the ground millennia ago

“Kouri it’s true. I’m your older brother” he murmurs.

Kouri stares at the certificate, and then mutters something quietly. "I knew it... I knew it this whole time... It's why I kept calling you uncle. It's why you were closer to me than all of my other caretakers and most of my friends, yet never offered your hand in marriage." She stands up slowly, recognizing the signature in the lower right of the document as belonging to her father, the King... It was impossible to forge. She knew this. Even as she checked by bringing fire to the document, and watching its ageless, self-maintaining magic repair every little piece that was eagerly consumed by the flame... She puts the document down on the bed, letting the fire fade away from her hand. She remains like that for a moment longer, and then runs over to Sisera and hugs him tightly, burying her face in his neck. "You're alive, you're really alive, someone from my family is alive and it's you... I didn't know if you made it through all these years in one piece, if you were truly alive but here you are... Nervous, shy, just... Trying not to hurt me." She holds back tears, barely, her tight and almost child-like grip around his back not loosening an inch. "...I'm a big girl now, Sisera..." A few more moments pass of her holding him awkwardly, then, she quietly loosens her grip and looks at him eye to eye with a broad smile on her face the likes of which she hadn't had for... Gods... Ages. "So... Um... What do you think of Alex?" She asks curiously.

His breath is taken away from him. For a moment he can’t breathe, silently gasping for air as this young woman stole the air from his very lungs and replaced it with this warm aching feeling that despite its slight discomfort he hoped would never end.

He wraps his arms around her and kisses her on the forehead. Savoring this moment of pure delirious joy. He had lost everything it seemed; his homeland, his family, his sanity and even his powers of fire. Yet this woman, his sister gave him back the one thing he thought he lost forever:his identity. For ten years he wandered with a barren lonely hell of a mind. Walking and fighting simply because he didn't have the insane cowardice to commit suicide. Always thinking about what miserable wretched place he would wind up dead and forgotten. But no! No! It would not happen! The second he met his beloved sister on that boat, he was his normal self; different? Changed? Absolutely. But he was still Sisera; he was still the same person who would love Kouri before he would ever love himself. His insane rantings in Typhon’s little hell stated otherwise. But they were lies! Screeched from the depths of despair and lunacy. Kouri was his savior; it had just taken him some time to realize it.

“I’m here and I always will be” he whispered to her, not wanting to disturb this moment. Wanting to let this last for just a little bit longer and to cling to this aching in his chest. Finally, his sister relents and she looks up at him. Alex? so the red-haired woman really was her… significant other. Sisera sits there and gleams at her smile, not having seen her this happy for a long time. Was he… the source of that happiness? He ponders the question for a moment then gives her an affectionate peck on the forehead.

“She’s a lovely woman. Better than that Angel you would’ve been stuck with” He shivers at the thought of Typhon, those memories weren’t exactly pleasant.

"...Lovely wouldn't be the first word I would use." Kouri laughs as she says this, and then sits down on the bed. Sisera, trying to be humble, as usual. Not very befitting for royalty, but pleasant nonetheless. "She's... She's wild, she's free, she doesn't care that I'm royalty but cares about me." She lays out onto her back, feeling almost like it was old times again, though the illusion broke somewhat with the rigidness of the bed compared to her once ever so comfortable plushy bed from a thousand years ago. "She's... Perfect." She says with a happy sigh, before closing her eyes. "...There are problems... But nothing I can't... Nothing we can't overcome, I'm sure." She looks over to Sisera and smiles. "So. You're older than me; you'd technically get to be King."

“No Kouri, you were the one brought up to be the Monarch. Your… our father saw you as his successor. You’re supposed to be the Queen. I’m… I was just insurance, nothing more.”

He stares at his new-found Sister, struggling to find the vocabulary at his and her new found happiness. He never really talked to Alex, but if Kouri were to pick her over an Angel then she must have been something truly amazing, regardless of social status. Things as tripe as that didn’t matter to Sisera, what mattered was her happiness and love.

“Trust me, I’m not… fit to be a king” he says to Kouri, momentarily hinting at a far more darker subject that he quickly changes with a devious, playful smirk he throws at his little Sister.

“So if Alex is your chosen partner, how will an heir come about?”

Kouri freezes up at that question. She didn't like that question. She didn't want to answer it now. "I don't know. We'll overcome it when we reach that path." She places a hand upon her stomach and frowns, knowing that even if Alex wanted to... Take the burden... She wouldn't be able to. She sits up and then stares at the floor, her smile had fled her face and a somber look returned. "Right... We're not children anymore." She mutters quietly before standing up, grabbing the scroll as well. "...I suppose you will at least need to be made aware of how to banish the Gods, in case I... Don't make it."

“Don’t talk rubbish! You will make it, we will make it.” He said this with a genuine tone of fear in his voice. The thought of losing Kouri so soon after he had found her was beyond unendurable. He would rather jump back into the writhing insanity he once thought he’d endure for eternity. He stands up and grabs Kouri arm gently but firmly.

“Don’t think like that. It only leads to lunacy” He said this with the experience to back it up. He couldn’t lose her, he wouldn’t lose her. He sacrificed his body once for her and he would do it again if it was demanded of him.

"Sisera..." She grasps his hand, and then lowers it from her arm. "I'm not a little girl. I'm a princess... One day I may even be Queen. I'm facing forces ancient and powerful with allies in this realm whom would consider me an insect. I can only wager a guess that the only reason I've made it this far is because of other ancient forces playing the table on our side." She takes a step away from him, taking a deep breath and sighing softly. "..Besides." She turns and smiles softly. "You should know anyway. Regardless."

“Alright Kouri, I’ll listen” He sits back down in the chair and looks at his younger Sister. She had transformed into a smart, competent monarch. It reminded him a lot of her… their father. It was why he couldn’t be a king and she was going to be the Queen. He lacked the skills and mental stability to perform the duties necessary for a Monarch. He at least had the grace to realize it and step aside for Kouri to rule. Besides he was an old man now and the Kingdom didn’t need a man who was to turn 50 soon. They needed a bright optimistic face like Kouri’s. They needed change, not an old man whom might turn senile in a few years.

Kouri looks to Sisera, clearing her throat and looking Sisera eye to eye. "Sarah now has a map that leads us to an ancient area near here. A cursed, magically protected bubble in the middle of this desert wasteland that few know the location of and fewer still care to. It's a frozen over hell of ancient times, placed there by something even more powerful than the Gods. Within that frozen hell is an abandoned city known as 'Cradle.' At the center of Cradle is a temple, where a wish can be granted to those of royal blood... Any wish that affects the mortal realm." She looks down to the floor. "It is one of our best kept secrets in the royal blood line, we never write it down to prevent it from slipping out. Not even the royal archiver knew... Sarah knows. You don't want to know why she knows." Her eyes are filled with fear at the idea of treading to the place. "We cannot wish the Gods out of existence; they are not in the mortal realm... But we can wish the connection between our realm and theirs severed. We can effectively banish them. Forever. The catch is, however, that a wish can only be used once every few hundred years." She looks up to Sisera, looking him eye to eye. "It is also said that all who have used the Cradle's wish... Have died immediately afterwards... But nobody knows why. Not even I do."

Sisera scratches his chin as he listens to Kouri’s story; this was all new to him. Not a big surprise there. This was supposed to be one of the biggest kept secrets in Renalta after all. Though it was no surprise to him that Sarah had figured it out; a woman with 10,000 years under her belt obviously had time to kill and what better way to spend it on than finding out the most treasure secrets in the mortal world. Sisera stares at her eyes, filled with uncertainty at what future held for them at the “Cradle”

His eyes narrowed at Kouri when she mentioned the last bit of information. Impulsively, without thinking, without a second thought or regret in his mind. He makes a small smile, as if to reassure his little Sister that the fear’s of the next unknown challenges could be beaten and defeated.

“In that case I’ll make the wish” he said jovially.

"No, you won't." Kouri stated bluntly, making sure to lock the seal upon the birth certificate once again and keeping it in her hands. It seemed she was going to take it with her when she left the room. "It is my rev... Duty, Sisera."

“Kouri” he says softly to her, standing his ground in front of her. He had to make her understand, even if she spurned him. He had to make her see what she was going to do to herself. Though thinking it and doing it were two completely different.

“Is it Duty… or revenge against the Gods and Typhon?” he asked plainly. It didn't occur to him until now that she must have been so angry and so traumatized by what had happened. He wished he figured out the obvious sooner, wished that he could just make it all better. He once would have known the right words to say, to make her anger flow away into something bright and positive. But her will had grown strong and his so feeble, but he must try.

“They took everything away from us didn’t they? They stole our parents, our homes, our lands. All because their ego and their appetite wasn’t fed. And because of their arrogance I know their wrath and cruelty better than anyone else.”

He places his hands on her shoulders and stares her down right in the eye. He was her big brother and he would act like it.

“Leave revenge for the weak and the crazy. You are better than that, stronger than that. You are not a princess, you are a Queen. Your duty is to rebuild your kingdom and rule it with a kind but stern hand.”

“And what if this wish kills you? What then? Who will replace your irreplaceable position? Your heart-broken brother who was tortured for a thous-

He stops before he can finish that last horrid sentence. He tries desperately to come up with different words, something that will make her forget what he just said. Something, anything. But he can’t, he just stands there, hands on Kouri shoulders and his cheeks now feeling damp and wet from large tears rolling down his face. Asking himself why he was so broken.

Kouri's hands clench up into balls of rage as Sisera comes down on her. Couldn't he see that she wasn't a little girl anymore? That this was her fight more than his or anyone else's fight? That if anyone had to die, it had to be her?! "I won't let someone else risk their life and die for me! This is my quest! My fight! I'm thankful for your help and everyone else's help but I... I can't live with someone I care about dying under my command again when it would be fully within my power to make that choice myself!" She states defiantly, her rage subsiding a little, but not entirely. "I... I order people to fight, sometimes they die... This is what I'm fighting for, fighting to do. Revenge, justice, and my sovereign duty Sisera! It is my duty; to the people who follow me looking for hope that when the time comes that I will have the courage to die for them should it be necessary!"

“We are all damaged goods. Even the princess... Actually... Especially the princess."

Mikan’s words on the boat were now drilled into his brain as he watched Kouri’s rage and passion unwind before him. What had this woman been through recently? he asked himself. Or did she simply just change in the way nature intended? Was there something he missed about her when he watched her grown from a girl into a woman? Did this defiant princess who had the strength to proudly turn away an Angel bring along other traits that she was now burdened with? He couldn’t say and he probably never would. For the new must separate from the old and forge their own path.

He grabs her hand softly but with a stern grip and wraps his large-strangely unmarked- hands around her clenched, tight fists, full of tension and pain. If she struggles he doesn’t let go. For underneath the caked layers of pain, humiliation, lunacy, scars, depravity, servitude & guilt; there existed a Willpower that could only rise when Fate deems it and gives it the power and precise piercing abilities to shattered all those grimy layers of despair and confusion which coated Sisera’s soul like dried blood on a once family home. He holds her hand to his chest; his eyes now brimmed with the same passion and stubborn determination that had just now occupied his Sister’s eyes. It seemed that there were [I]small[/] similarities between the siblings, albeit not very subtle.

“Whenever you are angry, I will give you love. Whenever you are merciless, I will give you kindness. If you ever feel desperate and helpless , I will remind you how stalwart and vigorous you truly are. Even if you spur me and curse me, even if you see me as nothing more than a doddering old fool. I will still push forward and remind you who you are. I will fumble my words, execute my meaning clumsily and shed tears while doing so. But I will continue. Not because I’m now your big brother and not because I’m over-protective. But because I love you and I care about you and I always have since the day you were born and I always will until the day my existence is finally snuffed.”

He lowers her hand and holds on for a moment before letting go. The fire that had consumed his eyes died down quickly after speaking, yet there remained a queer little side-effect: a feeling of a quiet jolly joy that resided permanently in his once sad eyes. He lets out a humble smile to his sister, his Queen.

“Now then, Alex should be here soon and I suspect that you’ll want to see her.” He says jovially enough, happy that she found someone whom could she could share her more… darker memories with.



Kouri stands there, considering his words for a moment as her hands instinctively had lit aflame during the entire exchange. She didn't want to be held like that. That was how Typhon and Ishcar both held her when they tried to force their will and testament upon her mind. She keeps a small gap between them, now, her eyes darkened from a mixture of anger and guilt... And memories. One in particular, actually...

“Don't touch me like that.” She stated simply to Typhon, giggling as his hands had locked around her own, yet, she didn't want that. The look in his eyes... That damn look in his eyes... The way he disregarded her feelings... The way he promised her things she knew would never be delivered. She just wanted him to go away, back then. Even as he pushed her against a wall, and breathed down her neck, thinking nobody was around to see it...

Except Sisera, was. He was there. He stepped in and lit Typhon's foot on fire. She couldn't stop laughing about it when Sisera mockingly apologized and Typhon left in a fit of rage to return the next day. He was there then. He was here now. The words were... They were different. And his eyes didn't hold the same level of vivid, disturbing hunger that Typhon's eyes did years ago.

The fire dies from her hands as she grasps Sisera's shoulder with one hand, and then slaps him across the face. “...Don't ever hold my hands like that again.” She then wraps her arms around him softly, holding him in a momentary embrace. “...You can do so much better than a tyrant's grasp.” She then loosens her grasp around him, and then steps back. “I'll see you again, later.” A soft smile manages to reach her lips, and then she leaves the room with the scroll.

He winces painfully as her hand lands firmly on his face. He resists the urge to yelp when she suddenly hugs him. impulsive, as always. He nods at her and sees her leave, that same happy look in his eyes. He would take note of what she said to his heart. His eyesight becomes foggy and blurred; the weariness of sleep began hitting him harder than ever. He takes off his vest and shirt and folds it neatly on the floor next to the bed. He briefly looked at his scars again, that ugly shriveled up skin didn't bother him as much as before, didn't mortify him like it once did. He unclicks his Pata sword from his belt and lays it besides his bed: it was good to be prepared for un-wanted strangers.

He decides to slip the on white over-coat, for the inside had a soft fur underlining that would keep him warm throughout the night. As he covers himself with the blankets he smells the smoke again and there is the Dog; its smokey skin ever shifting, moving, crawling along like little insects. He narrows his eyes at the manifestation.

“I’m not scared of you” he snarls to it as he blows out the nearby candle and turns his back to the deformed creature and slowly falls into a peaceful sleep. The kind he had not experienced in years.