What was happening?
The fight started again. The scorpion spraying its dark mist and people turning to dust before she changed. The Dragoons were legends. Tales left to scrolls and books. Yet, here it was. The power of a dragoon was coursing through her. The scorpion didn't stand a chance...
And then there was that feeling. Of losing herself to something darker. What could it mean?

Slowly Marmalade opened her eyes. The light streaming in stung her eyes. Immediately, her hands went to her eyes. It was warm. It should be colder than this, she wad outside.... right? As quickly as she shouldn't have sat up, Marmalade cringed. Her head was spinning now. What a idiotic thing to do! She relaxed her hands and let them fall to her lap and blinked a few times until her eyes adjusted. Looking around, she realized she was in the inn. There was a small fire going. Marmalade eased herself over to the edge of the bed put her feet on the ground. This was real. That means what happened was real too. There was a man sleeping in a chair next to her bed. She assumed he brought her in. He looked like a nobleman. She didn't hide the distaste on her face. Nobles were snoody so-and-sos that did nothing for anyone but themselves. Quietly, she stood and started to walk, her legs shaking as she did. Anyone who had been injured last night was in here. Marmalade saw the young woman she had met in the forest. Caelyn. Her heart sank. She remembered the attack the woman suffered, she must be in a lot of pain.
Marmalade looked around for someone in charge and spotted another woman. This one she didn't know. Quickly she walked up and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Veragwen jumped at the sound of Mara's voice, "Oh, good. You've come to.... I've tended to anyone that could have been tended to....everyone else is dust." she said sadly. "I was just about to go take a look at around town and see if there was anything that could be salvaged. There is no point in remaining. You're welcome to come with, but you should probably be resting, Mara. Oh, right, you don't know my name. It's Veragwen, I was something of a Guard Captain. Lot of good I did, though.... almost everyone I know and loved gone in an instant....Bah, I'm sorry I'm being a big downer.... I thank you for destroying the scorpion. I'm pretty sure we'd all be dead about now if not for you...." she said, smiling at Mara, albeit a little sadly.

"Which remind me. I wanted to ask you how you wound up with a Dragoon Spirit Stone. It's not exactly something you just find laying around. For all we knew they were long gone. Only to return in a time of need...." she frowned, thinking about what that might entail...

Veragwen headed for the door, "I'm taking a look around. You're welcome to come along if you're up for it." she said to Mara before leaving the inn and taking a walk around the town, picking up herbs, weapons, clothing, or any other items that might be useful. Eventually, she came upon the old shrine, it had apparently been heavily damaged by the scorpion. There seemed to be a tunnel of some sort inside it. "An underground tunnel was here all this time?" she looked around, found a torch, lit it, and stepped inside and found that it was actually a narrow, spiral staircase. She carefully made her way down.

After what felt like hours of descending the staircase, she seemed to have come upon the main chamber. Vergawen's eyes widened at what she saw. It was a fairly large room that forked shortly into seven tunnels. At each tunnel was a pedestal with what appeared to be small stones set on top, and behind she could see various pieces of armor, weapons, and even clothing, however, those doors seemed to be difficult to open and one of the pedestals seemed to have been destroyed. "Is this real?...."

Veragwen felt herself drawn to the second to last tunnel, which appeared to be for the White-Silver Dragoon, judging by the color of the stone. The White-Silver Dragoon was well known for it's healing magic. Imagine the people she could help with that, the illness she could cure. She was pretty positive it couldn't help those that were now dust, but who knows maybe it could.... She turned to find Mara behind her. "What do you make of this, Mara?" she asked.

The black glow had been a surprise to him, So, one of the Dragoon Spirits were here after all, at least the journey here wasn't a complete waste. he thought after turning away from the village a second time. He sensed Nayash was already after him, she must have caught a glance at him when he was resurrecting the scorpion. If that was the case, then there was undoubtedly going to be a fight between the two, it was unavoidable. The woman was strong, and fast, a bit faster than he was without using the Spirit he had. With it though, he was vastly superior in every way. However, he hadn't been expecting a second person, Raena. When she just appeared, he almost drew the same sword she was talking about. So, she had seen it, perhaps this could be used to his advantage. "You're lucky, girl, I almost took your head right off with that sword. The jewel? It belongs to...a friend." he said, his voice deep and sharp. "Perhaps you've heard of him? Goes by the name of Armond Zeraltus, used to be a noble up in Deningrad. I was supposed to deliver this weapon to him, but last I heard, he disappeared for some unknown reason and hasn't been seen for the last few months. I certainly hope nothing terrible has happened to him, he's a close friend, after all." he added, feigning concern. His senses picked up the approach of the female, "Listen to me, I have to deal with something right now, so I want you to go to the path and wait for someone you know to find you. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. We'll meet again, I'm sure." Blitz said, pointing to the left of himself, taking off immediately afterwards.

He bolted towards Nayash, so as not to allow Raena to see what was about to happen. He finally came to a stop, taking to a tree branch, waiting for the woman to come into the small clearing. When she did, he made sure to grab her attention, dropping down in front of her. "Nayash. It has been some time since I've had to fight you, and even now, you only concern yourself with me. You abandoned that village to death. Heh, you're no better than I am. But words seem to do little when it comes to you, perhaps it's time I show you just exactly how large the gap is between our strength." he said, slowly drawing the jewel embedded blade. The hilt itself was black, the bottom of it ending in a dragon's head, a reddish-black jewel was placed within the carving near the top. The carving resembled that of an eye gazing at it's opponent. The blade was black, and longer than a typical longsword, which made the weapon a dangerous one at mid-range too. He left his second blade in it's sheath and hidden within his cloak, there would be no need for it. He wasted no time in darting forward at Nayash, spinning at the last moment while he swung, attempting to remove one of the woman's arms. He spun back around to see he had missed widely, though that wasn't a surprise to him, he had hoped he missed. He wanted to give her a false sense of power in this fight before he'd show her what true power was.

Veragwen. Marmalade had heard her name when she got to Seles. This was the first time she had seen the woman.
And she was leaving.
Veragwen was right though, there really was nothing let here in Seles... and there was no way she was going to settle in a town plagued by monsters.
Marmalade was jolted back to reality when Veragwen asked about the dragoon spirit.
"My mother had it and gave it to me before she died. She said its been passed down for many generations." Marmalade told her, "No one remembers how we got it though."

With a second glance back at Caelyn, Marmalade decided it would be wise to go with Veragwen. So she trailed after her, helping to carry whatever was deemed useful. It wasn't long before they were walking among last nights battlefield. She didn't recall seeing her scythe in the inn room so she assumed it was still sticking out of the scorpions corpse. Marmalade made a mental note to retrieve it before they left.
Not paying attention, she barely caught sight of her new comrade going into one of the damaged buildings. Not wanting to be left behind, Marmalade quickly followed her down a never ending staircase. Until it ended and she had to stop suddenly when she realized Veragwen had ceased movement in front of her.

This must be some kind of shrine. To what though? She could see seven shapes against the darkness, it looked like there were stones just like the one her mother gave her. These must be the other dragoon spirits!
"What do you make of this, Mara?" Veragwen had asked her after approaching one of the pedestals.
"I think.. this is exactly what it looks like." Came Marmalade's slow reply, "Look. This looks like the Tree of Life." She said pointing to the shrine wall. After putting down everything she had picked up, she made a makeshift torch and held it up to the wall. On the other side was a depiction of the Dragon Campaign. Names of the faceless original dragoons were etched into the wall. The other walls told the story of the last dragoons. Their names and faces were scratched deeply into the stone. Someone wanted this remembered. Marmalade noticed something strange about the carving of the Tree of Life. No, it must just be damage from the scorpion she thought and turned her attention to the gates.
"Veragwen, what do you think of these? These gates... they have no locks." Marmalade crouched down, seeing a small ring close to the gate of the White-silver spirit gate and picked it up. It was a simple gold ring, similar to a wedding band. There were markings on the inside, but they were too faded to read. Marmalade turned back to Veragwen, maybe she could read it.

Kurohasu said
The black glow had been a surprise to him, he thought after turning away from the village a second time. He sensed Nayash was already after him, she must have caught a glance at him when he was resurrecting the scorpion. If that was the case, then there was undoubtedly going to be a fight between the two, it was unavoidable. The woman was strong, and fast, a bit faster than he was without using the Spirit he had. With it though, he was vastly superior in every way. However, he hadn't been expecting a second person, Raena. When she just appeared, he almost drew the same sword she was talking about. So, she had seen it, perhaps this could be used to his advantage. "You're lucky, girl, I almost took your head right off with that sword. The jewel? It belongs to...a friend." he said, his voice deep and sharp. "Perhaps you've heard of him? Goes by the name of Armond Zeraltus, used to be a noble up in Deningrad. I was supposed to deliver this weapon to him, but last I heard, he disappeared for some unknown reason and hasn't been seen for the last few months. I certainly hope nothing terrible has happened to him, he's a close friend, after all." he added, feigning concern. His senses picked up the approach of the female, "Listen to me, I have to deal with something right now, so I want you to go to the path and wait for someone you know to find you. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. We'll meet again, I'm sure." Blitz said, pointing to the left of himself, taking off immediately afterwards.

Raena giggled, clearly unphased by her near-death. "You're awful jumpy-like. ... Armond? Nope.. Never heard of an Armond." She smiled apologetically an dropped down onto her feet. "You want me to.. erm.. okay.. " She blinked, confused and waved as the strange man spontaneously dashed off. "Sheesh.. and people call me weird?" Shrugging, she might as well go ahead and do as she was told. She had nothing better to do so she strolled in a general leftwardly direction, slowly angling towards Seles and looking at all of the destruction from between the trees.

Reana also sucks at her directions... So this general leftwardly direction.. was more of a rightish. Not that it really bothered her either way as she was thoroughly distracted by the remnants of the town.

Nayash had spent the most of the night looking, searching for the hooded man. She had made sure that Illurath hadn’t crossed her paths and headed back towards the village, and she hoped that she’d find him soon. So as dawn started breaking, only a couple of hours later she wasn’t surprised at all to hear bolting footsteps close by. She stopped and just listened, then as the footsteps stopped, she headed to where they ended, preparing both mentally and physically for the encounter. So when Mr.Hoodie hopped down in front of her she was prepared, and her stance was already in defencive position as he hit the ground.

She didn’t reply to his words as he spoke, however she was a tad bit surprised that he knew her name. That did however not break her focus, and neither did his empty words about her lack of empathy. When he drew her blade, Nayash didn’t move a muscle. She paid full attention at his movements and once he darted at her, swinging his sword, Nayash sidestepped and twisted her hammer so that it acted like a shield, but it turns out that the sidestep had been more than enough for him to miss. She nodded at him, as if saying “Well played, but not quite there yet”, and then prepared for his next attack by facing him.

She took a better grip of her hammer, lifting it up so that it was slight above the ground enableing her better movement. She prepared her mind to have swift feet, in case of an unexpected move but her plan was that once he would expect him to have the first move, Nayash would swing her hammer low, the momentum of the hammer just moments later swinging higher, for his head.

Verawgen wasn't so sure, "Really? That seems odd to me. It doesn't sound very safe to keep them all in the same place....granted no one knew of it, but still....I wonder why whoever did this chose to hide them together as opposed to spreading them out."

She took a look at the ring, "I don't know. It definitely looks like there was writing on it at one point, but time as worn it out. It feels powerful, though." she said, idly taking it from Mara to take a better look a it. She even tried it on. It fit well on her finger somehow. Almost made for her. "Maybe the ring is the key to the doors, but why would it be literally right next to the doors. Doesn't seem very secure." she said as she looked at the ring.

Marmalade watched as Veragwen looked at the ring and ultimately put it on. The questions got her thinking.
"Maybe its fate." She replied simply, looking at the gates again. Each had a phrase carved into metal, each one was the same.
"You are free to sever the chains of Fate that bind you..." she read aloud. Marmalade had no idea what it meant and probably wasn't suppose to know.
She turned back to Veragwen and examined the ring again.
"I don't think the ring opens these things. You should keep it." She said then looked at the pedestals holding the Dragoon spirits.
"We should take these with us. If left like this, anyone could pick them up and the world would probably never see them again." As she spoke Marmalade walked over to the furthest left and looked down at the stone. It was a lovely blue color and the pedestal was filled with water. She held her breath as she reached for the spirit and gently lifted it out of the water. She sighed with relief when nothing happened. The next stone was brownish in the dim light and seemed to be half buried in dirt. Again, Marmalade lifted it off its place of rest and motioned for Veragwen to do the same as she walked to the next one.

After walking a bit of a ways through the forest, eyes glued to the town for some kind of survivors or someone she recognized, she heard a scuffling behind her. Immediately Laecora pulled herself up into the trees and worked her way towards the noise. Noises were WAY more interesting than a - literally - dead town.

After a few dozen paces she saw the strange man again, this time fighting an interesting looking woman. With her hand sliding to unhook her whip from her side, she stared at the battle, unsure of who was the 'good guy.' The man didn't seem inherently bad when she met him, just jumpy, but at the same time the woman seemed to have some kind of sense of justice to her.

Veragwen nodded, "I suppose so. We certainly can't leave them here with the entrance wide open now..." she said as she began gathering up the stones, starting with the White-Silver stone and moving inwards towards Mara. Nothing happened as she picked up any of them, thankfully. "What do we do with them now, though? They really aren't that safe on us either..." she said, frowning at Mara, "Someone could just come along while we're sleeping and steal them...."

"As for the ring, why would it be down here if it had no connection? It has to do SOMETHING with the Dragoons. What that is I've no idea, though..." she shrugged again. "It looks a lot like a wedding ring. Maybe that's all it is and if so, maybe I shouldn't take it...." she said looking at the ring still on her finger again.

Blitz wasted no time in a second attack, rushing the woman again, though this time twirling his blade. It was clear he intended to make a real effort here, however, things didn't go as planned, and he was hit by the first swing. He caught the second swing just before it was about to smash into his head, narrowly avoiding it and letting the hammer hit the tree behind him. Aiming his free arm, a grappling hook shot for the branch of another tree, lifting him up to it as he retracted the device. Once on the branch, he fell to one knee, clutching his chest as he realized he had several broken ribs on his right side. Perhaps playing around with this woman wasn't such a good idea after all, she got him good and almost smashed his head in. She was more powerful than the last time they fought, but he knew she still didn't have the strength to beat him in 'that' form. Slowly rising, he placed his hand over the jewel, "Impressive, Nayash, I've certainly underestimated you. However, this is where our strength differs." he said, becoming engulfed in an ominous reddish-black light. Once the light faded, he landed on the ground gently, his body having taken on a new appearance. His cloak was covered in an intricately designed armor which was a reddish-black, and his back had sprouted wings. "Behold the power of a Dragoon!" he shouted again. He gripped his altered sword tightly before darting forward at her, avoiding every strike she made, countering with his own. The final strike came from his fist, in which slammed into her and sent her flying into a tree nearby, a satisfied look on his face. "Remember this moment, woman. Remember this when you decide to chase me again, that my strength is vastly superior to yours...you will never catch me with such pitiful strength." he said, reverting back to normal. He pointed his blade at her, intending to finish her off, though withdrew quickly into the forest once he realized he had an audience.

The first swing connected, as Nayash had hoped, however the force of the blow was not enough to make Illurath fall out of the loop completely. He raised his sword just barely deflecting it into the tree which he had jumped down from before. Immediately she spun her hammer around to get back her balance, but by the time she swung from the top down, he had retreated to a branch of another tree not too far away. He was crouching, and it made her lips curl. The hit had done its damage, and if she was lucky it would slow down his movements enough for her to capture him.

She observed from the ground, preparing for the next move, were it to be a chase or an attack. So when he slowly rose up from the crouching position, her feet shifted in the ground mirroring his movements.

“Impressive Nayash.” He said, as he stood up. She could swear that he was stuttering a little due to the damaged ribs, and it made her more confident. “I’ve certainly underestimated you. However this…” he said as his aura changed. “is where our strength differs.”

Suddenly Illurath was surrounded by a strange reddish black light, and Nayash knew that something bad was about to happen. Every fiber in her body wanted her to run, but she had learned to overpower the urges and stood her ground. And as soon as the black and red light had disappeared, Illurath looked like a completely different… being. “Behold the power of a Dragoon!”

Almost instantly after the words left his mouth he darted towards Nayash with his sword aimed at her chest. Immediately she reacted with a deflection, however the sword graced her arm. She swung her hammer back and forth hoping to deflect as much damage as possible, but it proved to be difficult. His speed had increased and his power nearly knocked her off balance with each strike. She parried as much as she could, but her speed didn’t compete and she was struck again at her waist. The pain was agonizing but she had to continue, or else she would not make it. He was clearly out to kill, and she refused to be a necromancers puppet. Then it happened.

Out of nowhere his hand formed a fist and with devastating blow to her ribs right above the cut he sent her flying into a tree making her drop her weapon. The knockback hit her head and she was dizzy, gasping for air as she could feel that something was not right with her ribs anymore either. This was not good.

She heard him spoke, he was big talking and she wondered if this was it. If this was the end of her chase. Never had she seen the powers of a Dragoon. Weren’t they supposed to be legends told in childrens tales only? Was that why the council wanted him imprisoned so bad, because he had unlocked the secrets of the Dragoon stones? Was this the end of her?

She lifted her hand and placed it over her wounded side, feeling the energy running out of her, or being engulfed by the adrenaline running through her. She couldn’t tell. And then Illurath left once more, leaving her to her own fate. She had underestimated him.

She groaned and her arm went from the wound towards her hammer, the world spinning around her as she did. She couldn't reach it. She moved slightly, a shock wave of pain shooting through her and she bit back a cry of pain, then made the move to get her hammer back at her hands. If she was lucky, she’d be able to at least get out on the path while the adrenaline from the fight was still in her. If she could do that, perhaps someone.. Someone could find her and help. If she was lucky. However, as she reached her hammer the world was spinning so much that she couldn’t find the strength, even with the adrenaline, to pull it to her, and she gave in to the unconsciousness.

Shurikai said
Veragwen. Marmalade had heard her name when she got to Seles. This was the first time she had seen the woman.And she was leaving.Veragwen was right though, there really was nothing let here in Seles... and there was no way she was going to settle in a town plagued by monsters. Marmalade was jolted back to reality when Veragwen asked about the dragoon spirit."My mother had it and gave it to me before she died. She said its been passed down for many generations." Marmalade told her, "No one remembers how we got it though."With a second glance back at Caelyn, Marmalade decided it would be wise to go with Veragwen. So she trailed after her, helping to carry whatever was deemed useful. It wasn't long before they were walking among last nights battlefield. She didn't recall seeing her scythe in the inn room so she assumed it was still sticking out of the scorpions corpse. Marmalade made a mental note to retrieve it before they left.Not paying attention, she barely caught sight of her new comrade going into one of the damaged buildings. Not wanting to be left behind, Marmalade quickly followed her down a never ending staircase. Until it ended and she had to stop suddenly when she realized Veragwen had ceased movement in front of her.This must be some kind of shrine. To what though? She could see seven shapes against the darkness, it looked like there were stones just like the one her mother gave her. These must be the other dragoon spirits! Veragwen had asked her after approaching one of the pedestals. "I think.. this is exactly what it looks like." Came Marmalade's slow reply, "Look. This looks like the Tree of Life." She said pointing to the shrine wall. After putting down everything she had picked up, she made a makeshift torch and held it up to the wall. On the other side was a depiction of the Dragon Campaign. Names of the faceless original dragoons were etched into the wall. The other walls told the story of the last dragoons. Their names and faces were scratched deeply into the stone. Someone wanted this remembered. Marmalade noticed something strange about the carving of the Tree of Life. No, it must just be damage from the scorpion she thought and turned her attention to the gates."Veragwen, what do you think of these? These gates... they have no locks." Marmalade crouched down, seeing a small ring close to the gate of the White-silver spirit gate and picked it up. It was a simple gold ring, similar to a wedding band. There were markings on the inside, but they were too faded to read. Marmalade turned back to Veragwen, maybe she could read it.

Astharoth

Astharoth continued to rest a bit longer until he finally had awoken again his eyes fluttering, he had rested quiet well and felt very much refreshed though his body did seem to be a bit stiff but that's what you get for sleeping sitting up right in a chair all night, he looked around curiously at the inn, it was now day time and he could see everyone in the beds except for the woman he had brought back from the woods, she had disappeared? Where had she gone? He decided to get up and go look for the woman he needed to ask her about the beast, had she slain it? How had she taken care of such a thing on her own? These questions perplexed his mind he had to know, that and he had to take her back to the kingdom if she was the one who had killed it to give her the reward, he stood up and stretched the long lengthy bones in his arms popping as he flexed his muscles to wake himself up a bit more, he took in a deep breath and sighed, it had been a long night and he needed to get some actual work done before the real Armond got angry at him for making the King and himself wait to long for Astharoth's return with the warrior, he started to walk out of the inn after questioning some of the injured about the woman's wearabouts it seemed they didn't know where she went but that she went with some woman named Veragwen, he raised his hand once he was outside to shade his eyes the sun was high and vibrant with life with hues of gold and orange the sky so clear and vast with its splenderous blue, much like his azure eyes though his eyes were a bit brighter shade of blue more like that of a crystal water blue, he scanned the surroundings looking for someone as he walked up behind Raena and tapped on her shoulder lightly in a polite manner standing up straight to seem more like a nobleman. "Excuse me miss but have you seen a young lady around here walking with another woman that goes by the name.. now what was her name again?.. Ah! Yes with a woman named Veragwen perhaps it is mighty important that i speak with her.. I am Armond i am the advisor of King Zeke.. and i am here to bring back the warrior who slain the beast last night to receive their reward at the castle.."