Sai awoke with a start. He sat up and purposely took a few deep breaths. "A nightmare?", his wife asked. "You don't have nightmares."

"It was Death." Sai replied. "He contacted me in my dreams."

"Did he try to recruit you as an assassin?" she asked, referring to the fact that many of the thieves of the city had been contacted by Death, or his monks or priests in order to recruit them. As one of, if not the most powerful of Darkness users, it made sense to her that Death would personally contact him.

"No, he made me an offer. He said he could increase my power, though I'm not sure how." He got up and opened the curtains a bit, seeing that it was almost sundown. "Go back to sleep, Aud. I need to go speak with the monks."

He put on his clothes and walked to the temple. None of the monks there had any idea how Death could increase the power of a Darkness wielder, except by replacing their power or destroying the balance. Neither option was desirable, though the first wasn't possible in his case, as Death would know. With this knowledge he walked outside to see the sunset. He knew that he had to go see the others to see if they knew anything else about this situation, or to warn them if they didn't. As the last rays of the sun hit him, he closed his eyes and sent a message through the border of Light and Dark. "Light." he said, "I am coming to Paris. Death contacted me, and I must see if Force, you, or the others can help me understand the situation. I will contact Force as well, and see if they can meet us, or if I need to meet with them somewhere else." With the sun going below the horizon, he wouldn't be able to receive a reply until sunrise, so instead he focused on the gravity of the planet and the night, sending a similar message to Force. While the border was weaker, it was also much larger, covering half the planet. As such, he knew the message would be received.

He returned home and grabbed his things. He planned on riding away and, when it was late enough for night to have reached Paris, travel there as Darkness. When Aud saw him, however, she stopped him. "You cannot go on your own." she said, after he told her he was headed to France, and possibly then to Scotland, "the followers of Light and Force are to strong there. You could take on a group of them, but they are too numerous to defeat. Take Geren with you." She referred to their oldest son. "He will soon become a master. He can help you." She didn't know about his real identity, but even if she did, it would be sound advise. It had been over three hundred years since he was last force to reveal his identity. It wouldn't do to reveal it now, especially in the presence of followers of Light.

"Very well." he said, "I'll take our son."

After Geren had gathered his things and they had boarded one of the trade wagons heading out of the mountains, Sai kissed his wife goodbye. "It will be at least a month before I return." he said. "When I do, however, I will have answers. Farewell." With that they told the horses to go and the trade caravan started making its way towards Paris.

---

Ten days later Sai saw the city of Paris in the distance. He motioned for the caravan to stop and climbed off. After he and Geren had taken their belongings, he nodded to the others and they started off. If two Darkness wielders were seen with the caravan, there was a chance they wouldn't be allowed into the city. They therefore had to make their way into the city on their own.

"What? Is everything alright miss?" The disciple leaped out of his bed, grabbing the crossbow hidden underneath.

The woman waved her hand downwards, indicating for the man to sit down. "Yes, Jean, everything is fine. Go back to sleep." A pensive look sat on her face, as though she was bothered by something. She sat upright, legs buried underneath bedsheets as her head rested just above the headboard. The room was nearly pitch black, save for some moonlight which poured in through several windows.

"What do you dream about, Jean?" The woman's voice was calm and smooth, though held the smallest taste of bitterness to it.

"This and that. Surely nothing of interest to you, miss."

"If it wasn't of interest to me, I wouldn't be asking."

The man seemed vaguely uncomfortable. This was an odd exchange to be having with his god, particularly in the wee hour of, he checked a nearby grandfather clock, one and forty in the morning. "I dream of simple things. Some pleasures, some pains. Life. Why?" The woman's eyes focused, her brow furrowed. She was surrounded by broken plates, fallen paintings, various objects of the room which had fallen down as a result of the powerful forces which had shaken the room during her wakening.

"It has been quite some time since I have dreamt. Often, they are of things not so different from yours. Simple things. Not this night." A pause. "This night, I dream of death. A simple offer: become a god among gods at the cost of any balance which we swore to uphold. Unimaginable power at unimaginable cost."

"And... your response?" The man was nervous now, something which was not aided by the fact that the woman answered simply with a chuckle and a smirk.

"What do you think?" An uncomfortable silence swept over the two, with the disciple fearing for his own safety and that of his goddess, and the woman having simply nothing to say. "Be a dear and fetch me some tea, will you? I have quite a bit to think about." The man left the shattered room, coming back several minutes later with a cup of steaming water. The woman took it. "Thank you ever so much. Now, gather the others and head to the temple. Discuss with them the nature of our predicament." With a nod, the man left. Sylvia continued to sit in bed, contemplating the offer, sipping her tea, thinking.



It wasn't long before the inevitable happened. A message through the Earth, a broadcast as to the arrival of a certain guest. A certain unwanted guest, at that, and one whom she was not eager to fraternize with again. Alas, it would seem that she had to host a little get-together, the purpose of which was left to no doubt. Sylvia sighed.

I suppose it had to happen some time.

Alerting her disciples and gathering herself, Sylvia thought of the others. Light, as far as she knew, had already been contacted by her counterpart. There had been no mention of the others though, and Sylvia found it only right to contact the rest. Unfortunately, she had little way to contact Fire, so she simply gave a parcel of paper to one of the temple's courier birds and sent it on its way. Archaic, and slow, but effective. Unfortunately, having fallen out of contact with them, Sylvia had no idea where the others resided, so she had to use some of her more creative tools. Fortunately, these ones would be easier. Sensing the ever-shifting tectonic plates of the planet, she sent out an invitation to the Earth, letting them know where to be. Soon after, Sylvia found herself at the ocean, sending out the same message along the crashing waves. Finally, she told the protector of the air about the little meeting, sending it as a small voice in the wind. Satisfied, Sylvia rested, spending her remaining days of peace in relaxation.



"Miss Sylvia, we have a guest." A servant burst into the temple, rushing over to the Force elemental. "Paul-Henri says that a foreigner is approaching the city, radiating dark energies." Sylvia laughed.

"Well by all means, bring him here! We shall prepare food and drink and other wonderful superficialities so that we may welcome him." The immortal looked about to the rest of her servants. "Well, hop to it!" The man who had run in nodded and left nearly as quickly as he had come, rushing to the reported location of the incoming guest.

I jolt from my sleep into a sitting position, breathing heavily and holding a hand to my pounding chest. Light is beaming around me, reflecting around the room and illuminating it with a glowing radiance. I stare down at my trembling hands in a sort of half-conscious fascination. My skin is translucent, my entire body igniting in an incandescent blaze. I can hear my pulse in my ears, thumping through me in a panicked drumline. Tossing the thick quilt away from my body, I spring to my feet, sweat coating my face as the brilliance emanating from me fades away.

I'm alone, I realize, with detached tranquility that's quite unlike me. Oh, there are my monks; but they see me as a god. I can't interact with them, not truly. What would it be like to have the power that Death promised me? Oh, I won't lie. It's tempting. But I know better than that. I may be harebrained at times, but I'm not a fool.

Tossing one of my many identical dresses, (shut up, I like how it looks and feels) I slip my socked feet into my tough footwear. Grabbing my knife from my dresser, I shove it into my right boot before leaving the small house on my "father's" croft. At times like this, fresh air is one of the best solutions. He's not my actual father, of course; the elementals have none. He's the highest-ranking of my priests, who acts as my father to appease the curiosity of others.

Once outside, I take a few deep, shaking breaths, watching the sun slip down towards the horizon.

My ears perk up.

Darkness?

Yep, that's absolutely Darkness. He's contacting me through the sunset. "Paris, hmm? Alright, Darkness, I'll be there. I'll see if I can find Fire and bring him along, there's still a little while before the sun sets."

With that, I sever the brief connection and stare at the sun for a moment, eyes narrowed, before dematerializing and darting off to the south as a streak of light.

---

By the time I arrive at Mount Vesuvius, the sun is closing in on the horizon. The temple looms in front of me and, with a sound like thunder, I explode into the largest chamber, reforming myself in a brilliant flash. Striding forwards, I look around. So this is Fire's temple, hmm? Not sure I like the whole black stone aesthetic, but I have to admit that it looks pretty nice.

"Hey! Fire! You in here? Message for you, all the way from Scotland!"

Okay, so I've never been the best at stealth. That's more of Darkness' strong suit. Mostly, I just hate waiting.

My eyes open slowly, showing some resistance due to being crusted shut. Looking around, I appear to be in some alleyway, sprawled out on the brick road. My body is sore all over, and my mouth is filled with the familiar taste of fermentation. Not to mention the pounding headache. Unfortunately, to keep my secret of being a lesser god secret, my body had to simulate all the problems affecting mortals. And hangovers were one of them. Feeling around my pockets, I've clearly been robbed, as my wallet is nowhere to be found. Propping myself up, I try to remember what happened. I was up to my usual night in Naples, going around bars and drinking until they stopped serving. Was a prostitute involved? Probably. I must have passed out here and gotten robbed. There was something else though. I could almost remember... a dream? I didn't usually have dreams. They were rarely used as a communication channel between us gods, but other then that, it usually didn't happen.

My eyes burst open from there tired lull as the memories come flooding back. Death. Some sort of deal. Ultimate power. And...

I couldn't remember pass that. How had I answered Death? Yes? No? I rub my eyes, grumbling as I try to remember. I guess only time would tell. If this was one of my plays, the crowds would probably love the dramatic irony this situation was created. Me, not so much. Whatever the case, I had to get back to the temple. Looking around to make sure I was alone, my body burned up until I was naught but fire, which then flew across the sky towards the volatile Mount Vesuvius.

---

Materializing in my temple's large central chamber, I'm right behind a women with radiant golden hair. Light.

"What do you want, Light? Here for a glass of wine?" I ask, disgruntled. The headache was still pounding inside my skull light a battering ram.

I chuckle and turn around, throwing myself around Fire in a hug. "Come on, Fire, is that any way to greet your sister?" I'd forgotten how much fun Fire is to mess with. I mean, we're sorta siblings, right? Right? Yeah.

Breaking the hold, I look him up and down, sniffing the wine on his breath and seeing the slightly pained look in his eyes. A high laugh pours from my mouth.

"Whoops, forgot how much you like the drink. Sorry! If I'd remembered, I woulda brought some scotch down from up north. It's certainly better stuff than that glorified red water that you drink most of the time, know what I mean?" I punch him on the shoulder a little bit harder than I mean to. Whoops, hope he doesn't get too angry with me. You wouldn't like Fire when he's angry. He tends to hurt people when they irritate him.

My demeanor becomes slightly more serious as I toss my hand backwards over my shoulder, thumb pointing off towards the north. "Darkness called a meeting. Death got in touch with him in a dream, same as it did for me. We're meeting in Paris, I figured I'd have enough time to come grab you. As far as I know, everyone's going to be there. I know at least Force is. If any amount of us are meeting all at once, there's definitely something serious going on, y'know?" As I speak, I begin to rapidly tap my booted right foot against the floor, each impact leaving a faint glow for a brief moment before it vanishes, only to be replaced by another. "So!" I abruptly say quite loudly, borderline yell, after a long beat of silence, "that's the situation. I hope you're coming, this is something that we really need to figure out. If any more than two of us got this message, then things aren't going to go well. You never know, one of us might have found the offer hard to refuse and accepted it. Maybe Water; it's always the quiet ones, am I right?" Not to mention I never much liked her at all, I add to myself. Too much of the ocean never gets any light for me to appreciate water.

---

As usual, I get impatient quickly. Barely a second after I've asked the question, and I'm already getting antsy. "So, you're coming, right?" I add, just to make sure.

As Light speaks, every word that comes out of her mouth is like a chisel against my temple. Usually, I liked Light, but she was too damn loud sometimes. Her arms thrown around me are uncomfortably close, and her playful punch makes my shoulder sore. She never was good at controlling herself, was she. As she mentions Death and the dreams that she and Darkness had, I chime in.

"While I'm not in full grasp of my memories of it, I believe Death contacted me as well. That makes at least three he's contacted, which means he's probably just contacted us all. And to be honest, I doubt it would be Water. She's far too shy for dealings with Death." I say. I realize at the same time that I wouldn't be too shy to make a deal. I had to find some way to remember the dream.

"Well, it sounds like I will need to come with you. Saying that, I'll have to inform my High Priests of my leave, so that they can make the necessary arrangements." I head into one of the 17 spires, leaving Light behind. After a few flights of stairs, I enter into a room at the top, filled with wisps of smoke emanating from a fire in the of the room. Across from the door, a man is studying something at a desk.

"Agostino?" I say, my voice filling up the relative silence of the chamber. "I shall have to take my leave for a few days, possibly longer. Inform the other High Priests of my absence."

"Yes, master." The figure responds, barely changing his position. Unquestioning obedience. That was the way liked it.

---

"I'm ready to go, Light." I say, about ten minutes later. Besides, informing the High Priests, I had to gather some things, as well as give me some time to recover. The headache was mainly gone, and my body had been cleaned of the dirt accumulated from the night before. was ready for whatever was awaiting us in Paris.

@Sylverblu
After he and his son entered the city under the cloak of Darkness they made their way to the temple. Force was essentially neutral in Sai's experience, which made its temple the best meeting spot for the elements to come together. Unfortunately, he had no idea what Force looked like unless it still to that same female form it had last time they met, so he'd have to be careful about who he revealed himself to.

As he snuck towards the temple, however, he realized that there was a large amount of Force users around, more than he thought would be normal. Taking a chance, he revealed himself to one of them who was alone. "Hello" he said. "I need directions to your temple. Could you help me?"

"Yes, sir." he said. "Force asked us to bring the Darkness user to her. Please, follow me."

Sai looked at his son. "Find the thieves guild in this city." he said. "They are loyal to Darkness, even if they are not users of his element. You will be safe there, as they would not dare harm one of his monks."

"But father, you will need my help."

"Against Force, I would need every monk and priest in the temple to even buy me time to escape. Do not worry, I'll see you soon enough."

Geren nodded and re-hid himself, heading off to find the thieves.

"Lead me to her." Sai said, then followed the man back to the temple.

Fire comes back down, looking much better than before, and surprise! I'm impatient! He an barely get in those few words before I nod and flash away in light, trusting the brief flash of solar heat that I leave behind to give him an appropriate channel to follow me with. Streaking away into the sky, I take a brief moment to orient myself before darting off into the north once more.

I would normally have to ask about something like this, but I'm pretty sure I know exactly where Darkness is, and by extension, Force. I can feel a significant, borderline painful, lack of light, far more than is natural, in one building in the city and one alone.

With a flash of intense light, I appear in a small, abandoned house about a street away from the epicenter of darkness. From there, it's just a short run to the man himself.

I tackle him from behind at full speed, knocking him off of his feet in a crushing hug.

"Darkness! It's been too long!"

---

After a hasty round of apologies, we resume our path, me being pretty happy. More than usual, actually. After a brief SLOW walk, we wind up in what looks like some sort of laboratory. The follower of Force leaves us there and walks out, presumably going to fetch Force.

I have to sit down.

Horror of horrors.

Well, nothing to die but wait now, I suppose. I can at least have a conversation with Darkness; I haven't done so in ages.

"So, Darkness," I begin conversationally, "What kind of identity have you taken lately? You haven't contacted me in at least a century!"

@Lemons
"Darkness! It's been too long!"

Sai sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Three hundred years." he said. "It's been three hundred years since any human besides my highest ranking monks has known who I am and he first thing you do when seeing me is blow my cover. I guess I can chance disguises later, though." He relaxed a bit and greeted the other Immortal. "Nice to see you again, Light."

Eventually they make their way to Force's Temple and sit down.

"So, Darkness, What kind of identity have you taken lately? You haven't contacted me in at least a century!"

"I'm a Master thief and a father. Just promise me you won't reveal my identity to my son when you meet him."

Dressed in the clothes of a scientist, the man scuttled into the chamber hurriedly. It was dark, but not so dark as to be blinding. Moreso, the chamber was in a constant state of sunrise – or sunset. Directly opposite the door, the goddess sat on something akin to a rather modest throne, thinking, as the room continually vibrated precariously.

"Miss?" The man'a voice trembled; he was nervous, and rightfully so.

"Yes?" The vibrations stopped as the woman opened her eyes, freed from her meditation.

"There are, well, some people outside. They look and feel like sin. They said that they were here for you."

"Good! They've finally arrived." Sylvia rose, and hurriedly started for the exit.

"Miss? I don't suppose you could be bothered to tell us what's going on. We're all quite alarmed."

Sylvia paused, and turned her head to her disciple. "Don't worry about it. You're here with me because you're one of the smart ones, and smart people know when to let the big kids take care of things. Just a little bit of tension is all." Before the man could retort, Sylvia gently nudged him out of the way and entered the main hall of the building. She cleared her throat.

"All! We have guests, as I'm sure you've heard. These guests are important, and I've no idea how long they're going to be here. I'll be taking care of them for the most part, which means that all of you have a very easy job: keep up the hospitality. If they ask you to do something, either you do it or you prepare for the consequences that they will be dealing out to you. I'm giving them all explicit permission to kill any of you if you misbehave. Play nice, and keep up the refreshments." With the tip of an invisible top hat, Sylvia smiled and threw open the front doors, seeing two seemingly opposite figures resting on the benhh to the left.

"My dears, my dears! Bienvenue à Paris!" With a soft clap and a friendly tilt of the head, Sylvia put forth her best 'hostess' attitude.

"You're welcome to come inside if you please, if my people are half competent and fear for their lives there should be some local cuisine waiting on a table right on the entrance as soon as we head in." Sylvia then recalled that she had yet to specifically address her guests. She offered one hand to each, and gave a greeting nod as she spoke.

"Light, Dark."