Rose fell to the muddy ground, body exploding with pain. She was gasping for air- now it wasn't only her arm injured, but her chest too, bloodied and bruised. She grasped at it, feeling for injury. What she found she didn't like, a sigil used to summon storms was engraved into it. This can't be good. Her spell had worked, the ogre was dead, she was free, but it proved to be a very hollow victory. The squalling child was calling at her, taunting her, now eating actual food instead of a banana peel. "You know what kid, I'm going to give you a piece of my mind..." She paused. "I don't like you very much." She was speaking in-between gasps, words barely escaping her mouth. She was slowly getting air back, her gasps subsiding. It was only then she looked up to see what she had wrought. The snake-like creature, neon blue, enormous, clearly not very happy.

This is very, very bad.

Rose had been prepared to lose some blood. She had been prepared to lose a limb. Maybe her eyesight would be stripped from her. Maybe whatever she borrowed power from would just kill her and be done with it. It had been a crazy gamble, but this was the worst case scenario. She traced the mark drawn into her chest with her finger. That isn't going to be very pretty. She looked up towards the creature and it looked down at her with a gaze that pierced right through her. She would have to talk her way out of this. If this creature wanted her dead it would happen, no question about that. The odds of survival, at this point, were frankly very slim.

There were a precious few spirits that were kind and understanding, and this likely wasn't one of them.

She rose to her feet, staring at the god confidently. Rose was good under pressure, one of her positive traits. Well, good is relative. She sure was good at talking, but she was just as like to talk her way into her death. "Hel-l-l-l-o, Mr. Snake." She recited in a sing-song voice.

She thought was a good greeting for the all-powerful creature she had likely irked, but some may be inclined to disagree. Rose was far to insane to comprehend how terrible she was handling the situation.

"You have the venerable honor of being summoned by Ms. Rose Halwell, first class witch extraordinaire." She certainly should of been much more respectful towards the beast, but being subservient wasn't her strong suit. "I'm terribly sorry if I've interrupted you Mr... well, if I had to take a stab at it I'd say you were... Ra-lak? Tic-tak? No, no, Lha-tak, is it? God of... natural disasters? Am I right? The sigil on my chest was a nice hint, but I think it was the whole big blue snake thing that gave it away." Rose knew gods, demons, and much more. There were books on the subject, some scholarly, and some of the 'dark and forbidden' sort. They were filled with information, names, descriptions of how they presented themselves to mortals. She couldn't particularly remembers this particular god's demeanor, but she could only hope that it was nice and cuddly.

"Anyways, I was in a... er, a bit of a pickle, that terrible ogre apprehended me and I didn't have anything prepared to fight it so, uh, thank you sincerely for the help Mr. Lha-tak. I'm hoping that we can work out some sort of agreement so you don't have to kill me for bothering you. You'll find I'm very resourceful, I'm sure there's something I can do for you."

It was hard to tell if Rose was totally insane or very brave.

Rain crawled for her life after covering herself with mud. Now that she had gotten some distance from the ogre and her initial panic and fear had come down hindsight told her that the mud was a simple waste of time. She looked back and watch the ogre drop the witch and trip and die as a blue thing appeared out of nowhere. The ogre died rather quickly under its own weight as it tripped and crushed its head on a boulder and then fell down the cliff.

At least that problem was dealt with, even if it was through witchcraft. She stood up and started to wipe herself off the best she could and as she looked up she noticed that she was fairly close to a broken bridge and on the other side was a tree that bore fruit. Fruit!

"What in the bloody hell do ya think yer doin'?" Rigby asked through a mouthful of fruit, sitting cross-legged on a crumbled post by the bridge, watching her with confused amusement. He'd got the fruit from a tree a few feet behind him; it was heavy with round purple plums. "Zat some kinda spell? Whatever it is, it didn't work. Yer still a fugly human-witch."

She then noticed the monkey-man and exhaled with a bit of a laugh at his comment. "I'm no witch, and grateful about that. No way I'm going to sell my soul to dark and evil powers like that demon thing that I saw right after waking up. I'm an engineer. I work on machines. And I feel like I wasted my time with this mud. I thought the stupid ogre would no notice me if I covered myself."

She glanced around looking for a good way to get to the other side whether it be a log or a narrow point to jump across. "How'd you get across? I'm dying to share some of that fruit with you." Her stomach let out an embarrassingly loud growl, but Rain had no reason to be bashful about it considering how she imagined everyone that had just awakened was probably starving too.

She shrugged at Rigby with a slight smile. "Call me Rain. Nice to meet you, Mr...?"

The pressure against the little girl’s temples spiked as light flashed outside, accompanying a boom and a roar. It made her wince and she tried to block off her power so she wouldn’t See anything. No vision came, though whether because of her efforts or other undetectable reasons there was no way of knowing. The singer screamed, a sound of agony and desperation. A moment of nothing, and she starting fighting with the tubes and such that held her in place, meeting Amuné’s eyes and begging for help. The younger girl started to respond to the request, but then the woman with the stone arm came forward, and the child retreated again. To her surprise, the lady helped the trapped girl, pulling her free. Could she understand the strange words too? Amuné didn’t know.

Follow them. The woman said she should, and the girl knew that alone she would be in trouble if she ran into anything bad. She didn’t trust the woman, with her stone arm that glowed with tracings of obvious magic. Even if they hadn’t been in the Stone, that wasn’t something you should stay around. But the singer was good, and Amuné didn’t want to part ways with her. She hadn’t made up her mind and was still pressed shaking against the wall when the lady retreated from the hole to outside and came closer. The girl shrank away, but the woman just went passed and headed in the other direction. Amuné took a ragged breath and pulled away from the rock. She glanced toward the outside world, but really, would it be any better? The singer was the only one she could trust right now.

The child followed after the woman with the stone arm at a distance.

"Forgive me if I hurt you," Grace said as she pulled the girl free, "but I fear we have run out of time."

Amuné took a ragged breath and pulled away from the rock. She glanced toward the outside world, but really, would it be any better? The singer was the only one she could trust right now.

The child followed after the woman with the stone arm at a distance.

The girl stifled a scream of pain, and she clutched Grace like a lifeline, her head bent and eyes closed while she breathed. Her thin translucent hand scratched against the stone of Grace's arm, and her eyes widened in surprise, but she said nothing. She allowed herself to be carried by the woman with the stone arm -- she weighed as much as a shivering leaf -- and she lifted her exhausted eyes over Grace's shoulder to see Amuné.

< You understand me. > The girl's words were unintelligible gibberish to Grace, but Amuné would instinctively know their meaning. < I failed to keep the gods at bay. I am sorry. > Her eyes glistened with tears; she wrapped her arms around Grace's neck for comfort.

Outside, everything seemed silent; the Stone had stopped crumbling, the birds had all been driven away. They could hear the faint echoes of a boy laughing somewhere near the doors of the Stone, but Grace's instinct took her in the opposite direction: through the high weeds, under the shade of the high cliffs that towered behind the Stone. The girl craned her neck, confused; she had no idea where they were going, and had never seen the outside of the Stone, but she instinctively trusted Grace.

As they moved, ahead they could hear the faint echo of Rose's shouts at the God of Disaster. To their left rose the stone cliffs -- and within them was the ragged entrance to a cavern, half-hidden behind a dry twist of bushes. Within the cave were scattered bones and rusting breastplates, shields, swords, muskets and helmets, some still wearing skulls. The cavern extended deep into the mountain and led far into the darkness.

To their right, across from the cave, was an overgrown courtyard nestled within the rear of the Stone. There were cracked benches, a broken statue of a dancing faun, and a covered well at the center.

"You have the venerable honor of being summoned by Ms. Rose Halwell, first class witch extraordinaire."

Lha-tak stared unblinking at Rose while she spewed her nonsense and expectations, and then finally an offer of assistance. The god flicked its long forked tongue, and the clouds over Rose's head gathered and darkened; rain plummeted down over her head, soaking the witch and nothing else around her.

This god did not speak -- but Rose had the privilege of a commune with it, as witches often did. She knew, instinctively, that Lha-tak fully expected Rose to become a devout of the God of Natural Disasters, to offer her efforts and energy in meditation or ritual to please it, and to fulfill Lha-tak's will. The god did not demand this: it simply understood that this was now the truth. After all, Rose had single-handedly summoned it into this plane, and so must be its worshiper.

She also realized, instinctively, that Lha-tak's sense of humor dictated that each time it was displeased with her, wherever she was, Rose would get drenched in a sudden downpour.

Lha-tak flicked its tongue again, and the rain stopped. Rose now understood something new: Lha-tak wished destruction upon the girl who had been singing. It would offer her its power in order to complete this task.

"Call me Rain. Nice to meet you, Mr...?"

"Rigby." The shaggy headed, blue-skinned boy grinned fangily. "So yer not a witch, huh? And ya don't look like a snare. So ya killed somebody, huh? Pissed off the wrong people, huh? Aw man, you're a murderer huh? How d' I know you won't murder me, huh? Crazy psycho lady." He spoke through a grin, though, fishing for whatever might make Rain upset. He picked up a fruit from the pile beside him and chucked it with surprising strength over the bridgeless gap to Rain.

"How d'ya think I got here? I jumped. Because I'm awesome. You don't even have any powers. I bet you can't even work those machines inside the Stone, you're so useless. So who'd ya kill? What'd ya do, muddy them to death?" He shook with cackling laughter at his own joke.

While he laughed, he leaned back on his perch and happened to look up -- suddenly he gulped down a gasp, dropped his fruit and tumbled heels-over-head to the ground. He scrambled fearfully over the rubble and broken wood, sprinting away from the gap and the bridge and from what he had seen over Rain's head.

It was big as a fiery bear and sleek as a panther, peering down over Rain and Rigby from its perch atop the crumbled roof of the Stone, ten feet above Rain's head and behind her. There was no telling how long it had been watching.

"Rigby." The shaggy headed, blue-skinned boy grinned fangily. "So yer not a witch, huh? And ya don't look like a snare. So ya killed somebody, huh? Pissed off the wrong people, huh? Aw man, you're a murderer huh? How d' I know you won't murder me, huh? Crazy psycho lady."

Rain raised her eyebrows at Rigby with a slightly amused expression. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her and she found that to be amusing. She caught the fruit that was tossed to her and quickly bit into it with vicious ferocity. She never thought that an apple could taste so good. "Thanksh."

"How d'ya think I got here? I jumped. Because I'm awesome. You don't even have any powers. I bet you can't even work those machines inside the Stone, you're so useless. So who'd ya kill? What'd ya do, muddy them to death?"

She realized that jumping that distance for Rigby probably wouldn't be too much of a problem considering the strength she felt he had. She giggled a bit at his joke. "Well... I was too preoccupied to actually look at the machinery down there, buuuut I could probably tear it all apart and put it back together better than new."

"I was Venitech's greatest enemy." She puffed out her chest pridefully before taking a bit out of the apple. Rigby's commentary had helped her calm down a bit. "I killed corrupt pawns and the bastards that buried Patrick and Eve's Steamshop." She had no remorse for the actions she took to damage Venitech.

She realized after she had finished her explanation that Rigby had started running away. She knew that he was most definitely not afraid of her, which meant that something scarier was behind her. She turned around to see a giant flaming bear. It had the grace of a panther and simply perched there observing. Well, it wasn't as scary as a demonic darkness, or a giant dragon thing, but this was pretty frightful.

The fearsome bear had one disadvantage on the fear factor: at this point Rain was getting used to seeing terrifying monsters that were larger than life. She imagined that if it wanted her dead, the bear thing could easily arrange it. Running away seemed to be no option at this point. "Uhhh... Hello bigger than life firey bear of doom. You, uhh, interrupted my conversation. I mean, not that I think you care about that or anything. You, uhhh, you're just so... fearsome! I mean you just scared him off."

She realized that she was starting to ramble, blushed deeply in embarrassment, and stopped talking.

Grace paused at the entrance to the cave, considering. She didn't particularly want to spend time in a cavern littered with bones, but the armor and weapons would provide her with good, sturdy materials, and the cave itself was good shelter. Resolving to bury the fallen warriors once she had the time, she stepped inside and gently lay the fragile girl against the wall of the cave.

"Watch over her while I work." She told the timid girl following her, then she moved a little farther into the cave and placed her hands against the wall, humming gently to herself. After a few minutes of sitting still, Grace's hands sank into the stone and drew out a large chunk of rock, which she placed in her lap and began to mold like clay.

Her fingers skillfully shaped the living stone into a familiar shape, one she had used countless times and could recreate from memory. Already, a simple statue of a dog was taking shape under her careful guidance.

This is fucked.

That was all Rose could think. Sure, she'd summoned demons before. But this? This was a whole other level, she wasn't only out of her league, she was playing a completely different game. Witchery was her game, she knew it in and out, but this was more then that, this was insanity. This was what mad cultists did, not what Rose wanted. She wanted power, stole power, but she knew better then to try to consort with something like this.

But all the same here she was.

She approached the creature with her usual bravado, her usual brand of confidence and quirkiness, but it was quickly dissipating. The witch at one point had though herself infallible, but this was enough to do what she at one time though could not be done. She felt the emotion she had not felt for so long, the one she pushed away, the one she had thought she defeated.

She was scared.

The god did not ask. Of course he didn't. There was no request that she do what he wanted, it merely was. It went without saying, disobeying was more then death- it was complete obliteration of everything she was, had been, will be, it was the destruction of her stained soul.

So here she was, drenched in rain, a solitary tear running down her eye. When was the last time she had cried? Her godmother had always told her that she had never cried, not even as a babe. She wasn't really crying now- it was just a loose tear. A single tear because she knew now she lost the freedom she so valued- her life was no longer hers from here on in. First she was in prison, now she was in the thrall of a being far beyond her comprehension.

Such a perversion of her freedom was the last thing she wanted, and the rain did not help her mood.

She was thoroughly soaked now, cold to the bone in her clothes which amounted to little more then rags. When she had offered the god her services this was not what she expected or wanted, but it was now her reality. The god would not ask, she just knew. She knew what he wanted, knew what she must do. She knew that she must kill the singer.

She didn't want to kill, not anymore. But she would, all the same, she had no choice.

She nodded, "Yes. I'll do it. Just show me the way, and I'll do it." Her former exuberance was gone, replaced with muted despondence. Her ever-present grin was also gone, mouth now a hard line.

She would not enjoy this.

Amuné heard the words, though she only partly understood the meaning. The other girl was the one who kept the Old Gods away? But if so, why put her in the Stone? That sort of magic was actually useful, so wouldn’t some city somewhere have accepted having a snare if it kept the witches at bay? People hate us so much...maybe even that isn’t enough.... The little girl followed Grace and the singer through the raggy weeds. The garden -- well, it had been a garden once, though there were as many stray plants as tended flowers now -- was pretty, in a left-alone and forgotten sort of way. The statue was a funny one, a boy with furry legs and hooves. But who’d make a statue of a snare? She wished she could go take a closer look but the woman with the stone arm was going the other way, towards the cliff. When they got closer, a cave could be made out, and Grace went in.

Inside were the remains of fighters. The armor scattered around wasn’t so bad, but the bones, especially the skulls, were terribly frightening, and she tried to avoid them. The cave didn’t seem like a safe place at all! Amuné went over next to the singer as soon as the lady moved away. Very quietly, so she would only be heard by the other girl, the younger child spoke. “I don’t understand...what’s happening? Are...those things. The ones behind the wall. They’re really gods?” A thoughtful pause followed. “How do we fix it? You can fix it, right?” It was more a plea than a question. She couldn’t let go of the tiny shard of hope, the prayer that, while things might not be better, at least maybe they might not get any worse than they had been. “Um...I’m Amuné. And this is Kitten.” Not a very creative name for the stuffed animal, but she’d named it when she was very little and never changed it.

She was keeping an eye on the woman with the stone arm, and the magic being worked. Magic was bad, /very/ bad. She didn't want to stay near it, but she didn't want to leave the singer behind either.

"Uhhh... Hello bigger than life firey bear of doom. You, uhh, interrupted my conversation. I mean, not that I think you care about that or anything. You, uhhh, you're just so... fearsome! I mean you just scared him off."

The beast's bright tail flicked impatiently, drawing a streak of yellow light in its wake. Its shining eyes stared down at Rain -- through her -- with a sort of intelligent purpose that should have been impossible for beast or human.

But this was neither.

It leaped to the ground beside her, silent as death; and when it raised its head it was as tall as Rain herself. Those bright eyes examined her, and silently it paced around her -- but there was no indication that it thought of her as prey. No, Rain was not in danger of anything but this god's judging stare.

Finally, it sat down on its haunches in front of her and yawned widely, showing its long teeth and pink tongue. It closed its mouth and stared at her with bored sarcasm. She would do, but it was far from thrilled. A powerful thought entered her head -- not a voice, but a sudden hot knowledge, like something roiling at the heart of a volcano: its name was Ngubrath. It would be pleased if she said its name aloud.

Rigby's voice echoed across the chasm: "Whoooaaaa wooooo!"

A great flap of brown wings emerged out of the forest, and an enormous, three-eyed owl landed softly at the edge of the chasm, clutching Rigby in the long claws of one foot. Rigby was laughing.

"Hey, mechanic-chick! Ya like my new friend? WAH!" He suddenly tumbled onto the ground, tossed like trash by the owl-god.

The owl ruffled, all three of its eyes glancing enviously between the fiery bear-panther and Rain. Compared to Rigby, Rain was a most desirable catch. The owl spread its majestic wings, a threat of a fight.

Ngubrath's attitude toward Rain changed immediately. It grinned with a fangy challenge, and it sidled close to Rain, claiming her and defending her against this new contender.

The owl stared deep into Rain from across the chasm -- and a new thought battled in her mind. This one was cool and quiet, like the hush of a breeze at night: its name was Th'ctu, and she would do best to speak it.

Ngubrath and Th'ctu stared each other down, a standoff to see which of them Rain would choose -- and if she chose instead to run, they would take more violent measures to decide which of them deserved her.

Her fingers skillfully shaped the living stone into a familiar shape, one she had used countless times and could recreate from memory. Already, a simple statue of a dog was taking shape under her careful guidance.

“I don’t understand...what’s happening? Are...those things. The ones behind the wall. They’re really gods?” A thoughtful pause followed. “How do we fix it? You can fix it, right?”

The singer smiled down at the girl, exhausted and in pain. She spoke in the same fleeting language, the one only Amune would understand. "They are gods, yes. They are the gods that created this world, and the gods that wish to destroy it."

She took Amune's hand between her own thin, cool palms. She seemed as fragile as porcelain. The holes in her arms where the tubes had been were healing before the child's eyes.

"A long time ago, we locked them away from people so their wars couldn't harm us. But the wall has crumbled, and they are returning." Her eyes shone with tears. "I only kept the wall strong, I didn't build it. I don't know how. But we will find a new way to live, won't we? Not in fear." But she was afraid, and she despaired despite her words. The gods had returned, and their wills and their wars would tear the world apart.

She looked across to Grace, and her eyes watched with uncertain fascination as a sculpture took shape out of the rock that had been so strangely removed from the wall of the cavern. She spoke to Grace, but all Grace would hear was a string of flowery syllables that meant nothing. Amune, however, would hear her meaning: "What will you do with it?"

Grace, meanwhile, would feel a familiar power in the rock that she sculpted -- only far more powerful than she had ever known. It was as if the core of the magic she used to create her golems was distant, just out of reach, and watching her closely. She would know, instinctively, that if she welcomed that power closer she might work spells and golems more powerful than she had ever dreamed.

As Grace worked, the entirety of the cave began to feel charged with energy -- as if the walls themselves were watching and judging the trio that took shelter there.

The singer looked up, and around at the cavern, searching but not finding the source of the uncomfortable feeling. She turned her smile to Amune again. "My name is Nor. Please, Amune, let us look after each other."

"Yes. I'll do it. Just show me the way, and I'll do it." Her former exuberance was gone, replaced with muted despondence. Her ever-present grin was also gone, mouth now a hard line.

She would not enjoy this.

Lha-tak's expression never changed. Its eyes stared through her. Its intent was not malicious or evil -- it was logical, calculated survival. There was nothing of emotion or empathy in the god of natural disaster; everything was as it would be, destruction was as necessary as creation, death was as necessary as life. It assured Rose that she would understand, in time. It told her this without words.

She knew, then, that the one that threatened the survival of the god was hiding in a cave behind the Stone, beyond the well and the brush. She knew that the girl was being sheltered by another god -- a stupid god, a weak god, a god that would betray its own and hide underground from the results of its actions. She knew she had nothing to fear from this frightened god. Lha-tak assured her of this, and so it was true.

A roiling, rumbling power grew in Rose's chest and trembled in her stomach. An electric tension raised the hairs on her skin. She felt a kinship with the wind, the clouds, the rain, the thunder. At her fingertips were the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the hail and lightning storms.

She was free to do with this power as she wished -- as long as her task was done.

As she worked, Grace felt more in tune with the stone than she ever had before, and that feeling was both exhilarating and worrying. It was exhilarating because she had always loved her gift and her art, even when it caused her hardship. However, it was worrying, because the only reason she could think of it getting stronger was that she was closer to the source of it, and as far as she knew the only sources of power in the Stone were gods. She had heard legends of gods who ignored humans as lesser beings, but nobody had ever told her a story of a benign god before.

Even so, as her hands shaped the living stone she had held her entire life, she felt a mix of fear and comfort. The same kind of feeling as being held close as a storm rages outside. She wanted to call that power closer, to embrace that comforting solidity, but she looked at the two children near the cave entrance and restrained herself. If she was tricked into harming them, she could never forgive herself, no matter what she gained in return.

Rain simply stood their flabergasted as these two beings seemed prepared to fight over... her. Two words in her head.

Two names. Ngubrath. Th'ctu.

Two choices.

Something in her told her that all of this was not right. Two immensely powerful beings, and they were trying to get into her head. She didn't deserve this. She never earned this. No human should have this much power. That was the reason she rebelled against Venitech and her government. They controlled everything.

She closed her eyes nearly buckling at the presence of these monsters. These things. These gods. She knew that if she accepted any one of them, her own ideals would be shattered. That thought made her angry. She imagined their reaction would be less than pleasant, but one thing that rattled around in the back of her head was that if she accepted either one of these things: She. Would. Regret. It. No amount of fear could overcome that feeling.

Rain cleared her throat to get the gods' collective attention. This was her show. Not theirs. "Excuse me, Kitty and Birdie." She would not ever use their full names as they were no god of hers. "I regret to inform you, uh, big fellas that I'm not buying what you're selling. N-nope. I refuse both of you... I mean... all of you. You can't just walk up to a girl and proposition them out of nowhere. You have to earn her trust first."

She could feel her heart pounding like crazy as she finished her statement. Right now, it would be easy for her to panic, but she had to remain calm. As calm as possible anyways. She was fairly sure her hands were shaking. She cleared her throat one last time. "I don't think it's in my best interest for either of you to take my soul either way." She had a tight grin and was fairly sure that if she wasn't locking her jaw, her teeth would be chattering something fierce.

“Why would they make it if they want to get rid of it?” That didn’t make much sense to Amuné. “If...if they’re going to destroy the world someone needs to stop them.” She shuddered, pulling her knees closer to her chest, gripping the other girl’s hand very tight. “I don’t like them. They’re scary. I wanna go back h--” The plaintive words cut off abruptly, and the child fell silent. There was no home to go back to. They wouldn’t take her there. Not anymore. The child pulled her hand away and wrapped her arms around herself, biting her lip to keep from sobbing, but she couldn’t keep the tears from her eyes. The world was a very big place and it had only gotten darker while she was in the Stone.

“Nor. I...I’ll try? I’m not good at much of anything...” She fell silent as the woman at the other end of the cave looked their way, looking back only a moment and hunching her shoulders as she dropped her gaze. Once the woman turned her attention back to her rock, Amuné moved closer to the other girl. “Something’s watching. It’s big, and it’s close.” One hand went to grasp Nor’s clothing, seeking comfort from someone she could trust. “I’m scared...what do we do? I don’t want it to find us.”

Rose found the god's assurance of some greater plan of little comfort. But all the same she had a job to do, whether she wished it or not. She felt herself filled with power, a great power that she would've relished years ago, a power she had yearned for, begged for even. Now it felt like a hollow victory, it filled her mouth with a bad taste.

It didn't matter anymore, though. At this point it seemed she would be little more than Lha-tak's slave. Even if she didn't want to fight this 'weak god' what choice would she have? Rose slowly rose from the ground. The winds were lifting her up, up, and then she was hovering off of the ground. She floated forward, onwards towards the cave.

She arrived there quickly. The brush ahead of the cave parted for her, the power of the wind pushing it aside. She floated into the cavern, and she saw three. Two were also prisoners from the Stone, and the third was the 'scared god'. Rose cleared her throat, "You two must step aside." She said, nodding towards Amuné and Grace. "I have business with the other one." Her voice was filled with power, booming across the cave, but at the same time, underneath that power, it was quivering.

She did not want to do this.

She was too late.

Grace recognized the woman vaguely, silhouetted in the cave entrance by a flash of lightning. She was one of the other prisoners who had escaped. Now she was twisted, a puppet to some god's will, and intent on killing her charge. She didn't have enough time to finish this simple golem, let alone anything that could stop the powers of a god. She didn't even know if she could stop the powers of a god.

Not as she was anyway. Not on her own.

Just being close to the cavern was extending her abilities far beyond what she could normally accomplish. She placed the nearly finished statue on the ground, a medium sized dog complete with textured fur, and stood in front of the two she swore to protect, grabbing a dagger from the ground as she rose.

"Leave this place," She told the woman floating in front of her. "I know this is not your will, and if you leave us I won't harm you."

At the same time, she wasn't taking any chances. She pressed the dagger into the palm of her hand to draw blood, and let it drip onto the cavern floor.

As her blood hit the floor, she felt a rush of power, almost painful in it's intensity. Adding her blood to the process had always let her make golems faster, but cruder. This time, the rock of the cavern obeyed her will exactly as four stone hands slammed out and gripped tightly around the intruder.

"We have to go," She said, once more bundling the voiceless girl into her arms and hurrying further into the cavern. As it got darker, she warned the timid girl to watch her step, though she found she no longer needed light in the cave. The stones themselves showed her everything she needed to know, and the images only got clearer the further she went.

She thought back to how it felt when she had used her magic, how something had almost delicately asked her to invite it to join her. She no longer had time to debate that, and simply reached out with her mind.

"I don't know what you are," She said silently, pushing her thoughts deeper into the cave, "But I will accept you if you help me protect these two."

“Something’s watching. It’s big, and it’s close.” One hand went to grasp Nor’s clothing, seeking comfort from someone she could trust. “I’m scared...what do we do? I don’t want it to find us.”

She floated into the cavern, and she saw three. Two were also prisoners from the Stone, and the third was the 'scared god'. Rose cleared her throat, "You two must step aside." She said, nodding towards Amuné and Grace. "I have business with the other one."

"We have to go," She said, once more bundling the voiceless girl into her arms and hurrying further into the cavern.

"I don't know what you are," She said silently, pushing her thoughts deeper into the cave, "But I will accept you if you help me protect these two."

While Rose struggled in the grip of stone hands, the trio escaped deeper into the cavern, past the last of the bones and swords, past the reach of the dim stormy light.

Nor breathed quickly, her thin arms draped around Grace's neck as they sprinted along the uneven stone, and she stared back at the cave opening and at Rose who had been sent to kill her.

"I'll go," she said in her lilting language that only Amune could understand -- but when she looked down to the little girl all she saw was terror. Nor knew that if she gave herself to the woman at the cavern entrance, Amune would be left without a friend -- but if she remained, Amune was in danger of being killed in the crossfire. Desperately, she reached down over Grace's shoulder, beckoning Amune to take her hand. "I am here, you are safe. Please, Amune."

The floor of the cavern dipped and led them down a rough incline, where a few trailing weeds and vines led the way into the deeper, wider, darker rooms. Wet stalagmites glittered in the last gleams of light; walls of twisting pale formations peeked from behind pillars of old stone; a lake like black glass was at the room's center, with a trail of still water that stretched into an arched corridor at the opposite end. Another hallways stretched to their right, filled with a forest of stalagtites and stalagmites. Everything was completely, stiflingly silent. Stepping into this cavern was like entering a new world that had yet to be formed.

Grace would feel a presence in her mind -- a new knowledge, like a memory just remembered. The God of the Caverns, Shaiollesh, was with her. It was a quiet, patient, and very old presence, strengthened by a drop of Grace's blood and the reach of her mind to its own. Through Shaiollesh, Grace knew that the one that pursued them worked in submission to Lha-tak, the God of Natural Disaster, and that there was much danger from such power that Shaiollesh could not control -- but the God of Caverns' power could be channeled through Grace, and they might escape.

Grace knew that she determined where the cavern corridors would lead -- she could create hallways, change their direction, or block them completely with only a thought and a touch of the stone. It would be done soundlessly, as if the cavern had always been according to her will. She could also feel the location of the room below the Stone, the one below the broken floor, where the gears and cogs had ground up many of their fellow prisoners.

A little songbird trilled within the cavern -- the only sound besides their own footsteps. Amune, especially, would feel within the bird a presence of comfort and love, like a mother to her child. The little bird's eyes glowed blue, little pinpricks of light in the dark cavern. It could do nothing on its own, but it would watch over them, flapping overhead from perch to perch. It asked nothing of them.

"Excuse me, Kitty and Birdie." She would not ever use their full names as they were no god of hers. "I regret to inform you, uh, big fellas that I'm not buying what you're selling. N-nope. I refuse both of you... I mean... all of you. You can't just walk up to a girl and proposition them out of nowhere. You have to earn her trust first."

Ngubrath, the bear-panther, the God of Volcanoes, turned on Rain in a heartbeat. Its great teeth gleamed in a rumbling hot snarl, and it snapped its jaws in her face, inches from taking her nose clean off. The power and heat its molten body exuded was enough to melt skin should she dare to touch it. Ngubrath stepped forward, forcing Rain back with the power of its hot aura; the ground under her feet started to steam and crack -- but there was little the god could do to the environment without a human to channel the power. It could, however, attack her personally. It could devour her if it chose. It shoved all these thoughts into her mind, and a promise that she would be eaten if she did not comply, for if Ngubrath could not have her then it could not allow another god to claim her.

Behind Rain and to her left, the front door of the Stone was wide open, and just beyond it the gaping hole led down into the machine-filled cavern below the Stone. To her right, a green weedy path led around the side of the Stone, and beyond it the cliff dropped steeply.

Th'ctu, the owl, the God of Dreams, gave Rigby a swift kick; the child stumbled with a yelp, grumbling. After a moment, though, his eyes widened -- and he grinned broadly. "All right, all right, I gotcha." Rigby stood up straight, and he closed his eyes and stepped toward the cliff -- his body seemed to dissipate into thin air.

He stepped out of the air beside the crumbled doorway, his outstretched to his sides. "Whoa, trippy." He laughed, and forgot that he was supposed to be helping Rain out of her predicament.

Panic ripped through Rain's body threatening to take over as the great big Kitty chomped the air inches in front of her face. The threat was clear and terrifying. The scorching heat of the monster freaked her out. As it forced her back she fell down and scrambled away from it. Her breath accelerated as she did everything she could to maintain some modicum of rational thought. Death was not an option. If she lost it completely then that would be it, and she could not let that happen.

She glanced to both of her sides evaluating her options. If she went down back into the Stone and to the machines beneath she doubted the god would follow her back into its prison, but that place was also her prison as well. The path to the right seemed alright, but she had no idea how far the cat god would follow her. She had no time to decide. This impatient and commanding monster would destroy her and she knew it.

She grabbed a fistful of the freshly hot dirt and launched it into the Kitty's face praying that it had some effect before she made the mad dash into the Stone. She slipped due to the mud that now had turned to sand all over her body. She ended up sliding unintentionally down the hole. She cried out and in a wild panic she grabbed out at anything that she could catch herself on. Her savior was a rusted and unmoving gear some distance down.

Her arms were now killing her, but any pain was better than being an unwilling servant to some being that had only interest in serving itself. Rain let herself catch her breath while her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light down here. She knew she wasn't safe, but this was better than nothing. Her adrenaline started to come down and her arms were now up in arms. She wanted to keep holding on, but that was impossible. She let go and fell a few more feet and landed onto the side of a large gear with a thud. This gear still moved and she rotated on it at a steady pace.

She realized that her left arm had become dislocated and there were cuts all over both arms. Exhausted and in pain, Rain started to cry silently. This day had simply become too much.

Grace was awed by the breadth of her new power. Before, she had had some control over stone, but now the very ground she walked on was a part of her. She felt everything in the caverns, from the slow drip of an underground lake to the scurrying of rodents. She reached out with one hand and brushed the wall, closing the passage they had just taken and shifting the direction of the one they stood in. With a little more effort, she found a cluster of brightly glowing crystals in a cavern bellow her and coaxed a shard off and up through the floor, crafting a stone lantern to hold it.

With the new illumination, Grace could see what her magic had told her to be true. She picked up the lantern and followed the new path, her footsteps echoing in the cave without the wind and rain that had been present outside. Once we have escaped, what price would you ask of me, Shaiollesh? She asked the God of Caverns. She was grateful for the power she was given, but she wasn't foolish enough to assume it was given freely. Gods didn't think the way humans did. Or maybe they do. Grace thought sullenly, remembering how she was hunted and captured simply for enjoying her craft.

She grabbed a fistful of the freshly hot dirt and launched it into the Kitty's face praying that it had some effect before she made the mad dash into the Stone. She slipped due to the mud that now had turned to sand all over her body. She ended up sliding unintentionally down the hole. She cried out and in a wild panic she grabbed out at anything that she could catch herself on. Her savior was a rusted and unmoving gear some distance down.

She let go and fell a few more feet and landed onto the side of a large gear with a thud. This gear still moved and she rotated on it at a steady pace.

She realized that her left arm had become dislocated and there were cuts all over both arms. Exhausted and in pain, Rain started to cry silently. This day had simply become too much.

All around was the hiss and slow tick of machinery and steam; only a few of the machines continued to beat like a struggling heart, while the rest were still and cold and silent. The gear on which Rain lay moved slowly by degrees without obstruction, like the face of a clock, with a promise to carry her forever as long as she wished it.

From her vantage point in the cool darkness, a chaos of gears and springs and cogs and sprockets filled the space all around her, illuminated only by the dim clouded light that filtered down from the broken Stone. Metal walkways crisscrossed above and below her, leading to mysterious doors on the shadowed walls. Many of the gears were stuck and struggling due to the chunks of the floor and ceiling that had caught in them; somewhere below her, water was dripping into a larger pool. There was no immediate indication of what this enormous machine was for, or why it existed at all.

Footsteps echoed softly on a catwalk above. Someone leaned over to peer down, then glanced upward to see if there would be any more falling bodies to jam the machinery. The person climbed up on the railing, then dropped down lightly to land on one knee on the same gear where Rain lay. They stepped forward, leaving droplets and wet footprints in their wake, with the intention of collecting this new corpse -- but stopped when it was clear that Rain was very much alive.

In a panic, the person gave a running leap and clambered up onto a nearby catwalk, where they crouched against the railing to stare at her from a safe distance. In the dim light, it was the shape of a full-grown man hunched against the catwalk railing. He was extremely pale -- almost translucent -- and wore very little clothing. A long braid of dark hair hung over the edge of the catwalk, dripping water.

She picked up the lantern and followed the new path, her footsteps echoing in the cave without the wind and rain that had been present outside. Once we have escaped, what price would you ask of me, Shaiollesh? She asked the God of Caverns. She was grateful for the power she was given, but she wasn't foolish enough to assume it was given freely.

Shaiollesh was silent for a long while -- but there was an air of patience and thoughtfulness as the god considered its answer.

Somewhere above -- past the labyrinth of passages that Grace herself had arranged -- Lha'tak's emissary caused earthquakes and landslides, tearing away at the stone, intent on destroying the mountain itself while burrowing deeper after Grace. The emissary, however, had no way of knowing where Grace was. The mountain would collapse long before Grace could be discovered, and trapping her would be near impossible while the God of Caverns' power was in her hands.

Nor's arms tightened around Grace's neck, and she took in a slow breath. She mumbled something in her strange language -- Amune would understand her: We are being watched. And then, she spoke again with a thick accent, in the language Grace knew: "I can walk." She shifted in Grace's powerful grip, to prove that she could move well enough to keep up on her own.

Shaiollesh chose that moment to answer, but not in words. Grace would instinctively know that the God of Caverns simply wished to exist; that she was not being given power, but rather that Shaiollesh needed Grace to act as a conduit for its power. The gods each had an exceptional store of power, but were incapable of using it themselves in any meaningful way. The gods could not affect the world directly -- but they could siphon their power through a living person. Some gods wished to affect the world more profoundly, to exercise rule over it all, and so gathered as many conduits as possible and forced them to act according to the god's will with deals and threats -- but Shaiollesh was content with Grace, satisfied that she was here to manipulate the power that had until now been dormant. It didn't matter to the God of Caverns what she chose to do with it, as long as the passages remained open.

Grace knew, then, that until the collapse of the Stone, Nor had been the one that had been holding Shaiollesh captive -- eons of being caged behind constricting walls. All of the gods had been trapped by the one that Grace was now protecting -- and all of the gods thirsted for her blood. Shaiollesh, too, held no love for Nor -- but the God of Caverns was patient, and understood that Nor was now powerless, and destroying her was a pointless endeavor.

As soon as Nor was allowed to stand again -- shakily -- she craned her neck, touching a wall for balance, but couldn't see far at all down the passage. She reached back to take Amune's hand, and spoke to Grace in her lilting dialect: "Where are we going?"

Rain laid there breathing heavily trying her best to block out the pain she felt. She remembered a doctor friend of hers telling her that the human body is amazing in the fact that it can block out a lot of pain naturally. She spent very little time wondering at just how much she really hurt beneath all the adrenaline and any other natural pain blockers.

She heard quiet steps approach her and she looked up to see a person getting back a safe distance away from her. She watched him leap onto a nearby catwalk she hadn't seen before in the darkness. She winced as she moved her right arm to support her left one. This hadn't been the first dislocation she had in her life, but they never felt good. She needed a good place to lock her arm down so she could relocate it. First she had to deal with this stranger.

She leaned towards him slightly while squinting her eyes to get a better view of him. "Hello? My name is Rain." She felt a bit uncomfortable talking with this translucent man. After all, who was this stranger and why was he among the gears like this? "Who are you?" She then muttered to herself. "God, I hope he understands me." That would be fantastic for her to fall nearly to her death and then meet a cave man that couldn't understand her language.

Rain cleared her throat and instantly regretted it. "Yep, I broke a rib," She winced. "Can you help? I need a doctor or a healer. Would you be willing to help me out?" She took a turned to face the stranger as by now the gear's steady movement had turned her around.

She took a deep breath and whispered to herself. "Well, if you die right now, Rain, at least you die around familiar territory." As she said this she took a look around to get a passing judgement on all the gears in the area. Some of them were rusted and in poor upkeep but others were still in great shape.

She faced the stranger again. "What is this place for? I've seen many machines in my life, but nothing this... large. Is it connected to the Stone?" Now that she thought of it, aside from knowing it to serve as a prison she had no knowledge about the Stone itself. If she was going to make it now, she would have to learn as much as she could.

Rose had forced herself free from the stone vice only to find that the path ahead had disappeared. She beat on it with great arcs of thunder that erupted from her palm, shook the cave with earthquakes, all to no avail. The path was blocked. She turned back and returned to the surface, intent on surviving. She would not let the broken God escape- she would not die here. She would bring down the mountain on her if she had.

And she floated up and up, hovering above the mountain, above the Stone, carried by Lha'tak's winds. And then the world around Rose turned to chaos. She unleashed the power the god had given her, all of it, the profound power of the god that held dominion over natural disasters. Lightning rained down in volleys, the ground shook and cracked and split, wind gusted, bending the trees, threatening the roots that had been dug into the ground over the course of hundreds of years. Rose was angry, and sad, and scared, surrounded by an apocalypse of her own making in a seemingly dead slice of the world surrounded by the terrifying power of gods that were bent on making the survivors of the Stone into their playthings.

I would've been better off if I slept soundly in that accursed box.

Ironically enough there was a time when Rose would have welcomed the power of Lha'tak regardless of the price. But now she knew that the cost was not worth the return- the loss of her freedom, bound to the will of the god with none of her own. And then the cataclysm stopped all at once. It was to no avail, that much was clear. She would not be free of Lha'tak like this. She would not destroy Nor this way, not that she had wanted to in the first place. She needed a new plan.

The new plan was defiance. She would not kill Nor. Many years ago Rose would've been more than willing to, but now? She refused. Lha'tak would know, she knew; there was no way she could hide the information from, at least by her estimation as he was seemingly inside her mind. So she would run, hide, she had taken a turn at being the God's emissary and decided she was done. She let herself fall to the ground, and ran for the protection of the Stone- she was sure Lha'tak wouldn't be far behind.