Grace placed the girl on the ground like she wanted, then spent some time in silent contemplation. The God's answer gave her a lot to consider and opened many possibilities. She wasn't sure how to feel about Shaiolesh and Nor, but decided that as long as the God wasn't trying to kill her charge, it was an issue she could live with.

I thank you for your patience, Great One, and for teaching me what I lack. I have much to think on when a moment of peace presents itself. Grace had begun to view the God of Caverns in a less suspicious light, though she realized it was only acting in its own self interest. They weren't driven to to revenge or megalomania, instead being content to live and share the world, much like Grace herself. Satisfied, the Golemancer allowed her thoughts to return to her surroundings as the faraway rumble of thunder tapered off.

"For now, we'll rest. We should be far enough down that no other gods can get to us." She stopped and trailed her hand against one wall of the cave, causing it to balloon outward. Glowing crystals grew from the walls, lighting up a modest space that began to take shape as a room. A stone bench extended from one wall, quickly growing moss cushions. Nearby, a stone basin caught water pouring from a Crack in the wall before allowing it to drain. Soft Moss beds sprang into growth, filling the room with a dull earthy scent. The space wasn't extravagant, but Grace was only just learning to use her new strength. Decades of sculpture carving had helped her visualize the effect, but she was still amazed that not only stone, but all that belonged to the deep responded to her call.

"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.

For awhile, he did not move. Gears ticked and whirred all around; water dripped into the pool far below.

Finally he raised his head, and he clambered onto the railing to peer down at her. It was impossible to tell his age -- his skin was smooth and pale from so long spent underwater -- but long, stitched surgical scars lined his bony torso. His eyes were fogged glass.

"Keep the Gods asleep," he spoke in a croaking voice. "The Singer sings, but not enough. Amplification is necessary. Machinery powered by sleeping imprisoned, converted energy siphoned to the Singer, the Gods sleep. The Gods slept." He rocked gently. "You're --"

---

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.

---

Lightning crashed and shattered Rain's eardums; the man jumped and raised his arm against the blinding flashes of light, and the gears groaned and twisted and snapped and convulsed under the force of a sudden earthquake. What remained of the walls of the Stone were falling in on top of them. A boulder of cement barely missed crushing Rain, and instead slammed into the gear she was standing on; the gear cracked and tilted suddenly while a cascade of chaos ripped apart the last shreds of mechanical order around her.

---

The space wasn't extravagant, but Grace was only just learning to use her new strength. Decades of sculpture carving had helped her visualize the effect, but she was still amazed that not only stone, but all that belonged to the deep responded to her call.

Nor stepped silently, uncertainly, around the little alcove of safety that Grace had made, her hands clasped at her chest. The walls boomed, and she looked up suddenly as fissures of rock showered them with dust and grit.

Grace could feel the twisting pain of the caverns; distantly, a cave-in crushed a long passage, the well and the statue crumpled at the bottom of a new sinkhole, a sizable side of the mountain itself had crashed into the valley below. The Stone was demolished.

The swath of destruction wouldn't reach them here, so far below the surface, but it was clear that all that awaited them outside was a ruin of the last trace of civilization.

"Will you live here?" Nor asked, after the rumble and crash outside had gone. She surveyed the room again, the moss beds and the water basin. They were like a new home. There was, after all, nowhere to go. Her eyes moved to Grace, and then to the curious arm that she had felt too solid when she had been carried. "Who are you, really?"

The little bird that had followed them through the caverns began to make a racket against the stone wall; it fluttered and scratched at the stone, chirping and squeaking while feathers beat against the rock.

The God of the Caverns rested, quiet unless Grace had need of it. The attack upon the caves was nothing of concern -- there would be more passages, there would be more rock. Grace's presence anchored its power, and it was content.

---

And then, everything stopped.

Gears creaked and strained brokenly. Pieces of stone and mortar clinked on the brass and copper as the sky cleared. The man floated face-down in the water below, his long braid floating beside him. A long gash split his back, but there was no blood or bone -- only coppery metal beneath the skin.

---

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.

Where the garden and the well had been was now a gaping sinkhole, dark and cold. Where Nor had spent decades singing her song was now only a desolate expanse of rubble and root-stripped trees.

The Stone was a broken shell of the majesty it once had been; it was the very picture of a decrepit ruin, darkened by rain and scorched by lightning. The entirety of the floor had fallen through and shattered the crumpled gears and springs below. A few ladders and catwalks had survived, making it possible to climb down among the gears.

Across the chasm of machinery, Rigby stood with eyes that glowed in the same way as those of the God of Dreams that stood beside him in the guise of a great owl. He spotted Rose running for the ruined Stone, and he grinned wide -- but he said nothing.

The bloody rune in Rose's chest seared with pain. Thunder rumbled overhead, and lights flashed behind dark clouds. Rain poured down on top of Rose's head, and nowhere else, soaking her to the bone.

Lha'tak was not angry. It merely perceived Rose as a pet that must be disciplined and trained, no matter how long or how far she ran.

Rain was amazed at what she saw when the stranger finally looked at her directly. His eyes were goggles which fascinated her. She could see small surgical scars lining his body. She wondered just how much of his body was modified and what they were for precisely.

"Keep the Gods asleep," he spoke in a croaking voice. "The Singer sings, but not enough. Amplification is necessary. Machinery powered by sleeping imprisoned, converted energy siphoned to the Singer, the Gods sleep. The Gods slept." He rocked gently. "You're --"

Magic and technology working together in unison! Rain had never thought such an idea was practical, and she was considered eccentric for her experiments with steamtech. Suddenly lightning crashed and Rain managed to cover only one ear with her working arm. She slipped as the boulder of cement that came crashing down next to her caused her to lose her balance. She slid into it sideways fortunately on her less injured side. Surprisingly enough, she found that she was much less startled by each instance of near-death that happened to her, but she was still shocked nonetheless.

As suddenly as everything happened it all stopped. Ears ringing -- left worse than right -- Rain grasped at the rebar sticking out of the concrete block and pulled herself up with her right arm. Her fingertips had been shredded to the bone from her fall causing her to wince more as she realized more damage that had been inflicted to her body from this ordeal. She hissed in pain as she hobbled to her feet and looked around for the man that she had been talking with to find him face first in the water.

"Oh that can't be good," She muttered to herself. "URGH! Worst. Day. Ever. Even the day I was caught was better than this!"

She clamored over to the body and noticed that there was no blood. She stared in amazement at the coppery gash before she took a breath and dunked into the water to get her right shoulder under him. With that leverage she lifted him painfully out of the water and dragged him to the now broken gear and leaned him against the concrete boulder. She then scanned the boulder and noticed that some parts of the rebar were pinned to the gear in such a way she could in fact relocate her arm.

Biting down on the cloth of her shirt, Rain slipped her arm into a decent spot and twisted it back into place with a loud pop and a muffled yell. She teared up slightly before letting out a sigh of relief. She moved her left arm gingerly and it ached back at her, but at least she could operate it again.

She stepped over to view the unconscious man with eyes filled with wonder. She had heard of steamtech prosthetics but to be augmented to this degree was incredible and very dangerous to the subject. She was starting to realize just how little she knew of mechanics in spite of all of her accomplishments in the past.

She looked around to find a safe path out of here through the catwalks as she imagined at the rate everything was falling apart there wouldn't be much of here left.

Grace winced as the phantom pain shot through her, but she quickly schooled her features before her discomfort could show. Taking a seat on the stone bench, she carefully reached out her will to repair the stone above before it could collapse. Growing weary of the bird's fluttering, she also extended a perch from the stone wall.

"I am nobody special. The only thing that ever set me apart from other people was my ability to create living stone. With that, I could shape statues with my bare hands. Later I learned that carving certain runes into the stone would let me control those statues with my own body, though they would only move the way I moved." She stripped off her gloves and removed her outer coat. With only a thin short sleeved shirt on underneath, the line across her bicep where the flesh met grey stone was clear, even in the ghostly light of the crystals. "I lost my arm when I was twelve, and for a while I lived with only one arm. Back then, I was still scared of people finding out what I could do. I had heard what people said about witches and gods, and how much they were hated. It took me many more years, and the death of my mother, to realize I didn't really need other people, and to realize what I could really do with my abilities."

Grace rolled her shoulder and sighed, fatigued from the events of the day. "Anyway, that's enough rambling from me for now. Get some sleep, I have a feeling we're not done being hunted yet. I'll raise a guard and seal the tunnels for now." Standing up again, Grace called up a pillar of stone from the floor, shaping it with her mind into a form she remembered well. The features of a middle aged man formed from the stone as if the outer layer of rock had just melted away, and in just a few minutes the inert golem stood, back straight and staff in hand. At his side, the remaining stone formed itself into a second statue, this one a replica of a tall dog with long hair. Into each of the figure's foreheads, Grace traced a strange rune with her finger, carving the symbol deep into the stone, and stood back for a second to admire her work.

"This kind of detail would have taken me a day before." She muttered under her breath, reaching toward the softly glowing rune on her inner wrist. Pinching the air above it with her thumb and forefinger, she drew it away as a thin stream of ethereal blue light flowed out with it, then she directed it to the rune in the man's forehead. She did the same with the dog statue, pulling light from another rune further up her arm. With a soft shower of dust, the man and the dog shuddered, then opened their eyes in unison. The dog immediately bounded forward exuberantly, licking at Grace's hand with a stone tongue briefly before turning his eyes on Nor. Before he could tackle the girl, however, the man finished adjusting to his surroundings.

"Hoi!" He called, his voice carrying a strange metallic sound. He seemed perplexed for a second after that, but shrugged and placed his hand on the dog's head as it came to heel.

"Is the danger passed then, milady?" He asked Grace, "And who is this girl? She seems... not quite human?"

"I will tell you the story later, Vald. For now, I need you to keep guard while we sleep. Wake me at any disturbance, even natural ones."

Nor sat sleeplessly in a corner, her wary eyes on the two golems whose personalities were far closer to souls than any golem had a right to contain. But they were keeping her safe, and she could not judge them.

Occasionally her eyes drifted to Grace, and the stone arm that held so much pain.

The stone has never lived before.

Shaiolesh spoke in Grace's dreams, softly, like an elder memory. The god never took notice of anything in particular, instead content to merely exist in dark silence -- but notice had been taken of the golems.

It has been so long since I have felt life.

In her dreams, Grace stood -- dressed in silk, both of her natural arms intact -- in a vibrant garden with marble pillars and laughing fountains; the garden, she knew, was called Celana, and was the heart of the gods. Under a twisted tree before her, a group of men and women lounged and laughed -- they were gods, she knew instinctively. Among them, a young robed boy with dark hair and pale skin sat reading a book; this was Shaiolesh, as he had been. A woman wearing bright green with a cascade of fiery hair -- Lha'tak -- danced happily with Rshalogg, a spindly youth with a venomous gleam in his eye.

Then we left Celana, and could not find it again, no matter how far we searched. We became lost, and some of us sought power instead.

Grace stood in a battlefield, the story of which had been passed down through generations. The dance of Lha'tak and Rshalogg had turned bloody; an army of shrieking witches gathered earthquakes and tornadoes and hailstorms behind them; while a mass of flickering, shadowy heathens -- Rshalogg's gleam in their shining eyes -- hissed and grinned and devoured the sky in darkness. A few of the witches knelt to Rshalogg, and a few of the heathens embraced Lha'tak. The other gods each formed their own armies to throw into the fray; the Snares were created for the advantage in the neverending fight for power. Until --

The god of song stood at the center of the battle, and a soft voice lifted up over the screeches and snarls.

The song wasn't just in Grace's dream.

Nor stood at the far side of the room, a hand pressed against the wall while she sang sweet, unintelligible words under her breath. Grace could feel the power there weakening; she could no longer control the stone that made up that wall, and neither could Shaiolesh -- but as the song continued, Grace felt a tingling in her phantom limb, like the bones and flesh awakening.

The stone crumbled under Nor's fingers, and the restless bird darted out of the hole. On the other side of that wall was a distinctive ticking sound, and the soft glow of moonlight. Nor continued to tear away the wall, piece by crumbling piece.

The song is the antithesis of every god's power, Shaiolesh explained calmly. The song was the very same to which Lha'tak and Rshalogg had danced in the garden of the gods. It was the song of Celana.

---

Under the rising moonlight, the bird fluttered and perched upon a bent pipe and warbled prettily high above Rain's head. At the edge to one side there was an owlish glimpse of the god of dreams; across the chasm, along the ledge of what used to be the Stone, stood a silhouette like an enormous lizard. They each were silent a moment, and then they faded into the violet evening.

Somewhere along one wall -- behind the dense chaos of broken sprockets -- something was picking away at the stone wall.

The man-from-the-water opened his goggle-eyes and lifted his head without so much as a cough or a breath. He moved an arm experimentally, and he climbed to his feet. His eyes fell on Rain, and then he looked up at the sky. The clouds were drifting apart, revealing the stars.

"Guess it's done then." He looked to Rain again, his body heavy and loose and dripping wet. "The gods sleep no more, the singer sings no more, the Stone sleeps instead, and Celana is lost to never be found, never to be found." He lifted his head again, scanning the wreckage. "Where are the humans I wonder? So afraid. Maybe died of fear."

He walked as he spoke, loping over bent springs, and yanked on a line attached to a pulley high above. A boiler began to rumble and hiss, and with a few bangs on a stuck coil there was at least one intact source of steam power.

"Up and over, no place for me here." He set about the long task of finding the necessary materials to fix the elevator, which sat half-submerged in the pond.

"Guess it's done then." He looked to Rain again, his body heavy and loose and dripping wet. "The gods sleep no more, the singer sings no more, the Stone sleeps instead, and Celana is lost to never be found, never to be found." He lifted his head again, scanning the wreckage. "Where are the humans I wonder? So afraid. Maybe died of fear."

Just as soon as she managed to pull him out of the water and get some time to try and think the odd man woke up and started moving around without so much as a breath. The words that came out of his mouth mostly made no sense to her. Except gods and humans. Rain blinked at him a few times just to make sure she wasn't seeing anything as he moved around without too much trouble. What did he mean about where the humans were? Didn't he know he was right next to one? What was he?

"Up and over, no place for me here." He set about the long task of finding the necessary materials to fix the elevator, which sat half-submerged in the pond.

Finally Rain regained enough sense to clear her throat and speak. "Celana? What's that? What do you mean where are the humans? I am a human! There are others awake too! Those stupid gods were trying their darnedest to get into me." She shuddered at that thought. "Uh-uh. I am not letting that happen."

She then noticed he was looking for parts. She glanced around to see the broken elevator and cautiously made her way over just to make sure she didn't slip. "I don't much like the idea of going up there again. Not with the big kitty up there trying to take my soul." She looked up towards the hole above her and clenched her teeth at the thought of falling again. "I think... I think I was lucky enough to survive my first fall down here. I don't think I want a go at round two."

As she stopped at the elevator she noticed the hydraulics were still in fair shape, but the cable grips had snapped leaving their partner cables hanging. The grips would need to be completely replaced. There were other parts that needed repairs as well, but she'd have to get the elevator out of the water to do so. Not to mention she needed the tools as well.

She waved her hand towards the odd man. "Hey, uh, metal-man... I can fix this. I just need the right tools. I need a couple hydraulic pumps to lift this out of the water too. I can't get at the parts that are submerged, and it'd be good to see what's underneath." Before she knew it, in spite of the pain she was in, she felt quite comfortable as she started giving direction to the guy so she could fix the elevator. If it weren't for all the loose water she would have started to feel like she was back in her and her father's shop working a repair order directing their employees.

She quickly rattled off the names of all the tools and supplies she'd need as she inspected the elevator more and more closely.

As Grace listened to her patron reminisce, she couldn't tell if the story was told in sorrow, or just as simple fact. She thought perhaps she had heard a note of pride or a touch of wistful melancholy when he (For she knew now that the God of Caverns was indeed male) spoke of her golems, and the memory of her first true golem rose unbidden in her mind.

She had been no older then seven years at the time, carefree and reveling in her gifts. She had played with the living stone for as long as she could remember, but careful to avoid being seen since her mother had warned her not to be caught by the other villagers. So it was that she had been deep in the woods behind her home, patting crude statues into shape with her hands, when a hunter had stumbled into the clearing where she was playing.

Immediately, the man knew what she was doing, since the living stone she had collected from the cliff face had left plenty of unnatural craters, and raised his weapon to fire at her. In a panic, Grace ran as fast as she could, barely avoiding the arrow that burried itself in the trunk of a nearby tree.

She ran all the way home, followed by the man's cursing as he chased her, and barely managed to get the door closed before another arrow head appeared in the wood, stuck through the door. Immediately her mother had scooped her up and bundled her into a pile of linden in the cabinets, hiding Grace away just as the door flew open again.

The next few minutes faded from memory. Only a short, angry argument could be recalled, ending in an anguished scream, a clattering sound, shouted voices from outside, and the sound of running feet. When the noises died down, Grace crawled out of the cabinet, shaking in fear and already starting to cry.

On the floor lay her mother, a growing pool of blood seeping from the place where a knife pierced her chest. A shelf had been knocked over during the struggle, spilling various nicknacks and treasures across the floor. In a haze, Grace gripped one of the items, a small wooden carving of a bird, as she crawled toward her mother, already able to see that she wasn't breathing. As she drew near, she could see a shimmering fog rising from her mother, and knew that she couldn't let that fog leave. Reaching out, she grabbed it as it rose and wrapped her hand in it, gathering it toward her. Now that she had it, she needed to put it somewhere before it faded, and her eyes found the small wooden bird. Hesitating for only a second, she pulled her mother's essence into the carving, clutching it to her chest and sobbing even as her mother's voice, at first confused then comforting, fell from the now moving beak.

---

Back in the present, Grace felt uneasy as Nor's song reached her. Still, she said nothing, since the girl obviously had a goal in mind. Instead she returned her attention to Shaiolesh.

"What makes the song so powerful against you?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the discomfort with learning. The God of Caverns seemed to have a vast store of knowledge, and that drew Grace's interest more that the power he could grant her.

She quickly rattled off the names of all the tools and supplies she'd need as she inspected the elevator more and more closely.

He stood atop a half-submerged gear, wavering his weight from left to right and back again, and he stared for a long silent moment at Rain's back. After awhile he made a decision, and like a cat he leaped into the mess of tangled wires and dangling sprockets to pry free some of the parts that Rain had requested.

Slowly, the list of supplies accumulated at Rain's feet -- the metal-man carried hydraulics over his shoulder and fished a toolbox out of the pond. He clambered up the catwalks, and would follow Rain's instructions wherever his assistance was required. It seemed her tone of authority on the matter of repair was all that was required to secure his willing obedience.

"Celana is the lost paradise," he called down to her after awhile, continuing a forgotten conversation. "The gods' home. They left it, can't find it again, so they're angry and sad and try to create Celana again, but they can't agree how, so they fight, and people fight, and people die." He threaded a strong cord through a pulley and tossed the ends down to Rain. "Sages tried to find the road to Celana, to lead the gods home, but found a prison instead. The song, the song." He began to hum the familiar melody -- but he stopped when the same song echoed from across the basin.

Nor picked her way along a catwalk at the opposite side of the pit, having just emerged from a freshly dug hole in the wall. She stood with her arms clamped around a railing, staring down at the water far below, and sang softly to calm herself.

The little blue bird lighted on a broken bar above the hole Nor had crawled out of, and it kept one sharp eye on what was being said inside.

---

"What makes the song so powerful against you?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the discomfort with learning. The God of Caverns seemed to have a vast store of knowledge, and that drew Grace's interest more that the power he could grant her.

While Grace's mind relived the tragic memories, she would feel the full weight of the god's attention focused on her; like the eyes of the earth itself peering into her heart. There was nothing to distract Shaiolesh from her.

Within Grace's mind grew once again memories that were not her own: these were the sounds and images of the people of the underground, who had once worshiped Shaiolesh, who breathed consciousness into the stone much in the same way Grace had done. The very walls of their lamplit caverns seemed to hum with life. She remembered the peoples from the sunlit lands descending into the caverns with blades and savage screams, calling the cavern-born heretical and demonic because they were afraid, because they did not understand. The cavern-born did not fight, but turned the passages so their pursuers were lost for an eternity with their own hatred. Shaiolesh meant to show Grace that she was not alone -- that she was as one of the cavern-born, who were destroyed after Shaiolesh had been imprisoned by the Song. Now, Grace was the last of her kind -- unless there were more who might join her, to rebuild, to welcome the blessing of the cavern.

A memory of Celana interrupted these thoughts -- a flash of bright flowers and trickling water -- and Shaiolesh spoke again.

We were powerless in Celana, he explained, his voice like that of the child in the dream. Like humans we lived, and we were happy in our ignorance of corruption. The Song resonates a frequency within us, our last connection to Celana, that recalls that powerlessness. Though humans may attempt to sing it, only that snare called Nor has a voice that can match that frequency. We do not know why. The gods are afraid, and with fear comes hatred -- with hatred, violence.

The Song echoed in the pit outside the hole carved into the rock; Shaiolesh was quiet, weakened but content to rest. Grace's own power, therefore, was weakened. Like the god of caverns, she could feel the ripples of sound drawing her power away. The golems she had created began to move sluggishly, their attention slurred.

Grace knew, instinctively, that with more people to add strength to Shaiolesh's power, they could easily counter the effects of the song. Nor no longer had the prisoners of the Stone to amplify her ability; she was now only one voice. Wouldn't it be nice, Shaiolesh mildly suggested, if all people could live happily in the caverns, to leave the other gods shut out to rage among themselves?

Rain couldn't help but be impressed at the agility of the man. She knew that she couldn't do the same after receiving the same blow that he did. She appreciated the promptness of his following her instructions as the repairs moved along efficiently because of it. The feeling of tools in her hands once again put her in a good mood in spite of the pain she felt. She could especially feel the burning pain on her finger tips from when she grabbed onto the rocks as she fell into this area.

She listened passively as he explained to her about Celana. She had never heard the tale of this place before and found the legend to be rather interesting. She could even relate to the feeling of losing a home. After all the loss of her and her father's shop was the loss of a home in its own right.

She pointed out a couple more required items as she took a break from repairs to let her hands cool off a bit. He went around humming that familiar tune. "So, what's your name? I'm Rain."

She then noticed that someone else was humming that same tune in this cavern. She craned her neck to look at where the sound came from and decided to call out. "Who's there? You aren't one of those Gods are you? I don't want to go another round with the who's going to get my soul game."

He was chained, taken through corridors by guards that surrounded him. if in a different situation, the mechanical and architectural beauty of the Stone's interiors would've been fascinating, but at his current predicament, they were simply a reminder of his own failure. the maze like hallways winded downwards, and eventually he was taken to a huge room, perfectly clean stone with interesting carvings made the walls, pillars and bronze and copper machinations wriggled their way in and out of the walls. coffins lined the room, some pigeon holed into the walls, a few lined on the floor, subtly sunken into the ground. The coffins themselves where quite pretty, although their beauty came with a ominous tone, at least he wouldn't die in an alley somewhere, in a way, it was an appropriate death, The hunter had been hunted.

He offered no resistance as he was shoved into the coffin, the lid closed on top of it, he could hear a hissing noise as the gas filled his coffin, seeping into his lungs. his eyes shut with his last thought. his soul was condemned, and he had failed the spirit in his dreams, was he damned to suffer for eternity in the after life?

It was like blinking.

His eyes opened, as if not a moment had passed, low light entered his coffin from a crack near his foot, there was some dust inside his coffin, and he coughed, with his coughs he could feel the last remains of the gas leaving his body, being replaced by air. I'm not dead.. Taking in his situation, he didn't seem to have aged at all, it was as he had just been put into the coffin. how long has it been?
Vin's body felt stiff, and being in such a tight space was making him uncomfortable, he could feel the coffin was almost sideways as he was being slightly pressed to the side, what had happened out there? had it been abandoned, left to whims of time?. taking a deep breath, he pushed against the coffin lid. it was much more difficult to push then he expected, almost as if something was blocking it.

After a few shoves, the lid gave in enough for him to peer outside, everything was in ruins. it seemed as if he was in the bottom of a enormous crater, lit by last remains of light as the day gave way to the moon, trees on the top of the crater, pillars, half broken statues and the remains of machines that have not worked for very long cast ominous shadows upon the field of rubble in the bottom.

It took quite a few more pushes before the lid fully gave away, the large bits of rubble pressing against it rolled down from the pile of stone and marble his coffin was on, he got out and up, stretching and cracking some of his joints. he examined his surrounding a bit more, he could see more coffins like his, most of them seemed to be completely crushed under mounds of debris or pierced by metal parts belonging to walkways and machines.

Vin looked up once more, he could still see overgrowth of vegetation, if time had brought this down, what had made it be abandoned, how long has it been? did something vicious drive them out or had they just forgotten about this wretched place? was there even civilization left by now?

crimson dotted the stones, blood seeping from the coffins, many lives ended that day, most of them probably deserved it.. I wonder what's worse, death, or whatever's out there..

He began making his way through the wreckage, looking for a way out.

After a few shoves, the lid gave in enough for him to peer outside, everything was in ruins. it seemed as if he was in the bottom of a enormous crater, lit by last remains of light as the day gave way to the moon, trees on the top of the crater, pillars, half broken statues and the remains of machines that have not worked for very long cast ominous shadows upon the field of rubble in the bottom.

The sinking sun cast red shadows on the twisted wreckage and mangled roots. Water trickled from a broken pipe and splashed into a pond far below. A breeze hushed through the leaves high above. Someone was singing.

Someone else called out from the rubble below.

"Who's there? You aren't one of those Gods are you? I don't want to go another round with the who's going to get my soul game."

Not far above Vin's empty coffin -- clinging to a broken catwalk -- stood a thin, pale girl in a dirty white dress. She had been staring down at Vin, watching as he emerged from his own grave, when the call from farther below drew her attention. She stopped singing, and she stared down at Rain and the half-repaired elevator. Her voice wasn't strong enough to call back.

Instead, she crouched on her perch, and she leaned as far toward Vin as possible, holding tightly to the railing. She was still more than ten feet above him.

"How do I get down?" she asked him, her voice quiet and frightened. She spoke in a thick, lilting dialect that suggested English wasn't her first language. "The gods will come back."

Down among the gears and broken pipes, the metal-man finished reattaching a part of the elevator cord and turned his soulless eyes toward the scene across the chasm, where the singing had just stopped. He crouched atop the elevator and tilted his head.

"That's Nor. The girl. The godkeeper. A snare like me, not a god but gods are afraid. Of her, not of me. I'm just Soul." He lifted his face to the sky, where the remains of Lha-tak's storms scudded calmly across the sky as dark dissipating clouds. "It's getting dark."

"That's Nor. The girl. The godkeeper. A snare like me, not a god but gods are afraid. Of her, not of me. I'm just Soul." He lifted his face to the sky, where the remains of Lha-tak's storms scudded calmly across the sky as dark dissipating clouds. "It's getting dark."

Godkeeper. Rain just nodded as Soul explained. She never cared for how most people treated snares. They had as much a right to live their lives as anyone else did. The darkness, however, would provide with another problem: it would make working more tedious. She would need another two hours to fix the elevator at least, and helping Nor would slow that down too.

She hadn't noticed the newly awakened member of the Stone. "Alright, Soul, what do we have that can help Nor out?" Having someone around that the gods feared sounded like a good idea to her. A little bit of protection from being possessed sounded fine by her. "Probably be best to get her down here before nightfall. Also, what do we have for lights?"

She started to scan the area for anything useful to get Nor safely down here. There were gears everywhere. And another person climbing the wreckage. She blinked a few times just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating from some unknown blow to the head. She then cleared her throat.

"Hey!" She called out to the stranger climbing the rubble. "Can you help pull some of these gears over... y'know and make some steps or something for the the lady to make her way down here to join us?" She waved over towards Nor to specify exactly who she was talking about. She then approached the stranger and help him move the heavy gears. "I'm Rain, you are?"

Vin was climbing through the remains of the stone, looking for a way out as a voice, a soft, low voice, called above him. he turned and saw the girl that was asking him how to get down from the remains of the catwalk she clung to. Vin raised an eyebrow and began giving the area around her a quick glance, looking for a quick way down. when a new voice called, his attention swapping once more, to another person, asking him to help the girl on the catwalks.

"Name's Vin."

As he said this he began helping her to move the gears, tilting his head towards her for a second and asking as they pulled on the debris.

"Do you know what happened to his place, I just woke up from my slumber.."

Soul didn't verbally respond, but he bowed to Rain and immediately clambered up the gears and pulleys to the nearest broken catwalk. The walkways themselves were broken and twisted, but the lights attached to their railings appeared to be mostly intact. He rapidly turned a crank with a buzzing whirr, and yellow lights flickered to life. They wouldn't provide a terribly great illumination, but once he was finished winding up each section there would be enough light to work by.

In the dim cloudy dusk, the catwalk-lights cast an eerie yellow glow on the broken copper machinery.

By the time he was finished, Rain and Vin had successfully crafted a makeshift ramp that stretched up to the place where Nor was stranded. Nor picked her way down, slowly but surely -- she was pale and thin, dirty and dusty, as if she'd just been dragged underground and had never eaten in her life.

Her bare feet touched the catwalk where Rain and Vin were standing, and she lifted her head to thank them -- but she stopped, transfixed, when she caught sight of Vin's dark eye. Nor reached up to touch the symbols around his eye.

Vin knew, instinctively, that this girl could harm him -- could take his power away.

Nor stopped just before she might have touched him, and her eyes widened in hopelessness and fear. "You have an Old God inside you," she said, mostly for Rain's benefit. She took a step back away from him. "It is not benevolent."

From above came the echo of a panther's yowl and a flash of firelight; the enormous, fiery bearcat -- which Rain had only a short time ago narrowly escaped -- snarled down at them from the edge of the pit. It surveyed its potential victims, then took a running leap off the edge: A huge sprocket groaned and shifted under the bearcat's landing, but the fire god leaped again to swing up onto a lit catwalk, getting a little closer each time.

Soul raced across the beams and ropes, back to the elevator that Rain had been trying to repair, and set to work getting it running again as fast as he possibly could.

Nor stepped back again, equally frightened of Vin and of the flaming bearcat that descended toward them with long teeth and sharp claws.

Rain nodded and smiled as Soul turned on the lights that were available while she and Vin stacked up gears to make a ramp for Nor. "Nice to meet you, Vin. This place kind of broke down and let out all the Old Gods... crazy right? I hardly believe it myself."

She stood in such a way that she would catch Nor if she should fall down from the makeshift ramp, but thankfully that didn't happen. Rain wasn't certain she'd be able to take the pain of catching someone with the beating she had taken so far today. She watched Nor's reaction to Vin and then her gaze turned to him. She hadn't looked at him particularly closely until now, but she realized just how different his eye was from normal.

Nor stopped just before she might have touched him, and her eyes widened in hopelessness and fear. "You have an Old God inside you," she said, mostly for Rain's benefit. She took a step back away from him. "It is not benevolent."

Panic spiked in Rain's chest as her heart jumped. "W-w-wait, you have an Old God in you?" She took a step back ready to make a run for it. "It isn't going to eat me is it?"

She then heard the howl of the big kitty and looked up to the top of the pit. Her heart sunk as she watched it took a leap off the edge to reach its prey. The whole point of jumping down this pit and taking the beating he did was so it wouldn't follow, and now that whole plan had been thrown out the window. Not that she had considered the fact it could probably manage to get down here in the first place.

"Oh shit," Her voice came out small and fearful. She came to the decision that she'd rather risk being with the person that had an Old God inside him already than the big kitty coming down to kill them now. She immediately got to work finishing the repairs to the elevator. If she rushed it, she might be able to finish it well enough for the elevator to work in only one direction: up. A full repair would just take too long.

She muttered repeatedly to herself. "I'm not going to be a kitty snack." and "Nuh-uh no God's taking my soul today."