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"That girl is more then a bit insulting!" Valda snapped slightly as they left the Port. She was not too thrilled at being called Princess. Sure, she was kind of a bit of a wild person, and she didn't care much for actually acting like a royal, but it was more then a bit insulting for Halley to just assume that out of the two of them that she was the Princess and not the Queen. If she ever ran into her again she'd set her straight and probably smack her in the head if she got the chance.

She was somewhat glad that they reached the Palace once again, glad that they were back where they belonged, and she was concerned as to what had happened to everyone else. Valda hoped that not too many people had ended up dying because of vampires. "Let's see about finding Myrus okay? Then we can see about figuring out what sort of damage was done here while we were gone..." she said softly, looking at the other two before she got off the boat.

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"Actually... There might be a simpler way to figure out at least where the Prince is. Since I am somewhat sure that he's not within the room anymore, I can see if I can try to pinpoint his location more exactly if you give me a moment... For the Queen and Princess, I think they likely got to safety, I'm more worried about the Prince's whereabouts since he essentially went off by himself," he said in response to the other two, before he stepped a little bit away from them. Fire flashed across his eyes as he started using his powers to scan across space and time in an effort to locate the prince. However, the place he ended up finding him in was not a place he expected.

"...I don't know how, but somehow the Prince has landed himself 3 years into the future... Simple solution really, all we have to do is just pop over there and bring him back, since I don't think he would know how to get himself back..." Bruce said to Myth and Lennox, before fire sort of swirled all around them. "Recommendation? Don't move until the fire disappears otherwise there is no way of knowing when you will land..." The fire swirled around them for a few moments, before they wound up in the ruins of the Palace, right by where Ahote and Myrus were. Bruce walked over to the pair.

"You two have gotten more then a little far from home..." he said to them, before he looked around the area. "This is not the sort of thing I expected, not too far into the future... This is more then a bit concerning..." This certainly was something that was a bit problematic.

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That doesn't make any sense Tate... Why wouldn't you be in trouble because of that mark, she said, shaking her head slightly at him. Despite his words, she decided to try and get rid of the mark anyway. After a few moments, using her Magyk and focusing on the mark, this time she had managed to get rid of the mark that was on him. Well now you don't have to worry about the mark at all, since this time around I was able to get rid of it. So now hopefully we don't have any problems because of it or anything.

Sylvi knew that people were watching them, it was kind of hard not to understand why. She at the least was covered in blood, even if Tate wasn't, so people likely were going to stare. Hearing his words about Violet, and her being someone else, it was a bit confusing to her. Wait, she was someone else before or something? Who was she before she became the person that she is now? Something tells me you wouldn't have mentioned that if you didn't already know who she is fully really... And how do you know her?

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"Valda!" Myrus blurted, forgetting to remain quiet as Ahote told him about his vision. He was certain that he had to be talking about his sister, just as he knew without a doubt that it had to have been Ragnarok. Actual gods had come down and fought amongst each other less than a year ago and Ragnarok was always going to happen eventually. The time for that sort of thing seemed right - even Fleur, the witch who inspired fear and terror and adrenaline all at once, might somehow turn out to play a role in that deadly tale. The most worrying thing though about Ragnarok and the fact that most people tended to overlook was that the stories said how it would end. The gods would fail. The worlds would fall and the cycle would start over again. They were destined to fail.

"... Sure, I'll help you prevent this," Myrus promised, though he felt it would be a futile effort. Ragnarok couldn't be stopped. It always would happen. He nodded a bit, biting his lip as he saw the little colorful paddle boats that Ahote indicated. He used to take those out on the Moat when he was young with Luna and... and Mavis.

By the time Bruce, Lennox, Myth, and the stowaway Mona appeared, the Frost Giant had already crossed the Moat. It didn't look back, which was fortunate - especially as two of the new arrivals would instantly notice some horrible items. Bruce would almost instantly stumble upon a corpse. The corpse was Runa Baldurdattir. Myth too would see a small, feeble form - and she would know in her heart that the departed soul before her was her own baby boy.

What happened here?

"I-I think it was Ragnarok..." Myrus informed the newcomers. Both Myth and Bruce would know all about that prophesied event.

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The Palace Barracks - the Castle...

Gypsy smirked slightly at "Viper," pleased that the woman didn't seem to have any apprehension about drinking the blood of those who had once been her comrades in arms. She either did not know or did not care that Viper was not Amarantha's real name - though she had already indicated knowing that her companion was the leader of the army here in the Small Wet Country Across the Sea. Heading straight into the barracks, she chuckled slightly, seeing a woman rocking a baby girl (Dawn) back and forth. "Bite sized," she told Amarantha. "Why not go first? You've got to be starvin'."

"... S-Stay back!" Dawn's mother shouted, brandishing a crossbow in one arm and holding onto baby Dawn in the other. "I mean it!"

The Library Wing of the Palace - the Castle...

Sometimes the world acts in bizarre, strange ways. As Bruce successfully brought Myth, Lennox, and himself to the future, they also ended up somehow with a stowaway. Mona was sucked to the future too by the immense and powerful energies of Bruce's cosmic flames, landing with them in the ruins of the Palace. Oh boy, talk about a meet cute... (see future section above!)

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He decided not to tell Sylvi why he wasn't in the same danger as her from the mark - he didn't want to get into that sort of conversation with her and besides, she had already moved on to another topic. Unfortunately, that was hardly one that he wanted to discuss either. He had his secrets for a reason and while he loved her, he doubted she would love him if she knew the truth. Antonije couldn't bear to live without her, so he was just going to keep her in the dark as long as possible when it came to what he did during the middle of the night. She wouldn't understand. She'd hate him for it - maybe she would even turn him in, go up to Amarantha and expose him as the vigilante prowling the streets.

I ran into Violet once, he lied - more of oversimplified the truth, really. He was still holding Sylvi's hand, guiding her along as they finally made it to room 847. The door was silver with a smattering of purple stains from some failed paint job years ago. Antonije didn't really mind the appearance - he actually liked that it was different and unique. Heading inside with Sylvi, he sat down on the bed and pulled her into his arms. The room was cramped and tiny, barely fitting their belongings, bed, and a place to cook from. Kissing her neck, he sighed slightly. She used to be the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Silvija... But you mustn't tell anyone or they'll make her go back. You don't want to go back to being a princess, so please don't do something equally horrible to Violet...

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While this small little country may very well be under attack, Halley's request dealt with a much bigger issue: the Nine Realms were all under attack. Every moment that the Tesseract was missing, they were another minute closer to the End of Days. She had heard her father's tales about the Mad Titan, one of the last to wield all of the stones together in harmony, and the ruin Thanos had brought about. Of course, it would be foolish to diminish the damage that someone like Loki could do with just one of the stones - with the Tesseract, Loki would be the master of space. He could appear anywhere instantaneously and the energy that the stone produced could power any weapon. By itself, it was enough to bring a galaxy to its knees.

Arnora would be able to tell that Loki had moved - his current location is the Wizard Tower of the Castle. Halley didn't Feel Fleur's presence by some bizarre stroke of fate. Fleur could have been screaming insults about Halley's siblings at the top of her lungs and the demigoddess probably would have remained oblivious. "What Magyk?" she asked Cuyler, raising an eyebrow. "Are you detecting mine, perhaps?" she suggested, assuming that someone like him wouldn't be able to do any Magykal feats properly. "Arnora, do you have a location on Loki?" she asked again, tapping her foot slightly. They were wasting time here. The sun had long since set and a chill had begun to set in. Asgard's timezone was not too different from that of the Small Wet Country's, so the group would be feeling a bit tired as well.

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Luna turned to look over at her sister seeing her reaction after being called a princess, though she was the actual queen she did start to wonder how things would be if roles were changed and she wasn't slowly going crazy either. Luna could hear the annoying giggling sound in her head as she tried her best to ignore it, she hadn't been doing well at all for the last few months. And if something did happen to Myrus she wasn't sure how she would be able to handle it mentally.

"Is there a spell or something that could maybe track Myrus down, or his last location?" Luna asked her sister, as she started to worry about her friend Amarantha as well. She knew that her friend and teacher could handle herself, but she always did worry about her as well Luna started to continue to walk forward. "What do you think those people wanted anyway?" Luna asked both of them.

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Arnora was more focused on the tracking spell, as she could feel that he had left the area, and was now at the Wizard's Tower which was kind of weird they had just been there when they came out of the Bifrost. Arnora opened her eyes again looking over at Halley as she tapped her foot. "So, kind of bad news he moved to the Wizard's Tower, which we had just left not to long ago as well from the Wizard Tower courtyard. So he's either throwing off my tracking or he's actually there." Arnora answered Halley as she leaned herself up against the wall.

"So should we try and find a way into this place, or go to the Wizard's Tower?" Arnora asked looking towards Halley and then over towards Cuyler when he said he could sense anyone, and shook her head slightly. "I don't think so?" Arnora answered as she rubbed the back of her neck slightly and then stopped leaning up against it. "Could be anyone really, there are a number of magyk users here anyway." Arnora said though she wasn't sure really either.

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Myth should have known to not underestimate her husband and soon she found herself in a fire swarm around them, transporting them. She didn't recognize it immediately, but around them were the ruins of the palace they were in. And judging by Bruce's words, they were in the future. She took it in, seeing the destruction. If this was the future, then she wanted no part.

Especially when she saw the small corpse of what appeared to be a child. And in her heart, she knew. A sense. It was her own. She ran over to it, kneeling down. Tears welling in her eyes. "No..NO!" She screamed. She would not let this happen, whatever it was. Ragnarok or not, she would let nothing come between her and her boy. Ever.

"What happened? What caused this? Tell me now and I will put an end to it! They will not take my son from me unless I die first! They will have to go through me and I will not back down without a fight, I assure you! What the hell did this?" Anger was fueling her now. Anger, righteous fury that only a mother could muster.

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Fleur could feel they sensed her, but no one had seen her. She struggled with turning around and just letting them go on with their business, stopping at her old home to bid Nera goodbye before she teleported back to her new home to oversee training and prepare for her next step in the plan. But there was some odd pull that kept her there, watching them. Seeing what they did and why. Pure curiosity on her part, to be sure. And it would most likely cause her to be seen sooner or later, but did that matter? At this moment, she was no danger to any of them. And what had she done to warrant anything?

Then she remembered the warning. The Time Stone. She was sure it was one of the main reasons she was detested so. Despite the fact she had used it not for personal glory, but to stop those who dared threaten her flock. And she would heed the warning. She would not be the one to unravel the strands of time. She would only use it if necessary. But she would not let them have it.

She decided enough was enough. It seemed the fun was over, anyway. She turned and began to head back to the Port Witch house. She could always teleport back, if needed.

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Cuyler frowned. He would have known if it was Halley’s Maygk or Arnora’s. Just like he knew the earlier Magyk he detected was Arya’s through and through. There was something different about this Magyk. It was Darke and yet there was Lyte to it as well; however, there wasn’t much point in the young half-Asgardian arguing with someone like Halley. It was always a losing battle so he waited for Arnora to finish tracking for Loki again.
”Great, back the way we came. Should we go back and possibly end up bouncing back and forth, or do we see if we can get into the invisible fortress and see what we find? Who knows what is on the other side of that thing.” Perhaps they would find something to defeat Loki within the invisible fortress. Cuyler even thought splitting up may be a good idea but Arnora was still fresh with her power. They might not be able to defeat or subdue Loki if they came across him themselves. They needed to stick together.

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As they walked into the Barracks, the first two people they came across were the last two people Amarantha wanted to see. She clamped down on any desire she may have felt at needing to feed and rolled her shoulders back. ”You wouldn’t know this but I have a thing against harming children. Past trauma and all that,” Amarantha managed to grind out. It wasn’t far from the truth. As a child she had to kill many that were only children and as she grew older, that didn’t change in the Young Army. She looked at the mother of Dawn, desperately hoping that she wouldn’t kill her but also hoping that Dawn would sense some sort of danger and light the whole place up.
”Why don’t you take the tender one and I’ll look for something a bit more challenging.” Amarantha hoped her snide comment would bury itself inside the Vampire Gypsy’s head. Amarantha backed up and headed further into the barracks. At least this way she would still survive and if Dawn and her mother did not make it out, Amarantha wouldn’t have to watch her family die. Any more than already had and would.

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”Shh!!!” Ahote glared at the Prince a bit with his outburst. ”We do not know that for sure as we don’t know how far in the future we are Mryus. We need to stay calm, we need to figure this out,” he said and started to make his way to the boats. Just as Ahote reached one, there was sudden warmth and flame followed by the presence of four new people, one of which started crying and then became rather angry. Cringing Ahote looked across the water to see the Frost Giant make its’ landing and it didn’t even look back. Thank their lucky stars for that because the new party was making an awful lot of noise.
Ahote stood up and looked at the newcomers. He recognized many of them from the Castle, including the Asgardian Bruce. He remembered his wedding being interrupted followed by the birth of his child. Ahote listened to Bruce and he frowned a little. ”How near in the future are we?” It didn’t sound good, not the way Bruce said it or was looking. ”I saw Loki sitting on the throne in a vision and we have been following a Frost Giant. He has just made the crossing and we were about to do the same. There isn’t enough room for all of us on these boats though.”

When Lennox saw the Prince, he relaxed but it didn’t last long. He recognized the Castle but it was in complete ruins. Myrus spoke of it possibly being Ragnarok but Lennox wasn’t too sure of what he was meaning. All he knew was that this was not good and they needed to leave.
“We should probably leave now. We don’t know what sort of things are here.” It didn’t help that Lennox didn’t have any Magykal ability to defend himself or the Prince with.

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Mona felt the heat of the fire before anything else. It licked at her clothes and feet, leaving her feeling overly warm. She hugged the vampire head to her chest in instinct, though if she had really thought about it was likely a bad idea. But his mouth was sealed so she was QUITE lucky. When she stumbled forth from the flames it was into ruin. She blinked a couple of times, turning this way, then that, and finally spinning in a circle as she took it all in.

Something wasn't quite right here.

She looked at the head in her hands and sighed, "I need teh find a bettah way teh carry ye, friend." Her words were quiet and contemplative as the gears and cogs of her mind worked and churned to comprehend what was going on. She jumped slightly as a blonde woman began to morn what appeared to be an overly cooked turkey.

Probably wasn't an overly cooked turkey.

There was a big blue man crossing the moat, getting out at the other side. The castle looked to be in shambles. There were dead bodies left to just sit about out in the open. She turned her eyes on Bruce and then on the decimation of the world. Had he done this? No. He had helped them before. Why destroy it all now? Was he truly a being of chaos? Was she misunderstanding?

Rag nor Rock? There seemed to be plenty of both about. Mostly rocks. No one was making sense and her head had an odd ringing in at as her gears whirred to catch up with the fact that someone had said the word "future."

There was a good chance Mona's head was about to pop.

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"I can see if I can track down where Myrus went, no promises on whether or not it will actually work..." Valda said, looking over at her sister, before glancing around once more at everything nearby. She then proceeded to see about using her Magyk to try and get a read on Myrus' location. Though she was certainly hoping that he hadn't wandered off too far, or worse, that he wasn't dead or something. She'd never be able to forgive herself if that was the case.

Using her Magyk she let out a bit of a sigh. "Unfortunately I am unable to locate him... But that doesn't necessarily mean anything... I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to tracking spells..." she said, shaking her head slightly. "As for what it is that those things wanted or were after. I have no idea at all... But we also need to keep in mind there are so many reasons why people tend to go after us..."

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He glanced downwards, seeing the body of his mother. Bruce didn't really know what to say about everything... The idea that his family might actually end up being killed in some way was not a pleasant one. Especially considering that would have had to mean that his youngest sister Nova had to have died early on during whatever had caused this. "...This is only 3 years into the future... More like a blink of an eye to me really... But... If my family is dying, that would at the least have meant that my sister Nova would have been one of the first to die, as she would never have let any of us die if she couldn't help it... Myth, if this is actually Ragnarok, or something similar to it, the most we can do is post pone it, we might not be able to stop it entirely. As Ragnarok is just an inevitable thing, it can't be stopped as it is the end of time..."

When Ahote mentioned Loki, he flinched slightly. "I'm going to be blunt, my family doesn't have the best history with my uncle Loki... From his fights with Thor to just about every other stunt he's pulled... If he's behind this, then that definitely is not a good thing... Actually, my older sister Halley is currently working on tracking down Loki here on Midgard in the present day. Myth and I were going to help, however I got a bit side tracked by the vampires that attacked the castle. They've all been dealt with by the way, the ones that actually were a threat anyway..."

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She just followed along after Tate, waiting to see if he would answer her questions. Sylvi just let him lead her to their room, figuring that he might answer all of her questions when they reached the room, but she was sadly mistaken. As he didn't answer her question about why he wasn't in as much danger as she was. It was more then a little annoying that he wouldn't answer that question, but she was somewhat glad that he did sort of answer her other ones as he pulled her into his arms.

Wait, this Violet is really Arya? she asked him in response, more then a bit confused. She had been friends with Arya, despite the fact that they knew different types of magic from each other, they had actually gotten along fairly well. I thought that she was dead Tate... she added a bit softly. I can understand not wanting to go back to her life before and all but still... You should have told me about her being alive sooner...

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Despite the generally poor condition of the beheaded vampire, Erasmus apparently managed to gather the energy to speak. And since they had just been flung into the future, it was no surprise what he decided to raise his voice and say: "Where the bleedin' FUCk am I?!" the head rasped, being as loud as it could possibly be. As for Myth, her words would have a sense of truth to them. Not far from the body of her baby boy was her own corpse, the steel of a sword still through her stomach, lodged in the fatal wound.

Prince Myrus looked like he was about to cry, as Bruce and Myth more or less confirmed this likely was Ragnarok. "Well... I-if it is, don't we just have to protect Baldur, right? Since that's how it starts in the stories... He gets killed by a blind god," Myrus rattled off. For a member of the Castle, he had learned an impressive amount of the myths of the Land of Long Nights. He found them much more comforting than the vague spirituality often practiced in the Small Wet Country. Unfortunately, he didn't know much more than that when it came to the beginning of Ragnarok in the myths. The Frost Giant was still in sight, but within the next ten minutes it wouldn't be - so they would likely need to make up their minds if they were going to pursue it, stick around, or attempt to find a way back to the past.

"C-couldn't we just protect Baldur? There's... there's got to be a spell or something, right?" he asked hopefully. "Like what if we made it so no one could hurt him somehow? I bet my sister could do it. Valda's really powerful - she's good at witchy stuff..."

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The Palace Barracks - the Castle...

Amarantha would resist the urge to feed off of Dawn and her mother with ease (nat 20!). She may as well be prophetic as when Amarantha left that particular area, she would hear a hiss, a scream, and then smell smoke. If she were to walk back on over there, she would discover that Dawn's mother and the vampire Gypsy were dead, with baby Dawn giggling happily to herself in the ashes left behind.

Of course, those aren't the only people Amarantha is going to run into. Regardless of what she does, she'll feel the steel of a blade against her neck as Apollodora Rincewind stepped out from the shadows with a grin, just as stealthy as any Young Army trained assassin. "Huh. You weren't supposed to be a Biter. Blame Caspian for that," she said, clearly amused with the situation. "Now come on, we need to fix things."

The Palace Boat Launch - the Castle...

Titan had fallen silent it seemed, though who could blame him? Not only had his sword been turned into butterflies, but he had fallen into a pool of water. It was enough to put a damper on anyone's mood, though the situation he and the Royals had returned to was far from ideal. Members of the Palace Guard had taken the bodies and lined them up by the gardens, attempting to identify the deceased. Those who had fangs in their mouths were taken over to one of the bonfires and burned, in order to hopefully prevent the spread of the disease.

Some of the servants of the Palace were helping with the clean up as well and they stopped, seeing the sisters safe and sound. While some of them let out a sigh of relief, others looked annoyed to see that Valda and Luna had survived. The riots that followed Queen Valda's Coronation had not entirely released all of the ill will some citizens of the Castle held towards her - there were still those who hated her and wished to see her removed from the throne. "Your Highness, your brother - he went on inside," one of the servants informed Valda after curtsying, figuring that she wanted to know where Myrus had gone off to.

Luna would notice the body of Mavis Moll among the dead - her brother's best friend and ex-girlfriend. Mavis used to come over to the Palace all of the time to hang out with the siblings, long before Valda returned from the Forest.

The Old Port Witch Coven House - the Port...

Fleur would get the sense that she was being followed, as she headed back towards her old home. It wasn't by the demigods, as they were still standing near the docks talking amongst themselves and attempting to come up with a decent strategy. If she wanted to, she could easily go back and put some sort of listening spell on the demigods to learn what they were up to, but the unnerving feeling that someone was watching her every step was going to be increasing more and more. Beyond this, she wouldn't have any trouble making it back to her old home. Nera's face showed through the upstairs window as she looked down onto the street, smiling slightly as she saw Fleur.

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Antonije nodded as Sylvi asked for confirmation that Violet was the late Arya Rincewind. A good portion of the Castle had gone to her memorial service at Wizard Tower, with a select few being invited to the private funeral. He recalled there being a lot of gossip surrounding the fact that her boyfriend, a Northern Trader, had failed to make an appearance - with some proclaiming that the Land of Long Nights had sent him as an assassin to kill the ExtraOrdinary Wizard and weaken the Castle. In light of the looming war they were facing with both the Eastern SnowPlains and the Land of Long Nights, it wasn't the oddest theory out there. I know I should have, Silvija... But I promised her that I wouldn't tell anyone about her. Not even you.

He sighed slightly, still holding her in his arms. Yes, he felt bad that he lied to her - but it was more of because he was caught, not because he regretted his actions. He still felt that keeping Sylvi in the dark about the entire Arya situation had been the right thing to do. He hadn't told Amarantha about her either. Some of it was from selfishness - if he told Violet about who she used to be, then there would be one less person in the world who would understand him. The determined vigilante would cease to exist and just be replaced with another annoying, rule following stuffy old wizard. Violet was the only person in the world who really understood him - besides Sylvi. Of course, he didn't want Sylvi to see the monster he really was.

She wouldn't love him if she did.

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Halley frowned, thinking all of that over. If Loki had left this location so quickly, then odds were that he knew they were here looking for him. That would complicate matters. She huffed in frustration, tapping her foot lightly against the ground as she tried to come up with the best plan of action. It was irritating that her brother and Myth still hadn't returned to the search party - what could possibly be taking him so long? What was so important that he would put the fate of the Nine Realms at risk? He knew as well as anyone the extreme danger posed by the Tesseract - by the Space Stone. She didn't doubt that it dwarfed whatever insignificant quarrel he was pursuing.

Cuyler and Arnora's words mostly were just echoes of each other. "Let's approach this logically, shall we? We know that Loki was inside this fortress. Once we have arrived, he's gone and we cannot find a way to get inside. We know that the key to getting inside his fortress is one of those three individuals from the dragon boat creature or somewhere at the Palace." She hesitated, wishing that saying all of those things aloud would have given her some sort of indication as what they should do. She clenched and unclenched her hand, briefly considering whether to go and ask Fleur for aid in dealing with Loki since Bruce had yet to turn up.

"... I don't know," she admitted quietly. "... Let's try following him more, if he just ends up back here once we reach Wizard Tower then we can adapt the plan."

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Luna looked over her shoulder at Valda biting her bottom lip for a moment and nodded slightly, though she couldn't help but get the feeling that something happened to him regardless. Luna looked at the destruction that happened at the boat launch, watching some of the servants and surviving guards tending to the bodies of those who were infected by tossing them into the fire. She gave the servants a slight smile as she continued to walk along the bodies shaking ever so slightly at it all.

Luna then paused when she saw a familiar body, which was Mavis Moll, her brother's ex girlfriend and also his closest friend, at least it wasn't the body of Myrus. Then one of the servants told her sister that he was somewhere inside and quickly started to run into the Castle itself. She started to make her way towards her brother's room which was the first place she thought of in the first place as well, not caring if she bumped into any guards or servants everything seemed to have settled down.

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Arnora looked towards Halley and nodded for a moment, it sounded like a good idea to her looking back at the wall for a moment. "Since Cuyler pointed out that the two girls were the queen and princess I think they would be the ones able to access to it maybe?" Arnora suggested as that was what she thought would be the logical way for them to get inside is to somehow convince the royals to help them open the door to the structure. Tracking Loki back to the Wizard Tower worked for her as she started to turn around and make her way back the way that they had came from.

Arnora looked back over at Cuyler for a moment, she knew that she shouldn't have kept what happened to Arya from him though he was still thinking that she was still alive and kicking. And she didn't want to piss off her friend right now either and decided to stay quiet on the subject unless he decided to ask it. "We should also try and contact Bruce and Myth when we can as well to see where they are right now."

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Myth couldn't make out most of what was being said, her eyes trained on the body of her son. But she soon saw another corpse not far from it. And it appeared to be her own. At least she was right. She would die trying to protect her son. "If you are telling me my fate is to lie here on the ground, dead, then you do not know who I am. Ragnorok or not, I will not sit idly by and let this future come to pass. Whatever we need to do, we do it. No holds barred anymore. I can protect myself."

She stood up now, eager to continue with whatever they needed to be doing. Finding the others or whatever, she no longer cared. Her family was gone in this time and she was not about to take that lying down. "So what do we do now?" She had a determined look in her eye, one that said "Don't mess with me or try to stop me" and hopefully Bruce would see that, otherwise he was in for a world of hurt.

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Fleur was satisfied in her knowledge of what those at the Docks were here for. If it proved to be a problem, she would deal with it later. For now, she walked the streets of her old home until she saw her house and noticed Nera in the window. Then she felt something. It was as if she were being watched. And not just someone along the street who casually glanced her way. No, this individual's attention was directly on her.

She held up a finger towards Nera in a "One moment" matter before she turned to scan the streets behind her. Her Sense was able to direct to some extent the direction of this person, but she could not tell who it was exactly. Someone with Magyk though as she got a sense of their use for blending into the shadows. Well, that would simply not do. So Fleur whisked them away, combining both Darke and Lyte Magyk to remove the blend. She succeeded and soon, she saw who it was and it was the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Arya.

Fleur quickly ran over before the girl could run or flee. "Far be it from me to deny myself from anyone, but do tell me why you insisted on following me with a poor blend spell? I could sense you from miles away from little wizard. Also, correct me if I am wrong, and I am rarely wrong, but I was under the impression you were dead. During that ordeal with Chthon? Ring any bells?"

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Whatever the plan may be, they needed to go back to the Palace, that much was clear. The answers they needed for the fortress or to find Loki were there, thanks to Halley’s summary. ”Alright, well it’s a long ways back or do you have another jump in you for the three of us?” He looked at his cousin, hoping she did. They didn’t have a lot of time to spare. Whatever Magyk Cuyler had sensed was now disappearing as well. He wasn’t certain that was such a good thing.
Thia relaxed again at his side, she remained vigilant but her eyes were also dodging every which way. She was growing restless and Cuyler knew that meant she needed to hunt. ”Once we get back to the Palace, then you can go and see what you can find,” he told Thia. He scratched the top of her head and she leaned into him. Cuyler yawned and glanced up at the stars. The initial adrenaline of arriving here and then feeling Arya’s power had now drained from him. A combination of that and the descending darkness, Cuyler was feeling rather tired. ”We should press on, it’s getting rather late in the evening.”

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Titan watched as servants and guards threw bodies onto the fires. He noted some of them were men and women from the army. Whether they were bitten or eaten, it didn’t matter. They all belonged to the other now. Titan moved slowly, using each step as a recovery from the trauma of the day. He passed a fellow guard turned mortician and stopped. He laid a hand on the man before murmuring a few words. The guard offered up and sword and Titan moved on.
Now equipped to properly guard the Queen and Crown Princess, he moved into a position of guarding. He scanned every nook and cranny that they passed. Shoving the pain of what he had seen today deep down where it could sit and wait. News of Prince Myrus being inside seemed to bring a light to the woman, Luna in particular and she was off and running. Titan looked to Valda, staying with her for the time being.

The smell of burnt flesh pricked Amarantha’s nose after the sound of screaming and the poetic hiss of a fire starting. She relaxed as she walked. ”Thank you Dawn,” she mumbled to herself. She had just lost her lead into the Vampire coven but Dawn had just saved what remained of the Palace Guard and they needed everyone they could get. She pushed forward, now seeking Titan. He would have to be in charge and she would need to disappear for awhile. There was no way she would be able to retain her post.
As she moved to go around a corner she felt the cool steel of a blade before hearing a familiar voice. Amarantha relaxed as Apollodora’s voice filled her ears. ”Yes, the need for blood is a bit daming but there are other perks,” she noted. ”Have you seen your mother? She’s a charmer.” Admittedly, Amarantha’s first interaction with Arya could have gone a lot smoother and Apollo did warn her not to make mention of her having a daughter but, Amarantha was desperate and she wasn’t one to cover anything in white sugar.

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So it seemed Ragnarok was truly inevitable. Ahote turned his head, hearing Prince Myrus’s desperate pleas that something had to be done and he watched the blue demon walk further away. Was there even a point to pursue it, knowing that the Castle’s fate was sealed? Ahote thought back to the redhead at Loki’s feet. If they were only three years into the future, there was no other possibility than that fallen Queen being Valda. ”There must be something we can do.” There was a steel determination to Ahote’s voice. Clearly the man was not going down without a fight. Him and Myth seemed to have that in common at the moment. ”And if we can’t stop this, if we can’t even prolong it. Then at the very least we can get revenge on our fallen. Right now.” He looked at Bruce, ready for an objection or argument. Ahote was fighting today, who that would be, was yet to be determined.
Ahote stepped up beside Mryus. He laid a hand on his shoulder and gave the Prince’s shoulder a bit of a squeeze. ”Faith Prince Myrus. Hold onto it because we all could use a little of it. Faith and love.” As much as Mryus had learned from Ahote, Ahote had learned just as much if not more from the Prince himself and Ahote was just as determined to keep the Prince’s head up as he was in getting revenge for what would transpire here.

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The rasping scream had jerked her out of the whirling miasma that had become her headspace. She blinked down at the head in her hands and then up at the rest of the group. They had either not heard him or were much too busy doing other things. There did seem to be an awful lot of talking and gesticulating going on. Mona looked down at the head again and responded, "I don-knae." Her voice was a croaked whisper. This was all very stressful for this poor, country bumpkin.

Slowly she approached the others, somewhat wary in case this was all their doing. "Excuse me," she managed to squeak out but it did nothing. Mona looked over the moat again, down at the dead bodies and back up at the group. Taking a deep breath she tried again, this time perhaps a little too loud - "EXCUSE ME!" she blinked, blushed, and looked down at Erasmus. "Where exactly are weh?" she inquired in a hoarse voice at a much more normalized volume.

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"Thank you..." she said simply to the servant who told them where Myrus had gone off to. The carnage around them that they seemed to be busy cleaning up was not a welcome sight. It made her wonder just how many people had died during the entire ordeal. Sure, she and her sister had gotten out of the Palace safely, but how many had died while they were off in the Marram Marshes and discovering the giant dragon boat that was helping them to fly across the sky and return to the Palace? Part of her wondered if she even wanted to know that number.

Seeing her sister take off running, she let out a little bit of a sigh. "Luna wait up! Slow down!" she called out, racing up to catch up with Luna. Once she caught up to her, Valda slowed down slightly, letting out a bit of a sigh as she walked over. "We don't know where exactly he is, or if it is entirely safe in the Palace right now, we need to be careful alright? Don't worry, we'll find him..."

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"We can prevent it, or well, post pone it at the least as I said before... However we can't do that here, we can't do that now. We would draw unnecessary attention to ourselves that could result in our deaths, especially since that wouldn't help anyone. Just because this is what we see, doesn't mean that it is set in stone, the future is fluid. Constantly changing, you can't predict it with certainty, only mention the vision and the events that led up to it. So no, attacking now, is not what we should do, we need to get out of here and do what we can to have it so that hopefully this won't happen for another several thousand years, got it?" he said, a bit annoyed somewhat with Ahote's words. The guy really needed to learn to think things through. He turned to look at Myth, "Myth, we might be able to post pone it, but we can't actually stop Ragnarok from happening. However I will do whatever I can to ensure that this isn't your future..."

That's when he heard Mona's annoying voice and he rolled his eyes before turning to look at her. "Well sorry, didn't expect a stowaway. What? Were you following us or something? Your own fault you got dragged here then. Now if you don't mind keeping your mouth shut and in case you haven't actually noticed but we've got about a hundred different things that are way more important then explaining the whole idea of the end of the world to you, so would you mind keeping it down until I take us all back where we belong? That would be appreciated."

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I still think you should have told me... It would have made things a little easier... she mumbled somewhat, not sure really what else to say to him. After all, the whole night had been a chaotic wreck, and she still wasn't entirely sure as to what fully happened at Bonfire Night. One minute everything was calm, everyone was celebrating and enjoy life in general, and then a few moments later the Prince yelled out something, and then chaos erupted all around them. That wasn't something you could easily forget.

What happened tonight, that was just chaos wasn't it? Everything that happened... Honestly I don't regret helping out the Prince, even if I ended up getting hurt instead you know... Everything was just insane, wonder if everything is completely calmed down at the Palace now... she sort of mumbled, her mind just thinking about what happened, from her getting bitten to the time that she and Tate had ended up leaving. ...I love you Tate...

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Myrus nodded slightly at Ahote, as his mentor more or less told him to be strong. He had to believe that they could prevent this - that they could save Valda and his family. He had already lost his parents and now his best friend. He didn't want to lose Valda or Luna - he didn't know if he could take that. The young prince took a deep breath, clenching his hands and they had a slight red-pink glow before it vanished. He had come a long way from where he had been months ago, struggling to control these abilities. "Hey, cut it out!" Myrus snapped, not liking the way Bruce was talking to Mona, as it wasn't very nice.

"... Please," he then added a bit timidly. "We're all just scared and we don't all know as much as you do about Ragnarok..." he continued, his voice scarcely a whisper now. He really hoped that Bruce didn't decide to throw a fireball at him or something - some of the gods in the myths of the Land of Long Nights were rather cruel. His ears were red and Myrus shuffled backwards slightly. It was a good thing he hadn't called Bruce a buttmunch as he had been considering.

"B-but like I said, can't we just protect Baldur and stop Ragnarok that way?" he asked again, since no one had said anything to that idea.

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The Palace Barracks - the Castle...

Baby Dawn was crawling around the floor of the barracks, occasionally sending off little spurts of fire. The little thing seemed to have no idea that her mother had died and that she had killed the vampire Gypsy, just content and happy as could be. Watching from a safe distance, Apollodora kept one eye on Dawn and one eye on Amarantha. "Please, you do not need to complain to me about my mother," Apollodora scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I've never exactly seen eye to eye with the old bat."

"Whatever agenda you've got with the Biters, it'll have to wait. Now, I am pretty certain that in the Palace somewhere, there are some chains that are inescapable - and unbreakable. All we need to do is take advantage of all of this chaos, take the chains, and then go tie up Arya. If we leave her with Cuyler, then well maybe that'll be enough to get them back together, my brother and me will be born, and you can focus again on your sad, futile little mission to stop the Biters from invading and taking over the world."

The Palace Long Walk - the Castle...

As the trio run throughout the Palace, they will notice the death and destruction that occurred within its walls. Bloody footprints are all over the once clean floor, with numerous prized possessions overturn and shattered on the ground. There is no sign of Myrus, but the familiar faces of some servants, now dead, are among the deceased. In the Entrance Hall, there also are numerous burned corpses, belonging to vampiric invaders. No one comes to approach them yet.

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Whereas Arya had always either pinned her hair back, braided it, or kept it orderly in some other manner, Violet's hair was a wild mess. Half of it was pinned up, the rest cascading down without any semblance of intention or control. She reached up and took off the hood of her black cloak, the buttons in the front were not properly fastened so Fleur would be able to see her emerald green tunic. Emerald green was the color worn by the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice, not the Wizard. The Akhu Amulet of Hotep-Ra was still around her neck and she still wore the belt of the ExtraOrdinary as well.

Was this the true self of Arya Rincewind - or was Violet simply an identity crafted through circumstance?

"Fleur La Mallificum," Violet whispered. There was a poignant pause. She had greeted so many people in alleys like this, stating their name and then informing them that they had failed the Castle. She killed them, helping to reduce the criminal rot that penetrated this country. At first, she had operated alone - but now she had her partner. Silver. "Whoever you think I am... that person is dead. I am Violet."

Her emerald eyes flickered around, seeing no shadows to indicate that they were being followed any further. Nera was intently watching them from the window, but Nera had only Appeared to Fleur so Violet could not see her. The ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard then focused once more on Fleur, looking like a wary predator meeting their match in strength and intelligence. She had been following Fleur in order to learn more about her, to prepare to kill her since from what she heard, she was a force for evil.

"You've failed the Castle."

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Antonije continued to hold Sylvi close, stroking her hair to try to keep her calm. He could have gone into her head and meddled with her, in order to force her to be in a cool and collected state, but he didn't feel like doing that at the moment. He only wanted to manipulate her mind when the situation really demanded it. Her mumbling about how he should have told her didn't really sway him, as he was obstinately convinced that he had done the right thing. He had concealed who the other vigilante was from everyone, not just Sylvi. You sound sleepy, he mused to her, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

I don't know why the vampires attacked tonight, but... They never really show up in the Small Wet Country, you know... he mentioned. It didn't make much sense to him for the vampires to just randomly show up and attack the Castle on Bonfire Night. He figured they had the same sort of goals as the Witch Covens did and those attacks were never random - they were calculated. There had to be some sort of greater force working behind these things, something that they just couldn't see just yet. I think they have to have been after something... Maybe they wanted to kill the Royal Family, take over the Castle... he suggested. Do you think maybe the Land of Long Nights hired them or something? he asked, before he nuzzled her slightly.

I love you too.

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Halley considered what Arnora suggested. It seemed incredibly likely that the Queen and Princess were the keys to opening up the secret chamber Loki had previously stashed himself away in, though she was not too certain what exactly they would have been able to achieve. Perhaps there was some sort of genetic lock, but then, how would Loki have been able to bypass the system? Maybe he had something of the Queen or the Princess with him - such as a lock of hair or a jar of toenail clippings - and that was enough?

"I think you might be onto something, Arnora. If the Queen and the Princess are key, as well as some unknown element at the Castle, then maybe we just need their DNA in order to bypass the enchantment... So if we go to the Castle, we should try to grab the hairbrush or something of a member of the Royal Family. That might be all we need - unless it's tied to a certain source of DNA, then we might need something more extreme like blood..."

As for contacting Bruce and Myth, Halley was a bit annoyed with her brother. If he had been here, then they might have made more progress - but presumably, he'd be back at the Castle, probably near the Palace, and they would be able to meet up with him after they got to Wizard Tower. She rolled her wrists slightly, before taking a few moments and reality warped around them as they landed at the courtyard of Wizard Tower. "That answer your question?" she asked Cuyler.

Her eyes then fell on the gleaming silver building. "Shall we, then?"

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Luna took a moment and stopped looking over her shoulder as Valda caught up to her, sighing slightly and looked down for a moment she was really scared for Myrus and wanted to make sure he was okay. "We just need to find him right away.." Luna said as she looked around the hallways seeing all the carnage, things were tossed over familiar faces of the servants that worked with her on a daily basis made her shake slightly.

Luna decided to go and check the crypts first, as she turned down the hallway hoping that he was alright as well, if she couldn't find Myrus the crypts would have a lot of hiding places as well. If she couldn't find him there she would try and find Amarantha as well. She more or less wanted to ignore her sister right now she was safe and things seemed to be pretty calm now as well seeing as the guards and servants were all cleaning up the large mess now.

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Arnora looked towards Halley and gave her a slight smile and nodded towards her, it was the only way she could think of. "Or we go to the palace, ask one of them to help us maybe the one that wasn't snippy towards us just a few minutes ago, and not in the creepy kidnappy way either." Arnora suggested and nodded towards Cuyler. Though she had no problems with tracking well into the night she had done it numerous times before while out hunting in the past. But traveling at night did have a lot of it's own issues as well, as Halley used her own magyk and transported them to the Wizard's Tower.

Arnora took out Loki's knife ones more and closed her eyes as she did the tracking again, getting his location within the tower now looking over at both Halley and Cuyler. "Loki right now is located within the Pyramid Library right now." Arnora said as she slipped the knife back into her pocket and made her way towards the inside of the Wizard's Tower.

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Myth nodded. She understood, but she also knew that she would do anything to ensure this future did not happen. "If stopping Ragnarok prevents this then I am damn well stopping it. I'm not strong enough now, but I'll do what I have to to protect you and Halden. and Tate and the girls. You are my family now and I am not about to lose family again."

She reacted to the voice and looked over to the girl who came out of nowhere. Or rather, came with them on accident. Bruce, being the kind soul he is reacted harshly. "You need to stop being rude and angry to people. She didn't ask to be brought here and the least we can do is make sure she gets back safely." She faced the woman now. "Sorry about him. My name is Myth. This is the future as it appears now, from what I gathered. We'll get you back soon." She mustered a warm smile, but even she was unsure of how to proceed.

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Fleur let out a hearty chuckle. It had been aeons since she laughed so hard. "Oh I am so sorry, lovey. I do not mean to laugh so but I just could not help myself. I failed the castle? Their best interest has never been my priority. You must have been royally messed up in your death if you think anything else. Well, let's see if we can fix that." Fleur summoned a purple haze and her eyes caught Violet's. She used her Concilium to get the girl under her will. "You will forget whatever plan you had for me and instead you will listen to me and join my side in the fight ahead."

She could feel the girl's vibe ebb away and she forgot her plan, but she was barely under her control and could break at any time. So she opted to use her charm. "The castle took from me the one person I loved above all others. They sit high above everyone and will bring about ruin if we continue to let them lead. They need to be stopped and I will stop them. I am slowly amassing an army to stop them. My one true coven will make sure they can never hurt anyone else. I ask of you, join our side and help bring about this new future."

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Cuyler smirked at his cousin and nodded. ”I guess so,” he commented and looked up at the tower. It had been such a joy to see it when he would come in via the sea but now, it seemed like an ill omen to be back. He sighed and scratched Thia’s head. ”You best be off, go find something to eat but stay safe.” The Castle was still on edge and there was a lot of burning fires.
Cuyler refocused on the task at hand after Thia ran off. He pulled his sword out and aimed for the front entrance. ”The tricky part is getting in. And then there are the stairs once inside. I was once allowed admittance but I don’t think that would be so anymore.” He confessed, other than being able to help take Loki down or subdue him when the time came, Cuyler feared he wouldn’t be much help.

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Titan ran along with the Queen as they caught up to Luna. There was even more horrors inside the Palace and Titan was sure it would take weeks to restore everything. Luna seemed to have it in her head where she wanted to go and so Titan followed along silently. He held his sword at the ready just encase and was starting to wonder about his commander as well. He hadn’t gone this long without seeing her before.

Amarantha smirked at Apollodora’s obvious distaste for her mother. What their family meals must have been like. It would have been entertaining to sit in on some of them. Amarantha was sure she had, or rather, she would. Especially if she had trained Apollodora. She looked over at Dawn, oblivious to all. If it wasn’t for the flame and Amarantha’s precarious position to flame at the moment, she would retrieve her. Someone would come along, she was sure of it.
”I hear a lot of things that purely involve saving your life and your families. Now as you can see, the Palace is in complete ruins. What does it matter to me now if your mother brings about the end of the world. You scratch my back I scratch yours love. Now, you wouldn’t happen to know of a cure that could fix me of my ailment?” Not to mention that it seemed Apollodora knew more about these Vampires, or Biters as she was calling them, than she cared to tell Amarantha about.The chains the girl mentioned were rather interesting. A location she did not know but she had heard of them. ”They are from the Land of Lost Nights are they not? Your father's homeland. Interesting.” Thankfully the blood lust was still at bay for Amarantha and she moved forward toward the Palace. ”If we can find Mona, perhaps she could place a tracking spell on your chains.”

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Perhaps Ahote’s passion and determination had been mistaken for ignorance and the inability to understand. He understood perfectly but why wouldn’t you want to stay to learn about how they had done it. What they were doing now? There was an end goal and if you knew that, you could work about preventing it. But it seemed the end of days would roll on through but they could only slow its progress. ”Then how do we get back and where do we need to get back to? This is of your world so where do we need to take the fight too?”
Ahote stepped up closer to Mryus, unafraid of his power but proud of the way he spoke up and attempted to command the attention and defend. The more confident Myrus would get, the less shaky he would become. Ahote was sure of that but there was no need he couldn’t provide a little extra support. ”Yelling and getting mad at everyone for every little question they ask is going to get us nowhere fast. We need to stick together. We all have something to contribute.”

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Her eye's widened at the unnecessary amount of vehemence Bruce put into his speech. Mona took a step back, careful as possible not to trip over any of the deceased that littered the area. Maybe she should just go then. But where? How? These were the people that brought her so surely they could get her back. Shock colored her face as not only the prince but the young woman defended her to the irrational Banner. She offered them both a small smile. So it seemed they were speaking about neither rags nor rocks.

"I be Mona," she responded to the pretty blonde, taking a couple of steps toward her. "So... If dis be deh future den..." She let her eyes roam back out over the devastation and shuddered. "We be lookin' tah change it." She brought her attention down to the head in her hands and then looked around to see if there might be some sort of stick or spear she could pike his head upon. It would be easier than carrying him around. As she looked she listened to the conversation more closely. She had no idea what was going on but she would certainly like to be helpful if she could.

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"So much death and destruction... So much chaos... What could have caused all of this to happen, who could have caused all of this to happen. I wonder where the creatures came from, and who sent them..." Valda said softly as she looked around the Palace and saw everything that had occurred, and wasn't sure really what to do at this point. All they could do really was find out where their brother was, and hope that he was alright. She was more concerned about Myrus' well being then anyone else's.

"Don't worry Luna, we'll find him, no matter what, I'm sure he's alright though, we just have to find him..." she added, giving her sister a small smile. She was sure that her brother was fine, or more of she was almost trying to convince herself more than Luna that he was okay. Valda was worried, that something horrible had happened to him, and that she hadn't been there to help him at all.

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Bruce let out a bit of exasperated sigh, looking at everyone else around him. No one was really seeing things from his point of view at all, that much was obvious. "Okay, let me be a bit blunt then... You are all essentially asking me how to stop this, what can we do. She's asking where the hell we are and she wasn't even supposed to be brought here at all, which is more then a little bit annoying mind you. So guess everyone expects me to have literally every single answer when I don't have them!"

"You can't stop Ragnarok, how many times do I have to tell you people that! It is literally the end of times! It will happen and nothing will ever change that. You can only post pone it! As for stopping the death of my grandfather, you might have to talk to my little sister about that, she tends to keep us all alive for as long as she wants, so does anyone here want to actually go back now? We can't do anything here at all, so we might as well head on back!"

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I am a little tired, she admitted to him, giving him a slight smile. The day had been long one, and likely one that she would not easily be able to forget. After all, there was so much death, destruction, and nothing she did could prevent that or stop it. Sure, she had been able to help people, but in the end she had been injured by one of the creatures herself, and she did not know what to really make of that. Everything was changing, or was different in some way all because of that.

Hearing his slight accusations against her family in the Land of Long Nights made her stiffen slightly. She hadn't given much thought towards her family in quite sometime, however this night had sort of brought them back to the forefront for her. No, I don't think they'd employ the aid of creatures such as those ones... The fact that one of those vampires recognized me for who I was was more then a little bit disturbing, but if they had sent them, a small part of me hopes that they wouldn't have actually had one of those things hurt me if they saw me... It was this last thought that was the most concerning to her, and it was a thought that wasn't going away.

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Myrus looked at Bruce, a little bit confused. In all of the myths he had heard, it wasn't Nova that they went to for protection (though in some stories, Nova and Idunn seemed to be interchangeable in terms of providing immortality to the gods), it was actually Frigga. From what he remembered, Frigga was able to extract a promise from every living being in creation to not harm Baldur. So why wasn't Bruce suggesting that? Was that method futile? He couldn't quite remember how that particular myth ended. Or maybe Frigga was just too ancient at this point in order to do such a task? That didn't seem right to him either.

Unfortunately, all of the yelling going on just so happened to attract the attention of another creature. It was another Frost Giant, standing seventeen feet tall. Armed with a mighty axe that was bigger than Myrus himself, the ground shook with each step that it took. Currently, it was a good thirteen feet away from them, but that gap was not nearly as big as our heroes would have liked for it to be.

Bruce would be able to recognize the giant - his name was Byleirst, son of Laufey. "Looks like meat is back on the menu!" the giant chortled. Taking just two steps forward, Byleirst cleared the distance between them and snatched up Mona, raising the witch up to his eye level. "Hmm... Smells like a Midgardian!"

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The Palace Barracks -> Long Walk - the Castle...

Apollodora chuckled slightly. "You call this complete ruin? Here, I'll let you in on a secret. In my time, Queen Valda still sits on the throne. The ginger dynasty remains unbroken. Sure, today was horrible but you can't really help it with the Biters. You'll rebuild, find new treasures to place in the halls, and by the time I meet you for the first time, this will hardly have been the Castle's darkest hour." She seemed to get lost in thought for a moment as something came to her and she smirked slightly.

"There's no cure for being a Biter - unless you include being set on fire via Magyk or a good wooden stake to the heart," she answered. She followed after her, heading out of the barracks, through the courtyard, and back into the Long Walk. "Well, lead the way to your witch. The sooner we find these chains, the sooner we prevent this world ending."

The Palace Crypt - the Castle...

To reach the crypts, the trio would have to walk due east down the Long Walk until they reached the Entrance Hall. From there, they would take the spiral staircase down to the lower level and walk to the end of the hallway, bypassing basement storage rooms where some food stores and other supplies were kept. The last time they had been down here, Emperor Taj and Asha the Magykal had been examining the body of the late Queen Meliscente.

The coffins and such were covered in dust - the vampiric forces hadn't disturbed this place. There were plaques identifying the deceased, almost all of them bearing a direct blood relation to Luna and Valda. Their father, Fendrel, had a marker here as well despite his body never being recovered. He was not put to rest too far from where their mother was, allowing the lovers to be reunited in death.

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Violet hesitated, staring at Fleur the same way a child would stare at their teacher after seeing a negative number for the first time. It would be apparent to Fleur that "Violet" was merely an identity that Arya Rincewind's psyche had crafted after the events that happened with Chthon. There was a great deal of raw power dwelling within her and perhaps, if Fleur was able to apply the correct amount of persuasion and Concilium, she would be able to control her continuously.

"The innocents will be spared," Violet said, though her statement was more of a question - wanting to determine Fleur's desires. She believed Fleur that the leaders of the Castle were corrupt. They had allowed for so much pain and suffering to go on unchecked. She hadn't gone after them yet, sticking to the more petty criminals but maybe it was time to change that. Without the insane Queen Valda, perhaps things would become better for the Castle. Of course, she would need to eliminate Princess Luna as well, she was just as bad as her sister... She didn't spare much thought to who would rule after they were gone. Her mind was focused on vengeance, on punishing those who failed her home.

"We would need to kill Amarantha, the head of the Castle's army. She benefits from this system. And then the Royals. They sit in wealth and luxury while others suffer..." Violet continued. "And anyone who would support them would need to be slain as well." It was only then that they could right the wrongs of those who had created this horrible system. When was the last time Queen Valda had done anything for the benefit of the people? She stood by and just watched as Port sailors were impressed into duty! She allowed those vile creatures to attack innocents on Bonfire Night. And if the rumors were true, she had at least been complicit in Queen Meliscente's murder at the hands of the witch Nera Hawthorn...

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Antonije sighed slightly. He could understand Sylvi wanting to hold onto her idyllic depiction of her family, but she needed to face the facts in his opinion. If they had really cared about her, then they would have found her by now. She was hardly hiding out in the Castle when she took to the stage to perform with her bardic talents. Any decent rogue hired by the Land of Long Nights would have been able to find her and spirit her back home within a month's time by his estimation. And since that hadn't happened, it meant that they just did not care about her - they probably never did to begin with.

Silvija... If your family cared about you, don't you think you would have heard from them by now? he asked her gently. Part of his reasoning was motivated by selfishness of course - he didn't want someone to come and take her away from him. She belonged here. It was supposed to be just the two of them against the world. But we should talk about your diet... I don't mind if you need to feed off of me, but I can bring home criminals and assholes for you to drain dry. No one would miss them anyways, it would probably end up being a service to the Castle if you killed them. It's a goddamn filthy world we live in but... maybe if we kill enough of them, we'll make it a bit better.

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"The Pyramid Library..." Halley mused, trying to recall where exactly inside Wizard Tower that was. Her eyes went upwards towards the top of the tower, noting that it was shaped like a pyramid. Given the preference in the Castle to name things rather obviously, she had to imagine it was up there at the very top. "Well, let's see if we'll be allowed entrance - if not, I have an idea on how to get inside." She doubted that they would like it, being shot up to the very top of Wizard Tower via her Magyk, but she imagined that would be the easiest way inside. Wizards did not have the power of Flyte so odds were there were fewer precautions at the very top than there were here at the entrance.

Following Arnora, Halley went up to the elegant door and paused for a moment. No one was there to ask her a password. She pressed her palm to the handle and gave a tug, the door swinging open easily. She raised an eyebrow, surprised that there had been less precautions but then it became clear why the door had opened. It hadn't opened because she wished to enter - it opened because someone else wished to leave.

Dressing in the purple robes of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Blaise Rowland stood in the doorway, observing the Asgardian trio. His expression shifted into one of anger as he spotted Cuyler. "You have a lot of nerve coming back here, Mr. Eysteinsson," Rowland warned. He didn't have on him the usual accessories of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard - namely the Akhu Amulet of Hotep-Ra, and the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Belt and Headband. "I am going to have to ask you to vacate the premises. You are unwelcome here."

"I'm afraid we can't do that," Halley replied calmly. "We're hunting a fugitive who has taken refuge within these walls."

"And who just might you be?" Rowland asked, though he still seemed less than thrilled to see Cuyler there.

"Halley Banner, daughter of the Sorcerer Supreme Runa."