chaotix14

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Archers frank and direct filling in the blanks had Raudd burst out in laughing. "Not my words, but that fits." He replied to Archers question. Archer questioning what good advice would be passed along by gods of some grim domains was met by a smile by Raudd and an answer after he took him up on the offer of that cigarette. Lighting it with a small spark of entropy on the tip of his finger he then held that sparking finger out front for the other two to see. "I'm practically chaos and destruction incarnate, not much better. Either way, I'd rather avoid 'that' shattering my heart every century or so, and the only way I can see to avoid that is finding an equally fucked up immortal partner. Heck, in the grand scheme of things marrying into your family of frat boys and sluts might not be a horrible option." He said with the cigarette jiggling around between his lips as he talked, his words heavily insinuating he wasn't up for losing many a long term lover to the sands of time and the hands of death.

Raudd took a long drag of the tobacco stick appreciating the flavors as Yue griped about it being a special blend that Archer kept secret to keep it away from her. He then snorted most of the smoke out in laughter as Archers gift of gab once again backfired on him as he revealed the name of his supplier and Yue pulled to get more information out of him. Practically forcing him to explain Hecate's motherly habits.

"What, it's only a cute fox hiding itself in Hecate's shadow with it's nine tails." Raudd said with a grin fanning the flames from Yue's direction. "And apparently he's pretty good at his trickery, a few of these might spoil your taste for the normal cancer sticks permanently." He added exhaling a cloud of smoke and taking a good long look at the cigarette between his fingers.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

With Archer and Yue making their way out of the living room Zolya held her seat for a few moments longer slowly finishing her cup of coffee before walking off towards her own side of the estate heading for her workshop eager to work with some of the new materials she managed to obtain, perhaps one of her long stalled projects could take wing at long last.

But first she had to return the book back to it's proper location, right next to the with Freya's essence permeated copy of itself. As her fingers grazed the book a fleeting sensation of her hand being clasped between two caring warm hands shot through her she instinctively pulled her hand back to her chest, seems even now she was being watched over by the highest seat in Folkvangr and that entity wished to remind Zolya of that fact. After allowing her heartrate to settle down she turned her attention back to the new materials, while it was far too late to start painting, she could start testing pigment blends... It had to be perfect after all.

In the meantime Raudd had made himself busy getting clean bedsheets, pillows, and blankets to the one two-bed guest room. After dealing with the bedlinnen he went out front snipping a few sprigs of lavender to put in an empty vase in the room. As he came back in though he noticed a tinge of magic coming from inside his garden. Far too 'clean' to be anyone other than Archer given the current company. After placing the sprigs in the vase as intended he headed for his garden to give the intruder throwing trash all over his garden a piece of his mind.

However upon entering the garden he could hear Archer wasn't the only one who'd entered his garden... Zolya. Of course she directed them to this place, just because you aren't allowed inside doesn't mean you should try to get as many others to do so in your stead. He sighed listening in on the conversation as he walked towards the source of the sound, which seemed to be at the deepest point of the garden you could get to without getting wet feet... Or mountain goat genes.

Seems the conversation was mainly Archer being asked by Yue to lay out the juicy and embarrassing bits of his family situation. But there was a more interesting grain of information in the hows and why's of Final odyssey's lore fitting so well into reality.

"Well, that's not exactly what I expected to find in my little sanctum. Two girls gossiping about love. But if you could hook me up for some relationship advise from Hades or Persephone, if I ever decide to commit I'd prefer a lasting relationship, and they seem to have that figured out in a pantheon of... Well, you know what I mean." Raudd asked as he sat himself down besides Archer and got a whiff of the tobacco they were smoking.

"Is that some kind of special blend?"

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Zolya kept her mouth shut for the most part as Yue flew into her counter-rant, and even as Archer confirmed for the second time that A he needed to diversify and completely get rid of the speeches, and B had a serious problem he needed to fix the moment Yue's situation settled down. Someone was trying to fly real close to the sun with nearly disclosing information about magic to the public, close enough to the line that she wouldn't be surprised if this had lead to more than a couple hedge mages filling in the blanks and awakening.

However the moment she tried to speak up about it Archer held up a hand as to tell her to stay silent. She glanced at Raudd who just shook his head in response and non-verbally told her to just sit tight and watch where Archer was gonna pull the conversation. There were enough other ways to get through this phase, even if Archer was going to continue fucking things up by having repeated his entire speech so many times that it had been written into a game practically word for word. Or was this just the standard speech Olympia used on all it's new initiates?

He suggested a game of cards, playing a very stacked version of memory. He then explained how he had used this game as a way to teach her how to control her powers. After which he explained in a veiled way that her diving into her own world is quite a high difficulty power speeding up her mental processes and even improving them.

When the game began it wasn't just Yue that shifted into a different gear Raudd's eyes were stuck fixated on those of Archer, but his mind was very clearly somewhere else. What the others couldn't see was that Raudd was following the battle on the coffee table intently sensing a strange little ripple every time Yue grabbed a card out of Archer's hands, Archer put a card on the table, or even sometimes just a card on the table would spontaneously form one of these ripples. They did not feel like the normal chaos that he was used to from anything 'mundane', superpowered, or magic, far too... Clean.

With the assurance that Yue wouldn't be able to parse her speech anymore she spoke up to Archer. "You really need to give whomever put that speech into the game a kick to the head. I assume you know how bad this is, teenagers with wild fantasies and protagonist syndrome all around the world are probably awakening through this. Oh, and diversify a bit more in your explanation, something not 1750's and less speechy. I wouldn't be convinced by someone practically reading off a script." She quiped before listening to the rest of his explanation.

He talked about her being a not quite Fortification class mage, her having intuitively learned most of what she can do by resonating with items. With Olympia having taken to calling it 'Spathí Tragoúdi' or sword song, did they pull that out of their asses or had they seen that before? That said it was quite an interesting thing, from what she's displayed thus far and the explanation right now in terms of classification that type of magic seemed to be some combination innately mixing Enchantment and Fortification magic, but there was something else mixed in she was sure. If her theory was true then her works could be of great benefit to Yue, her enchantments and Yue's resonance would likely amplify each other creating a harmonious synergy if she were to make them specifically for her.

As her mind faded into the rabbit hole that was enchantment magic for a bit only listening with half her attention, the other side of the siblings ears perked up as Archer explained the trickery he was employing. Obviously it was magic bullshit at work that much was clear from the start, but it explained what he was sensing and now that he knew what was happening it was clear as day to him what he was doing.

That being said this was perhaps the first time he could so cleanly identify a 'pulse' of magic, normally things are way more like... He glanced over to Yue where he could see her entire body firing on overdrive from the choppy seas he sensed over there... More like that. He guessed that the action of changing the face of a card that 'already had a face' didn't cause much of a disturbance beyond the magic.

Soon the game came to a standstill as Archer explained that Yue was using her powers to drive her mental processing even further to figure out what was happening. Archer also used the moment to explain that this was his veiled attempt to have her learn about magic in a way that wouldn't break the rules that bound him. It was around the same time that Raudd came to a conclusion.

He slammed his hand onto the table covering one of the card in it's entirety with his palm. His eyes intently focused on the back of his hand as the smell of something charring could faintly be smelled wafting from under his hand. "Look this is the sight of two braincells colliding with one another, this is a rare and beautiful moment to be able to share with others." "Could you not I'm trying something." She had absolutely no idea what her brother was up to, but this wasn't the normal type of let me just try something, this was a degree of concentration she normally only saw in her brother when he was carving.

After a few long seconds passed in silence Archer and Yue locked in her detective move and Raudd firmly pressing his hand to the table, he swooped the card from under his hand showing one side having taken some charring, however the down turned side came up Blank. With a big smile he announced "I have ripped the enchantment off this card."

It took a little moment before it dawned to Zolya what was making her brother this excited about that... "Anti-magic." It wasn't that his body just resisted mana, no it ripped up any magic that interacted with his power. WAIT... Where did the mana from the magic go? It didn't create any haze, that would have been spotted far earlier when they were still figuring out why magic didn't like him. Was it destroyed, released back into the environment, did he somehow store it? "Eh, you're a little more sensitive to these things, did you catch what happened to the mana?"

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

"We will see." Zolya responded to what she accepted as challenge of sorts. It wasn't responsible of the sins of it's creator after all, and killing it just because of what it is... Well, Merllwyn wouldn't have been here either if they'd let their bias guide that hand. If it could be rehabilitated and adapted to society it would make a valuable ally, if not she would at least like to see where the rabbit hole led instead of just dealing with the results.

"Merllwyn." "Yes, I heard. We're short one mount, guess I'll have a casual jog back." The wolf skulled man then turned to one of the stags with a great attempt to smile with his fleshless face and patted one on it's back. "Be careful with your passengers now. I'll give you a good brushing once you're back to the temple." With that he ran off like a ghost on the wind, searching for a decent enough spot to leap over the wall.

The others soon followed suit as they made their way off the rooftop and rode back to the Stoneworks in mostly silence with Archer lagging behind a bit seemingly to sort out some feelings. That complicated relationship was gonna get even more complex in a couple minutes after all.

With the trio of mages settled into chairs and couch of his living room Raudd went off to grab a pot of coffee and a couple mugs. The others might not need it, but he craved the idea of some hot caffeinated beverage right about now. In the kitchen he came across a reminder about a little promise from earlier in the day in the form of biscuit tin. Part of the content of which promptly ended up on a serving plate which he hauled in just in time to hear Yue finish Archers magnificent speech.

"Pfffff. She got you good. I mean who uses a speech from a game?" He said as he set the plate of white chocolate coated lemon shortbread cookies on the coffee table. "They're not exactly a dinner replacement, but I figured I still owe you a couple of these." After which he filled himself a mug of coffee and went round to the others whether they wanted some too.

"I'm not going to deny his warning, though it's more of a situation of the first bit of knowledge is dangerous. And given that you've been able to see for a good while, that's a station long passed. Any more knowledge will only help you from here on out to protect yourself and potentially others. As the power we wield is much more predisposed to be abused, even by those who mean well, than the average deviant's super-powers." Zolya followed by grabbing one of the cookies and biting of it's 'head?'.

This prompted Raudd to speak up. "Before we get into the explanation, let's make some things clear. First, don't let your thoughts roam around, like I've seen you do this morning. If you have questions, things that mill through your mind, or anything like that, air them vocally. There are three sitting here specifically to give you answers, advise, and hopefully quite a bit of peace of mind. Secondly I'm a deviant with superpowers, and while I'm in the same organisation as my sister here and got the same theoretical basis, if you need an outsiders perspective on all... This" He says while waving his arms at Archer and Zolya. "... You can ask me. Same when these two start throwing technical terms around, I know a fair bit despite being the anomaly here... Time to rip the band-aid off sis." He finished looking at his sister.

Who got caught mid shoving the rest of the cookie into her face. Which was followed by a somewhat hasty chew and swallow with Raudd taking a sip of his coffee to try and maintain a straight face, had to stay professional here... Or at least not make a joke out of it, this was important. "Ehrm, yes. In the most blunt of terms the power the three of us use is magic, wielding the mana that is prevalent in our own bodies and the environment around us. The crimson you see while you are using your powers is something we call 'haze', it's a kind of waste product from the process of manipulating the mana into doing our bidding, which over time decays into normal usable mana once more." She explains while using one of her rings to purposefully create a couple of her own sky blue wisps of haze filled with gibberish runes.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Zolya watched with curiosity as Archer lit up the array, never hurt to observe how others weave their magic into the physical. The effect of the array were quite... Interesting. Using an array to reduce the signature by forcefully mixing the haze with the surrounding mana, hiding like water in the air. That was probably also what allowed him to go around unnoticed.

The keychain on the other hand was quite shoddy, no doubt a temporary fix for the haze problem. It was however properly attuned to her signature... Which wasn't a small feat.

The potential revelation was followed by a revelation of another kind from Yue, who after years of being in the dark had that same crumbling of the reality around her happening that Zolya herself had experienced an odd 20 years ago. A quite hard to swallow pill, but with the way things were it was bound to happen one day.

"I can understand wanting her to live free of those perils and we don't blame you, but if I hadn't been there to stand in between her and the entities that have expressed a direct interest in her. She would have gotten the talk from a real shady organisation before the sun even had set. Regardless of philosophy that isn't a sustainable situation if you need to keep them within reach 24/7." She retorted staying calm and mild mannered wanting to keep the organisations clashing philosophies out of the practical debate and more importantly wanting to keep things easy on Yue, or at least as easy as it was gonna be.

He then offered to make things even easier for Yue by taking it upon himself to do the explanations himself, suggesting they find themselves a comfortable spot to speak.

On Raudd side things weren't going too well, Jemma seemed to be having an increasingly hard time foccussing and he doubted that Archer stepping into the comfort zone of someone already in a defensive stance was going to improve things and of course he had to pull more of his patented magical bullshit. And indeed she had jumped back and hissed as a result of the rather inconsiderate actions, Raudd felt the entropy surrounding her rise as she got pushed more into a confused and panicked state after Archer dropped that name, before looking on as she fled without taking either card. "Zolya?" "On it." Her reply followed by a few of the ravens flying up and keeping an eye on Jemma by extending their patrol area fluidly to any desolate area she might escape to.

"Well anyways, I think most decent and discreet places to have your chat have closed for the night. Unless you're gonna teleport back into the tower, the best places are either at Zolya's or my place (I guess mine would be less distracting), as a bonus we have guest rooms you can crash in for the night." Raudd said as he picked his card back up making sure not to touch the card Archer had pulled out of his pocket.

"Oh, and here a little present." Zolya quickly grabbed the medallion out of her cloak holding it out to Yue. "It's a bit of a rushed job, but this should help with the crimson problem, and it was designed with your powers in mind so it should be quite resilient to damage." She explained keeping most of the information at bay leaving that for Archer to explain.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

While it was hardly unexpected that Archer would arrive to the scene, what with two of the biggest magical anomalies this side of the Undercity in one place, she still attempted to be mildly surprised by the cigarette smoke laden arrival of the mage. "Well you didn't stop by the Stoneworks so I was under the impression you were here for pleasure not business, and who am I to interrupt a night of fiery passion." Zolya retorts with a cheeky smile while giving the air a very intimate hug. "Child of Olympia." Merllwyn replied respectfully to the entity that had arrived.

Following the nonchalant mage up the brambles Zolya replied pulling the jar with a sample of Yue's haze out of her cloak "We leave the silly stuff to Olympia, they're the reason all of this got out of hand. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, we're making sure she gets the guidance she needs." Her words mostly directed at the organisation behind Archer than the man himself, knowing he didn't see entirely eye to eye on these matters with his higher-ups.

she then got to take a look at the 'malevolent entity' Merllwyn had gotten himself worked up about. Surface deep there wasn't that much wrong with the harpy, looking at things with another eye though... His concerns and Archers reaction weren't unfounded, and she subtly cast a little barrier spell on herself just in case.

"I can imagine, being forced to see that bullshit all the time, all the while they keep you in the dark. Kinda makes me glad I just can't see it, period." Raudd told her tensing his hand into a closed fist as a way to redirect the frustration he felt towards those who put her in this situation. In a way that made it a little more frustrating to hear Archer appear behind him, though probably also for the better. Any other Olympia member he might have punched in the face to vent those frustrations.

Raudd got up onto his feet when Yue jumped into Archer's arms and gave him a bearhug. "Easy now, if you keep squeezing him like that, you're gonna break him in two." A grin came over his face as he watched the reunion. Zolya on the other hand quietly stepped in and added a barrier of her own to help the poor man with pressure of the bearhug.

That was the moment when the harpy spoke up asking about the crimson moving around. A true blessing the creature likely wasn't even aware she'd just given, an unprompted confirmation that what you're seeing is in fact real. It then followed up with a tangent about being assaulted, and attacking them... Was it Archer that put it on edge or... Shapeshifter was what popped into Raudds mind seemingly finishing the blank his sister was drawing.

She quickly shook off the thoughts and used the momentum by answering the question. "Because that's what happens when you drop someone in a gilded cage with surveillance and pretend they are crazy when they are seeing things normal people shouldn't be able to see. Worst of all if the person in question has no way to shut it out without someone telling them how." She then turned to Archer. "So, are you gonna tell her, or will she go under my wing?" She said with a couple of the ravens taking it as their cue to land on the rooftop. Of course she knew the answer, but who knows he might actually surprise them.

Meanwhile attempting to be as non-threatening as a fairly large Viking can be Raudd put a few steps towards the creature and pulled a card out of his pocket. "Sounds like you have your own set of struggles, if you need help just follow the trail from this card. There are friendly people there that can help you." He said putting the card on the ground and sliding it the remaining distance to the creature. It might be the shapeshifter, but he had a gut feeling this behavior was genuine, which would have been one hell of a reformation if it was the shapeshifter.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Shieldtown

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As night fell two cloaked figures slid into a secluded alleyway both with a couple serving of some greasy street food in their hands. "Why didn't we just wait at Alex's place?" "We can't exactly have an open conversation in front of Alex now can we, also I'm pretty sure she's gonna escape that building anyways." "...Yea, that actually makes sense."

A dull thud behind them announced the arrival of the third member of this mission, who took the moment to dust himself off. "Did you find something?" Raudd asked as he tossed the man a wrapped burger thingie. "Well yes. I took a little peek through the window and I can tell for sure that she's dual natured. However there is a problem, her astral form is wounded." "Wounded?" "Yes my lady, it's her eyes... It looks like her eyelids were torn off by something long ago."

"... That's a problem right?" "On a person uninitiated in the magic world, more than you can imagine. I don't think there even are any mages that would willingly have those eyes open all the time." "So how do you solve that, can it be healed? Or does she have to put her astral hands in front of her eyes every time she doesn't want to see?" "No that's redicul... Wait, that might be possible. Did you just have a good idea?" "Yeah, helps if you don't have your mind in the gutter all the time." A true statement which immediately resulted in a retaliatory jab from his sister.

An unmistakable crash of glass shattering then pierced through the sounds of ShieldTown followed by the crunch of something a little weighty and wooden being the loser on the second impact. "We got movement." "Well you were right." He said as he jumped onto one of the stags and rushed after Merllwyn who was tracking Yue's trace while running as fast as he could through the streets and alleys. His uncanny speed and acrobatics allowing him to easily pass through, over, and around even the most densely packed crowds, who needs ground when there's walls anyways.

With a considerable delay the three managed to follow the trail to it's owner. "All the way back to the edge, fuck." He exclaimed noting they were not that far away from where they had jumped the wall in the first place. Merllwyn was standing still as he looked at the two atop the rooftops, the hairs in his neck raised, his graceful posture lowered down to a fighting pose and low rumbling growling escaping his mouth. "What's wrong?" Raudd asked once again being annoyed at the magic bullshit he knew was happening, but simply lacked the tools to perceive. "I'm sorry my lady, there is something truly malevolent up there, and it's powerful. It's taking everything I have to maintain composure, I won't be able to go any further." "Could you make us a path up at least?" To which Merllwyn slowly nods with some uncertainty and a path of brambles begins to form.

"You wait for that, I'm going up." Raudd said as he ran off to parkour his way up the side of a nearby building, vaulting from narrow balconies up to the edge of the roof several times in his hurry nearly missing his jump he manages to beat his sister to the roof.

"You're not holding up well now are you? You're shaking like a leaf. I'm considered to be a good listener if you need to vent." Raudd said as he sat himself down next to Yue opposite of the 'dangerous creature' Merllwyn waned him about, but still within range to grab Yue should miss featherdress try something. Honestly she didn't look all that dangerous, little strangely dressed though... No wait, those weren't clothes, that's a whole different kind of dangerous. Better not look too much directly at her, and especially not with sis present.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Transferring the design from paper onto the medallion hadn't taken much time at all, especially since she could cheat a bit using her magic to bake the enamel onto the medallion saving her multiple cycles in the furnace. While she was working on it there was a slight interruption in the form of some not so great news from one of her scouts, a particular nuisance had wandered into the Undercity, Shieldtown to be specific. There were a whole two potential reasons he could be down here, either investigating that mana scream from not to long ago or... They were looking for a missing 'child'.

Whichever reason it was as long as Alex made a stop at the Stoneworks everything would be good... At that thought a second raven came flying in through the workshops window giving Zolya an bird's eye view of Alex's high speed escapade aiming directly for Shieldtown's outer wall... "Fuck" With that the last bit of relaxation they would be having this day was squashed, with a sigh she put down her pencil onto the drafting table and with some reluctance she got up from her stool.

"Change of plans, Alex went straight for Shieldtown. Best of all a 'friend' is already there." "Uh, sure. Give me a sec." Before Raudd had completed that sentence Zolya had already taken off running to get one final piece of the puzzle, leaving him to deal with the cut veggies on the counter and fried mushrooms on the fire.

It didn't take Zolya long to find who she was looking for, leisurely enjoying a cup of tea in one of the recesses of the temple sat a brown haired and green eyed man sharply dressed in victorian style tuxedo, gloved hands, and a walking cane leaning onto the side of the table. If you didn't have an eye on the immaterial side of the world you'd never know half the truth, atop his neck rather than a head there was a bestial skull seeming like that of a wolf with a set of straight twisted horns protruding at the back, red beads pierce out from the black empty eyesockets. "Merllwyn, would you mind assisting us with helping a new initiate? We have reason to believe she has the sight." "Lady Zolya, it would be my pleasure." He said before quickly downing the last of his tea, followed by him getting up and grabbing his cane in a smooth motion. "Where to my lady?"

"First we'll have to swing by the mansion to pick up Raudd, then to Shieldtown." "Time is of the essence is it not?" He asked before letting out a high pitched whistle that got answered by a few ravens and a couple wolves. "They'll pick up my lady's kin, we should go to Shieldtown without delay my lady." "Thank you, let's go." With that Zolya lead Merllwyn to a couple stags hanging around at the temple and took them as their ride to Shieldtown.

Meanwhile Raudd had gotten dragged out of the kitchen by some really impatient wolves who pulled him to a waiting stag. Seeing that resistance wasn't going to work, he reluctantly abandoned the veggies that he hadn't managed to fit into containers and into the fridge at this point. Hopefully they would still be salvageable by the time they returned he thought as he got onto the stag, which took off immediately after he had planted his butt onto it's back.

Close to the edge of town Raudd's stag had managed to catch up with Zolya and Merllwyn through sprinting like a demon was on it's heels. With a trail of dust behind them the three raced away from the safety of the bramble barrier and towards the formidable defenses of Shiedtown's outer wall. The sizable escort of wolves and ravens would keep them from being slowed down by any straggling beasts, unless they were directly on the path of course.

A fair bit later the three managed to reach the field of carnage that lay just outside Shieldtown, the rocks covered in blood, chunks, and what some might consider to be 'still edible meat'. But as the three closed in on the town, with the stags taking diverging paths to avoid slipping on fleshy bits, another problem arose. The gates were still closed, not entirely unreasonable as there were still stragglers roaming about. "So what's your plan to get in?" He asked his sister as the wall became an ever larger feature in his view. "I believe I may have a solution, please follow me, lady Zolya, sir Raudd." He said as his stag took off taking point and just before him a dense bundle of brambles shot out of the ground forming a kind of narrow ramp for the stags to run over onto the wall, to the confusion of the people on the wall who just watched it happen.

"Sorry, coming through!" Raudd yelled at the people on the wall as the brambles reached over the wall creating a path down to the ground for the stags. Once the stags made contact with the soil the brambles withered and receded as fast as they had appeared. With the three within the safety of Shieldtown's walls they got off their stags and decided to walk the last part, not in the least to avoid running over any residents.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Poking his head into Zolya's workshop to drop off a medallion Raudd he could hear his sister grumbling and before he could manage to get past the doorway the words "Fuck, you are so annoying!" were yelled through the room. Obligated to respond "What can I say, I do try my best." He retorted jokingly. Taking the moment of silence as Zolya began processing that Raudd had just walked in at exactly the wrong moment, Raudd walked up to her desk and placed a silvery white medallion the rim of which was set with small gemstones of mottled red with orange and pink streaks through them.

"Thank you, and that wasn't directed at you. This is the annoying one." She said pointing with her pencil to a glass bell filled with a sample of Yue's crimson haze. "You know I can't see whatever you are pointing at, but..." His words getting cut off by the haze sending an angry spark across the glass. "... That I could see, that's not normal isn't it?" "Yeah, her haze seems to be a little extra. She really isn't in a great place mentally, today may have just been the icing on the cake." "Then I wasn't the only one getting that feeling, anyways if you need me I'll be in the kitchen..."

Zolya's mind drifted for a moment to a certain organisation, given that apparently this rather unstable mage has been up top in that state without any mages making an attempt at correcting that situation. Putting those annoying thoughts aside to deal with a more direct annoyance she returned to creating the finishing touches and dialing in the design. It was proving to be a rather tricky design especially with a little future proofing to ensure that the synchronization wasn't going to be off key once her mental state stabilized more.

After a lot more cursing, out loud thinking, and a broken penciltip, Zolya felt satisfied enough with the design to progress to putting it onto the medallion. Working around the constraints of time pressure forcing her to an unengraved medallion, materials that can withstand the users powers, and still make it look presentable she has to wear it to make it work it's magic after all.

Meanwhile the biggest question that lingered in the kitchen was on how many heads would be at the dinner table... And if Alex would be one of them. Considering that worst case scenario he'd overestimate the amount of mouths to feed, he'd be eating it for multiple days, Raudd figured it wouldn't hurt to just make it big enough. It would only make dicing the veggies and mushrooms take a little longer after all.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

With everyone within the barrier Zolya activated the runestone causing it to light up dimly and the activation visibly cascaded around as the other runestones in the ring lit up. Then a transparent barrier shot up from the ground a meter out from the runestones creating a dome over the entirety of the Stoneworks. As soon as the transparent barrier was a good 3 meters up a second barrier consisting of a dense mass of brambles covered in barbs and thorns shot out of the ground creating a second layer over the transparent barrier.

A second Apex that came out of the tunnel soon figured out what happens when it senses anything hostile as it's branches reached out and ensnared the creature as it came within a meter of it. It tried to struggle the best it could breaking a fair few limbs in the process, but in the end it only resulted in more branches lashing out and dragging him into the mass with greater fervor, the barbs sinking deep into it's flesh as the brambles constricted and pulled in all directions at it's body and limbs. It's muffled screaming barely audible beyond the mass of brambles and the barrier as it's bones snapped, ligaments broke and flesh gave way, tearing the creature into ever smaller chunks.

Having activated the barrier Zolya quickly got back to Raudd and ID. "Just so you're aware, the background count is going to drop a little and there'll be quite a bit of haze due to the barrier. Most of it should be limited to the edge of town though." She advised their guest as they walked through the town. "A little better every time. Oh, and it looks like we don't have to do any defensive sorties this time, the barrier just took down the first Apex that appeared." Raudd followed up as he noticed the big signature behind them become nearly invisible.

After a rather casual stroll through some side streets the group reached a little cafe nestled into an alcove of the street. "Grigor can we get the Marble room?" Raudd asked as he walked through the entrance. A burly man with thick bristly mustache working behind the counter gives a nod. "A coffee ouzo please." "Café glacé au caramel for me." Zolya requested as she followed her brother into a separate room while the man busied himself with making drinks for his patrons in the somewhat busy cafe.

The Marble room was a small room set up with a marble topped table large enough to comfortably fit the six birch with creme colored upholstery chairs. Potted plants lined the room and a stained glass window gave a nice view of the market without them being able to see in. Nearly within a minute of the group sitting down Grigor came through the door with the drinks and set them on the table before quietly leaving again. "Much better. Now we can talk." Raudd said after taking a sip of his still blisteringly hot coffee.