Re: Viemera: The Essence of Deceit [Complete]

by **Guilty Carrion** Sun May 22, 2011 10:38 pm

With the loudest of groans, and a excited snort from his rhino, Tal returned to the world of the waking, rubbing his head gingerly with one hand. “Did any of ya get a lookit the truck that hit me?” He mumbled under his breath, wiping away a dribble of drool from his beard as he glanced wearily about the clearing. A feeling of dread came over him as he caught the looks on everyone’s faces, and the eerie silence that hung over them did little to set his fears at ease.

“What did I mi-” Before the words could even leave his mouth, the clearing stirred with Eri’s outburst about Loki‘s location. Followed immediately by a hurricane of emotions that Tal wisely chose to let calm before making any attempt to speak. Darren watched the proceedings quietly from Tal’s side, one eye on the goddess, the other on everyone else. “…quite the dysfunctional family, aren’t they?”

“Ye’d be hard pressed to find a more dysfunctional one in all the world over…”

“Which is saying something.”

“Aye, I thought the Moriate family had that one all wrapped up.”

“Don’t remind me of them. I still don’t trust cooking pots after that.”

When a small burst of emotion smashed into the side of his head, Tal glanced towards the source, and found himself surprised to see the woman from the fight earlier to be standing guard over the goddess. Why did she look so familiar?

“It’s T’yang, Tal.”

“T’yang? You mean Tsume’s lady from the old days?”

“That’s the one.”

“…well, that makes things a little complicated, now doesn’t it?”

A light chill racing down Tal’s spine, he sighed loudly to gather everyone’s attention. “So…Loki’s been kidnapped, and we’re in no shape to mount a rescue, let alone battle more of those guys. Huh. Wasn’t winning supposed to be a good thing?” The joke fell on deaf ears, and the summoner sighed again. This was going to be a loooonnnggg night. “Well, I guess we’ve got some choices to make…but, seeing as we’re all half dead and about to keel over, why don’t we let it wait for tonight and make a decision in the morning on a full belly, aye?”

Slowly stretching, wincing when he felt the sting from his chest wound, the vagabond rose to his feet, and staggered his way over to Tsume. Clasping the monk’s shoulder, Tal nodded quietly at the man, before speaking in a hushed whisper. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re torn between that sense of duty of yers and what ya know to be right. Just…know that yer doing the right thing, my friend. We’ve got to at least try. I’ve got yer back, and if need be…I’ll give you all the time I can buy to get Raewyn to safety.” Silent understanding passed between the two, before the vagabond chuckled once and gave the monk a powerful pat on the back.

“Now then, how about I take over the guard duty so you can catch up, aye?” There was no chance to protest as Tal walked up to the shadowy form of T’yang and extended a hand in greeting. “Long time no see, T’yang! S’good to see yer doing alright!”

T'yang flowed to her feet when Tal approached her. Her stance was wary and tense. But, his bluff and friendly greeting caught her unawares. She blinked at him, looked to the offered hand and back to his face with deep suspicion. She straightened slightly and offered him a bow of respect before placing her slender hand into his. "I...live." She commented in an odd tone of voice.

Tal gave her a firm, if gentle, handshake, before sparing a glance towards Raewyn. “You’ve been guarding for a long time, aye? Why don’t you grab a break?” He smiled at the woman, jerking his head towards Tsume. “I’m sure you’ve got some…catching up to do. I can take care of the little miss.”

T'yang's eyes flit to the angry-eye'd Raewyn to Tsume, weary form and finally back to Tal. She dipped her chin slightly to indicate her gratitude, "Very well." She glanced back to Raewyn, "She would likely prefer your company at this time." T'yang withdrew her hand from Tal's meaty hand before heading uncertainly toward Tsume.

As the woman left, Tal slowly squatted down beside Raewyn, a gentle smile spread on his face. “Hey. How ya holding up there, little miss?” The question was mostly redundant, the tear stains and puffy eyes spoke volumes more than any words could hope to.

Raewyn roughly wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jacket. "They're gonna hurt him, aren't they? All because of me." More than ever, Raewyn was just a terrified little girl who was completely over her head.

Tal’s smile softened, and he sat softly beside the young girl as he searched for what to say. Placing a gentle hand on her back, the vagabond shook his head sadly. “We won’t let them hurt him. We’re going to get Loki back, safe and sound.”

The young goddess' chin quivered as she tried to keep from completely breaking down into tears. She nodded her head to Tal's reassurances, but she seemed more to be clinging to any sort of hope he offered than truly believing him. "OK."

“Raewyn…” Tal gently pulled the girl into a soft hug, stroking her head reassuringly as he felt the cracks starting to strain on her façade. “…s’best to just let it out.”

Raewyn resisted being coddled like a baby at first, but Tal's gentle voice and inviting hug are too inviting to the child. She breaks down utterly, crawling into his lap and burying her face into his bare chest to cry as if her heart was utterly broken.

The vagabond held the girl close, sheltering her from the rest of the group with his arms. Even Darren kept his distance, keeping silent watch on his charge, prepared to prevent interruption from any of the group’s members. A low snort escaped the rhino as it glanced over the others. Perhaps Raewyn wasn’t the only one bottling everything up inside.

by **Loki** Fri May 27, 2011 10:19 pm

Tsume helped set up camp, doing what he could to get those who were unconscious comfortable and trail rations to those who weren't. His body protested to even the simplest and least demanding chores, but he knew that if he stopped to rest, his mind would have a chance to wander on current affairs. That was something he wanted to put off as long as possible; he found himself hoping that he would pass out before he had a chance to get settled for the night. It wasn't until he realized he was pacing aimlessly around the camp looking for anything to preoccupy his hands that he decided there was nothing more to do. A somber expression flooded over the monk's face.

As if by some saving grace, no matter how fleeting, Eri began to stir and he had yet another task to preoccupy his mind. Tsume winced once he realized he would have to break the news to her of their current situation.

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All in all, Eri's reaction went better than expected. After all, she hadn't charged off into the woods before she succumbed to fatigue causing the group to have to find her and bring her back. At this point, even the little victories were uplifting. Though Tsume knew that it was time for the inevitable as he walked to the edge of camp and pressed his back against one of the massive trees and slowly slid down its base until he was seated. Orange firelight still managed to illuminate him, even if only slightly given the distance as he hung his head as though it had tripled its weight in the space of a second.

What am I to do? These people are trusting my leadership to get them through this in as little harm as possible. I thought we'd be able to lose them by traveling through the wilderness... I grossly underestimated their ability to keep tabs on us... And now.... Loki....

Somehow, he managed to sink even lower into his slouch as though the burden of responsibility and failure was a physical weight upon his person.

It's too dangerous to bring the Goddess to their doorstep for the sake of attempting a rescue mission. But even if they were bluffing about their power should we continue to the Temple, they'd never forgive me for leaving him behind. Hell, I would never be able to forgive myself for doing so. Had I made the wrong call? Should I have gone to the authorities to try to get some sort of armed support as we take the roadways to the Temple? Should I have waited for more support from the Temple before leaving Fuuren?

Tsume covered his face with his hands.

I had no right to get these people involved in this mess.

He wanted nothing more than to go into a hole and pull it in behind him.

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At first, T’yang had been grateful for Tal taking over watching over Raewyn. He offered a softer and far more reassuring presence to the young goddess than she was capable of. She steps away from the sobbing child held in the big man’s arms, but, paused. She knew she had to confront her inner demons and speak to Tsume. But she hesitated. Her eyes swept around quiet camp. Both the girl, Eri and the Lightning Summon, Owen were in deep, exhausted slumber. The Earth Summon and untamed, Jake, peered into the fire and she could tell nothing of the thoughts going on behind his tired features. The entire camp seemed shrouded in dark brooding contemplation of the attack and subsequent kidnapping of Loki. Finally, she turned her head to find Tsume slumped in back-bending exhaustion against a tree some distance from the fire. She worried what his thoughts might be? Why did he isolate himself so? Should she go to his side? She was uncharacteristically unsure.

In the end, she glided in his direction, pausing a few paces from where he sat, “Tsume? Will you speak with me?”

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The soft voice from a former life caused Tsume to life his head out of his palms, his eyes glistened in the firelight with tears that have not yet welled up enough to flow. The sight of T'yang was reassuring, though amongst all the doubt and remorse it was like a life preserver around somebody who had a boulder chained to his ankles in the middle of the ocean. He did his best to look inviting to her, but he felt like such a wreck that he wasn't sure if he managed to pull it off. His first attempt to speak came out as a croak before he cleared his throat and managed to form soft, yet guttural words. "Of course."

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The obvious emotion on Tsume’s face and in his voice is completely unexpected. T’yang is taken aback and any discussion that had been conceived in her mind, died stillborn on her lips. Not even thinking any longer, she quickly dropped to her knees at his side and encircled his shoulders with her slender arms. She had no idea what should be said. It tore at her that she had been part of the catalyst for her former lover’s distress. She ran her fingers along the back of his head, trying desperately for something to say, but failed miserably. In the end, she merely whispered, “I am sorry.”

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A shaking breath escaped Tsume's lungs as he felt T'yang embrace him; several muscle groups that he had not been aware that he was tensing relaxed as he allowed himself to lean into her arms. She felt warm and he was instantly reminded how much he had missed those days back in the Temple all those years ago. He understood why she felt the need to apologize, but he honestly felt she had nothing to apologize for. In her own indirect way, she actually saved a life those he was charged to protect. Had it been just another Magi in her place, Tsume wouldn't have been able to talk his way out of the conflict. In fact, if she hadn't prematurely ended her concealment of the others, they would have been slaughtered before they even knew there was a fight. Without her protecting the Goddess, he wouldn't have been able to help the others who were in need. Without her, it is very likely Eri would have died out there since it would be unlikely he would have been freed to go to her without contest or even have the energy needed to heal her wounds.

T'yang intentions weren't entirely malicious in the strictest sense; Tsume knew she was just following the guidance of the heart he had broken years ago. Her actions may have been misguided, but despite them he managed to feel as though he was indebted to her for doing them. He wanted to tell her this. Tell her that there was no need to apologize, but he didn't have the energy to reassure her in the discussion that would surely follow. Plus, it was as much a peace of mind for her as it was for him. Instead, Tsume's arm that was closest to her lifted to place his hand on her back to pull her close to him in his own exhausted embrace. Several moments of silence passed as they just held each other before he managed to speak again in the same quietly hoarse voice.

"I don't think I can do this... They're counting on me, but I don't have the strength to get them through this in once piece. It was only by the grace of the Goddess that none of them had been killed today... Even though they now hold a young boy hostage because of my inability to protect him... I never should have let him come along, it was stupid for me to allow somebody so green to take the risk inherent with this undertaking."

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T’yang wasn’t sure of Tsume’s frame of mind until finally, he leaned into her wearily and allowed a single arm to draw her in as if clinging to a life raft in a raging sea. She felt him relax under her and unconsciously, she realized that she did the same. She’d been prepared for rejection, for harsh words, for accusation. But, he gave her none of that. She edged closer, somewhat facing him, as they hugged one another and rested her forehead on Tsume’s shoulder. She simply listened to his slow breathing and the sound of his heartbeat. It was at once painful and desired to hear that familiar sound once more. When Tsume finally found the strength to speak once more, T’yang heard the low ebb of his emotion in his voice. He doubted himself as she had never heard before.

As she listened to him berate himself, she shook her head at him. “No.” She hushed him. “You are the reason they have achieved the success they have. You have guided them and held them together, kept them from disintegrating into bickering children.” She smiled, and added, “You have been watched and stalked for far longer than any of you knew.” T’yang lifted her hand to cup the back of Tsume’s neck, massaging it gently. “You saved the boy’s life and you know it. Had he been left on his own, he would be dead now. Either a mob would have destroyed him or he would have destroyed himself.” T’yang paused once more and looked back over her shoulder, “With you and this group he has grown, it is a rare gift.”

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The fact that she knew so much about them was unnerving. Tsume couldn't believe they were being observed so closely without any of them being the wiser. That realization only supported the Magi's claim and brought a level of credibility to the threat of what would happen if they did continue to the Temple. It was enough to send a shiver down his spine. After all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, he needed a break from those worries for the sake of his sanity. Even if for only a little while. With an effort of will, he forced those thoughts as far to the back of his mind as possible. Though the concerns still managed to harass his conscious thoughts, they became muted as Tsume focused on T'yang's presence.

The fatigue began to weigh upon him with tiredness that permeated him to the bones. Between the physical exhaustion and T'yang's comforting embrace, he felt his eyes struggle to stay open. He wasn't ready to drift off yet, he wanted to savor her touch for a while longer.

It had been so long.

"I missed you, my love."

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T’yang felt Tsume lean into her even more fully and she savored the closeness. How long had it been? Years…too long. Who had been the greater fool? Him or her? She no longer cared. In the back of her mind, she knew it would have to be addressed, but not now. Not for some time. Tsume drooped even more into her arms and T’yang had to smile. After all that had transpired he trusted her so much? It felt good. She wondered if she could learn to trust that way once more. She had been on her own for so long and mistrusted everyone and everything so deeply, she wasn’t entirely sure. Despite the warmth of Tsume’s arm about her, she felt the slight chill of Jake’s stare briefly. Yes, one step at a time…some things were simply going to take time. But, if any of them challenged her, she’d protect Tsume first and walk away to prevent being force to kill someone.

Stiff muscles throbbed with a blunt pain that pulsed through a significant majority of his body. For whatever reason, thoughts couldn't quite congeal into something tangible and he felt dizzy even though he could tell he was laying down. Had he fallen out of bed again? It was a common occurrence whenever he had the bad dreams that followed the exile of his mother, leaving him alone with his neglectful father. Loki couldn't remember the floorboards of his room being this cold; was it winter?

A small voice in the back of his mind tried to warn him of something, but his mind was too muddled for his instincts to make sense. So he allowed himself to lay complacently on his bedroom floor, feeling too tired to open his eyes and start another day so early. He couldn't feel the warmth of the sun through his window, so it must be a little before dawn. There was still a little more time for rest.

Loki felt the weight of his blanket upon his wrists, clearly tangling itself around him awkwardly during the tumble. His hands reached out to grab the cloth so that he could wrap it around himself to ward off the cold floor. Instead, he found nothing but air and heard the heavy clatter of metal clinking against metal. Loki's mind used that moment of confusion as an anchor as the memories came flooding back to him and he could hear the alarming cry of his instincts in absolute clarity.

He was in danger!

Loki eyes snapped open as he threw himself sitting upright, head jerking around to take in his surroundings. A cry of panic escaped his mouth as the first thing his eyes locked upon was Marinik's murderous scowl. Patches of his skin had pink and yellow tints, signs of receding cuts and deep bruising. His face bore several fine scars from where his pistol had backfired, which only added to the intensity of his glare. Loki scuttled backwards on his hands and feet as fast as he could to get as much distance between them as possible. He hadn't made it far before an arm was caught short causing him to tumble to his back.

It was then he realized the manacles around his wrists, heavy links of chain with uncharacteristically narrow strands of wire laced through them. They were fastened to anchors that were anchored to the cold concrete floor.

"Now now, Marinik. That'll be enough." The voice was strong, smooth, and commanded absolute leadership. Marinik's eyes narrowed menacingly for a moment more before he turned to walk away, revealing another man who was standing behind him. His features were confident, businesslike, and very much fitting his tone of voice. He didn't look overtly threatening, but the way he carried himself made it obvious that it would be foolish to cross him.

"You'll have to excuse him. He's still rather upset about the conflict a few weeks back. I am Nicholas Udonis, but I would much prefer that if you did refer to me, it would be as Lord Udonis."

Loki just trembled as he did his best to get as far away from the man as his binds would allow.

Udonis let out an amused chuckle, though it only shown faintly on his otherwise indifferent expression. "I'm sure you're wondering why I've decided to hold you here rather than kill you outright, hm? Simply put, I find your abilities rather interesting and have a particular need for them."

A sneer spread across Loki's face as he sent his tendrils forth, ensnaring Udonis' wrists and ankles. Wherever he was, his wings no longer bore the extra reach that it had at the leyline, so he wasn't able to get a solid grip of his body. A chill ran down his spine when the man didn't so much as flinch and before he knew it, a massive hand clutched him by the back of the neck and pulled him aloft until his feet dangled above the ground. Once again, he was at the mercy of the shadowy creature.

"That would be inadvisable." Udonis said coolly. "Vires tends to get rather hostile towards those who threaten me."

Loki let out a groan of discomfort and after a moment, released his hold upon Udonis. Sure, he could have tried something to harm the man, but chances were that Vires would break his neck before he could do anything significant. "You want to manipulate Raewyn! I'll never help you!"

A devious grin spread across Udonis' face before he turned and casually strode a few paces away from Loki. The massive summon lowered Loki back to his feet once there was enough distance between them. "I believe you are mistaken, boy." Udonis said with casual indifference to his tone, nodding to Marinik who now stood next to some sort of wall mounted control panel containing a myriad of switches, buttons, and gages. "You don't have a say in the matter."

With a malicious smile, Marinik pulled down on one of the large switches.

Dawn had just cast the sky in a brilliant orange when Tsume rose from his sleep. With the fatigue from the night before gone, he found himself once again filled with confident resolve. Sleep had helped him to clear his mind and he knew what had to be done. The time for running has passed, they no longer had that luxury. That was assuming they had it in the first place. He was not quiet when he began breaking camp, causing the others to gradually rouse from the slumber.

"Everybody up, we're moving out in fifteen minutes. We'll eat trail rations along the way. If you're unable to walk on your own, the summons will carry you." Tsume turned to face the group, his lips contorted into a snarl which added a harsh edge to his next words. "They want to deal with us directly? Then we're going to shove confrontation down their throats and choke them with it until we get Loki back!"

by **quakernuts** Mon May 30, 2011 4:48 pm

Jake had sat in relative silence during the drama of the campfire. T'yang had gone off to search for firewood, and Jake was surprised and relieved to see Eri regain consciousness, even if it would have been better for her to still be asleep, speeding up the healing process. His back was still in pain, not to mention a dull throb from a slash on his right side, but he was forcing himself to block it out now. He couldn't afford to be thinking of pain at the moment, for there was simply too much else to be thinking about. In his mind, he was trying to figure out ways in which they wouldn't have to put the goddess in danger and save Loki, but if everything was correct about these guys, they would be watching the entire time. When Eri started asking about Loki, Jake fixed her with a guarded stare, not wanting to be the one to give her the news. Tsume took over that part, and the way she reacted reminded him of himself. Jake gave a small smirk as he looked back to the fire that was burning in front of him.

It wasn't until a thud behind him and a sharp pain sliding down his back happened that he really made any movement. He gritted his teeth in pain, and whirled his head backwards to find out what had happened, and saw that his axe holster had been practically destroyed, along with his clothes. With all the fighting that had gone on, the thought had totally whizzed right by him, and he grabbed his axe and placed it next to him. He would figure out a way to carry it without holding it tomorrow morning, along with find some new clothes. As he looked around the group, he wondered to himself just how they were going to do this. For the first time since starting this little quest, he began to doubt their ability to complete it. These were just 'minions' of Lord Udonis, and they had nearly all been killed. Eri had been stabbed in the abdomen, Tal had also been stabbed, although not nearly as bad. Owen still lay unconscious and broken, and he himself had a badly burned back and a gouge on his side. Only Tsume, T'yang, and Raewyn seemed really able to do anything, and one was too young to fight, and the other was too untrustworthy.

Fatigue clawed at his senses, and even though he really wanted to sleep, his restless mind wouldn't allow him. Plans were thought up, run through, and discarded as for once in his life, he tried to think ahead. Movement from his caught his attention as he glanced over and watched Tsume go to a tree and collapse. He knew the monk was taking it hard, as any decent leader should, but there was nothing Jake could do or say that would make it better. He had never been a leader, and had no idea what it would take to snap the man out of it. Luckily, or unluckily, however you see it, T'yang walked over to him, and they began to talk. Jake returned his gaze to the fire, but kept them in his peripherals as a just in case scenario.

It wasn't until T'yang started holding Tsume that Jake fixed her with a stare. He didn't trust her, not in the slightest. If this Lord Udonis guy was as smart as everyone made him out to be, then she could simply be a mole, or an assassin. Jake toyed with the thought of getting up, and pulling her off of him, but let it slide. She wouldn't try anything right now, because despite his injuries, Jake would get up and rip her to bits with his bare hands before she had the time to do so. He tried to make sure that message was conveyed through his stare, and returned to staring at the fire. Finally resigning the thoughts in his head to slumber, flipping over, and falling asleep.

Morning came way too fast for the Manipulator's liking. He woke to the sound of Tsume's voice, and for a moment, forgot all about his injuries. Attempting to stand up without taking that into account forced a very sharp and painful reminder of what exactly had happened the night before. Once again grinding his teeth in pain, He brought himself to a standing position. While fatigue was no longer an issue, he would need to get clothes, some medicine, ointment, and extra bandages, along with another holster. Jake heard Tsume's words, and as much as he wanted to say 'Hell Yeah!', he knew he couldn't. The fact of the matter was that they needed supplies and professional medical help.

"I'm with you on that, granted that we can hit up a town or inn or something along the way. We need medical supplies, and some of us;" Jake pointed to his burned clothes. "need some clothes." Jake looked around at everyone as a few stared at him, wondering who the hell he was. "Hey, don't look at me like that! Just because for once in my life I don't go diving headlong into a fight everyone thinks I turned into a monk or something." Jake's signature smirk planted itself on his face once more as he grabbed his ripped holster, tied it around his waist, and hung his axe off of it. It was slightly awkward, but he gave it a good tug, and found that it wouldn't fall off. once that was done, he gave a good once over of the group.

"So by the looks of it, it's me, you, and the woman that are going to be carrying all the weight." Jake walked up to Tsume, but made sure his voice could be heard by T'yang. "I don't care if you are leader T, the woman walks up front." Before Tsume could say anything, Jake continued. "Whether you trust her or not doesn't mean I do." Jake gave a sharp look towards T'yang, before walking off and helping everyone else prep for the coming travel.

by **Sunwolf007** Sun Jun 05, 2011 4:05 pm

"Everybody up, we're moving out in fifteen minutes. We'll eat trail rations along the way. If you're unable to walk on your own, the summons will carry you." Tsume turned to face the group, his lips contorted into a snarl which added a harsh edge to his next words. "They want to deal with us directly? Then we're going to shove confrontation down their throats and choke them with it until we get Loki back!"

Owen got up slowly. The night had been restful and now he was ready to hike out. He reloaded his revolvers and shotgun. He would miss his rifle and sword but he could still fight. He noticed that his left sleeve was barely hanging on. It wouldn’t be long before a tree branch yanked it off. Might as well do it now. Maybe no one will notice my brand of banishment. Owen thought as he tore off his left sleeve of his trench coat. It exposed the two greatest shames in his life. Below the elbow was a bullet wound given to him in his duel against James. Above the elbow was the tattoo that was only forced upon those banished from the temple.

"So by the looks of it, it's me, you, and the woman that are going to be carrying all the weight." Jake said. I don’t trust her. She reeks of temple training yet she attacked the Goddess. Then again I have done worse things in my life. It seems as if all I ever do is kill my brother… Why does my fate force me to suffer so greatly… Owen got up and found that he could walk unassisted. He remained silent and brooding as he prepared to eat a trail ration. He didn’t want to talk about his fight and hoped that no one would ask.

We need to get Loki back but can we do it? That last round of fights almost saw half our group dead. Should be rush headlong into another fight? If it comes to it I will fight so that the others may retreat. Maybe I will finally be able to die with some dignity. Owen thought as he ate silently.

by **Silvan Arrow** Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:29 pm

Eri didn’t know how long she sat there, numbed by the hollow ache in her chest. It could have been seconds, minutes, or hours. She couldn’t process time, and she only had a vague sense of Arashi desperately trying to reach her mind. However, the surprise of T’yang actually addressing her was enough to pull her back to reality. “There was a reason the Mages that came were chosen. It was our mission to separate you. Had you not battled Kuresh, the goddess would have died. Had Tsume not fought me, she would have died. You must always think of the many. Not the few.” She paused before continuing. “The boy knew the risks and chose to stay. Honor his bravery with courage. Not with the angry tears of a washer woman.”

She listened, still detached, to the assassin’s musings, but the last sentence pricked her already frayed nerves, and her eyes narrowed dangerously as she tensed. “Washer woman?” she growled under her breath. “Say that again and I’ll…” However, her empty threat trailed off as Raewyn flew into a rage, trying to blame T’yang for Loki’s kidnapping and saying that she didn’t belong here. Eri’s protective instincts flared slightly seeing T’yang harmlessly shove her away with a fan, but she could only meet Raewyn’s gaze when she promised they would save him. She did not want to speak words of hope to a child when she barely had any hope herself.

“Rest and let your guilt wash away. It is a poison. It has no place here,” T’yang simply advised.

Eri had heard enough for one night. Her old stoic façade had taken over her expression, and for a moment she was like the Eri the group had first met in the battle with Marinik, the Eri who didn’t want anything to do with a group. Her heart, which had slowly started to warm toward these people, had suffered a severe blow today and needed time to protect itself. “Tch…whatever…” With one last hard glare at T’yang, Eri lay on her pallet, rolling so her back faced the others. She didn’t want to hear anything else they had to say. At first she doubted she’d be able to sleep with the realization of what had happened to her student, but her body’s need to heal eventually dragged her down even as Raewyn’s heart-wrenching sobs echoed through her head.

Eri slept fitfully that night, but thankfully no dreams plagued her mind, no horrific images of Loki being tortured or her comrades abandoning her or Jake raising his axe to slay her. Instead, a comforting, soothing darkness wrapped around her sleeping consciousness like a blanket. A tiny flicker of white appeared in the distance and gradually expanded into the shape of a single feather. More white feathers joined the first, and slowly the feathers writhed and formed into a figure Eri knew as well as herself. “A-Arashi?” she asked into the void, still not trusting her mental pathway lest this still be a deception.

Mistress…Eri…you know I would never leave you, the eagle crooned back into her mind.

That was all the assurance she needed. Choking back a sob, Eri ran forward and flung her arms around her summon’s neck, burying her cheeks in the softness of his feathers and basking in the warmth of his body. Arashi crooned soothingly, almost like a purr, and nuzzled the top of her head with his beak as his wings circled her in his best imitation of an embrace. ‘But…how are you here? Am I…dreaming?’ Eri asked mentally.

You are asleep but not dreaming. You have always kept walls around your mind even in your sleep, but tonight you were so traumatized by the news of Loki that they fell asunder. I have been trying to reach you since you awoke.

A mix of guilt and relief swamped Eri’s senses, guilt for blocking Arashi but such relief knowing that he was okay after the battle with Kuresh. ‘Oh, Arashi…my friend, I am so sorry… I didn’t believe that I was alive at first, or that we had survived… And Loki…’ The grief from her waking hours rose up yet again in her unconscious state, still just as brutal and heart wrenching as before. She could not finish her sentence even mentally before her shoulders shook with silent sobs and burning tears tracked salty trails down her cheeks.

Ssshhh…you do not need to apologize, Eri. I am here, and I am not leaving. Not now. Not ever. Eri could only nod helplessly against his neck and cling to him tighter as she opened her bottled-up emotions to him. Arashi could only cradle his mistress in his wings and softly croon to her to offer comfort while she wept.

And if anyone had watched Eri while she slept, they would have seen her restless tossing and turning subside, only for the same tears she shed in her consciousness to trace their paths across her face…

-----------

Eri normally had no trouble rising early, but this morning came too early even for her. First she heard purposeful moving through the camp, followed by Tsume’s commanding voice. "Everybody up, we're moving out in fifteen minutes. We'll eat trail rations along the way. If you're unable to walk on your own, the summons will carry you." Tsume turned to face them, and his face twisted into a vicious snarl. "They want to deal with us directly? Then we're going to shove confrontation down their throats and choke them with it until we get Loki back!"

Eri smirked with triumph as finally a glimmer of hope bloomed in her chest. “Heh, about time you came to your senses, Tsume,” she remarked simply. However, her bravado couldn’t mask her body’s weakness. She was still battered and sore, and while the cut on her stomach had healed significantly during the night, it still hadn’t completely closed and throbbed with a constant dull ache that would only get worse by walking. Still, she stubbornly packed her supplies and hoisted them onto her back with a small grunt before following Tsume’s lead.

She tried to distract herself from the pain in her gut by taking inventory of the group now that they were in the daylight. Jake, Tsume, and T’yang seemed to be faring the best out of anyone, save Raewyn, who was too small to be of much help carrying the supplies. Owen had isolated himself from the others and ate his trail rations silently while clearly lost in thought. Before she could check on Tal, she stumbled over a tree root, an uncharacteristically clumsy move for her, and nearly went down to one knee as her stomach wound throbbed in protest. “Tch…it’s nothing…” she grunted, more to convince herself than anyone else.

Wordlessly, Tal half-shoved, half-hauled her onto Darren’s back, pack and all, before she could protest and merely gave her a friendly wink. Knowing it would do no good to argue, Eri pointedly try to ignore the others’ stares even while her cheeks burned red from embarrassment. She had always prided herself as the lone female warrior in the group, and now she didn’t even have enough Essence to summon Arashi and had to be carried while her wounds healed. As she pulled out one of her trail rations from her pack, she silently swore, ‘Lord Udonis better watch himself, because I’ll be coming straight for him after we get Loki back.’

by **Digital Muse** Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:18 pm

**Raewyn**

Tsume’s abrupt manner of waking them the next morning jolted Raewyn from her exhausted slumber. She’d fallen asleep in Tal’s embrace and wakened curled up between the large vagabond and Darren’s thick hide. It was a warm and safe haven she hated leaving. Groaning petulantly, she rolled out of her blankets only because Tsume had said the words she so needed to hear; that they were going to go to rescue Loki. Even though they were still camped fairly close to the ley lines, Raewyn felt exhausted and depleted. She’d used so much energy mentally, emotionally and in her battle with Maeve that she actually ached all over.

Taking a drink of cool water from her canteen, she put her pack together. It was a chore she’d become accustomed to doing for herself over the last two weeks. Had she only been gone such a short time? It boggled her mind. What were her parents thinking? She knew they’d be worried frantically. But she had no way to let them know she was alright. Or did she? She had invaded Maeve’s mind from a distance…why not her own family? A familiar mind she actually had a link to?

As she kneeled there tying the strings of her pack, she decided to try. Here at the ley lines was probably her best chance at sending some sort of message. Raewyn closed her eyes and concentrated as she never had before, she simply broadcast a message. She thought of her Mother, pictured her face, the smell of her hair, the feel of her clothing. When the image solidified in her minds-eye, Raewyn sent the simplest impression that she was alright and would contact her as soon as she was able. She kept concentrating for a few minutes on the idea, somehow thinking she’d need longer because the message had to go such a long distance.

Her concentration was broken suddenly when she felt her pack being taken away from under her hands. Her eyes snapped open to meet the obsidian-dark eyes of T’yang’s mere inches from hers. It unnerved her that she hadn’t heard T’yang approach and the seeming uncaring regard with which T’yang looked at her made Raewyn cold. “I will take this.” T’yang said quietly. “You need to regain your strength.” With that, the woman walked away, leaving Raewyn to shudder. She glanced around to see Jake and Eri both watching T’yang’s every move. It made her feel a little better. She moved to walk beside Eri as they began to move out. “He’s alright.” She said to no one in particular. Perhaps to reassure herself or Eri, she wasn’t even sure herself.

by **Digital Muse** Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:34 pm

**T'yang**

T’yang woke the moment Tsume’s breathing changed beside her. Despite his moment of weakness and self-doubt the night before, he was up and angrily decisive with the dawn. She smiled softly. She had feared that moment of weakness the previous evening. It was something that had caught her off guard. She rose as the others did, feeling the wounds inflicted in the battle the previous day. The wound at the back of her neck, in particular felt like it was oozing unpleasantly, so she dressed it and the other larger cuts she’d gotten carefully and out of sight of the others as best she could manage without slipping away entirely. She knew that moving out of sight would only heighten their suspicion of her even further.

As she wrapped her forearms and ribs in bandages, T’yang considered Tsume’s angry assertion that they were going to choke Lord Udonis on his own hubris for drawing the group to him. She had never met the Lord herself, but she could infer many things just by the group of Magi he had pulled in and bound into a semi-cohesive group. He was powerful; probably more powerful that all the Magi combined, if they would ever work together at all. He had a great force of will to keep them in line and he was confident of winning. All of that spelled trouble for this small group. While they had heart and undoubted skills, Lord Udonis had the advantage of knowing their abilities, had chosen the terrain and the time of the battle. It was a fool’s errand. In looking around, they all knew it, but simply didn’t care. Their love for the boy was going to be the death of them all. She found herself falling back into her old way of thinking. She should cut her loses and take Tsume with her. That was her first instinct. But, as soon as the thought blossomed in her mind, she squashed it. No more running. No more selfishness.

Her reverie was broken by the unsubtle Jake commenting aloud; "I don't care if you are leader T, the woman walks up front." Before Tsume could say anything, Jake continued. "Whether you trust her or not doesn't mean I do." Jake gave a sharp look towards T'yang, before walking off. T’yang watched Jake as he helped others prepare to leave before briefly sharing a look with Tsume. She may never gain their trust entirely. It was a price she would have to pay. And it was not entirely undeserved. After all, she had been an enemy a mere 10 hours previously. “I will lead, but have never been to the fortress. So, I am unfamiliar with its layout.” Her eyes lit upon each of the other Saturates in the group, they were all quiet thus far, so she couldn’t get a read on their thoughts. Eri seemed eager to get moving. The Vagabond appeared stoic as ever, but his eyes sparkled with mirth when he forced Eri to the back of his summon to ride while she healed. Her crimson cheeks spoke volumes about how she felt about that idea.

The one called Owen caught her attention the most, however when he tore away the remains of his sleeve to reveal the brand of shame on his arm. Her eyes widened in surprise to see it. He had been banished from the Temple? Why would Tsume allow this one to stay with the group? Did he know or sense something none of the others knew? It worried at her mind as she worked.

T’yang finished bandaging her wounds and shrugged back into her robe to cover them. Settling her sashes and fans in it, she walked to where Raewyn appeared to be knelt in prayer. She waited a few moments, and then bent to take the pack from the girl’s hands. Raewyn looked at her with something akin to fear, so T’yang reassured her. “I will take this.” T’yang said quietly. “You need to regain your strength.” She walked away, shouldering the goddess’ pack and then picking up her own. It was heavier than she’d expected. She slipped her arms through the straps stoically. It was going to be a long, exhausting day, she thought as she headed out along the narrow trail. She just hoped she didn’t exhaust herself too much along the way. The group was in little position to fight and if she was to be one of the main combatants, she had to remain fairly fresh.

by **Guilty Carrion** Mon Jun 27, 2011 6:22 pm

Tal blinked once or twice as Tsume gave them the call to wake up, sitting up lazily from his position against Darren, noting the absence of the small goddess from his side, but paying it little mind. Groggily, he stretched out his large arms, ignoring the dull pain that raced up his body from his chest wound. Bah, it would heal soon enough. “I’m all fer some head knocking but…s’little early in the morning to be so peppy, Tsume…” Yawning, the Vagabond rose to his feet, Darren still resting gently behind him, though he knew the Rhino was well on it’s way to waking up.

At Jake’s words, Tal puffed up his chest defensively. “Hey! Just because I don’t have a spring in my step like you doesn’t mean you can lump me off like that! I’ve drug boats in from storms while tanked off ma ass! A little hole like this won’t do anything to slow me down.” As if to prove his point, he thumped a fist against his chest once, flinching a little at the pain. “Okay, maybe just a little, but I’m not taking it easy.”

The others quickly went about their preparations, and Tal wordlessly resigned him to waking up Darren. Giving the rhino a swift kick to the side, a frown etched itself across his features as he examined the rest of the group. Owen was deadly quiet, eating and lost in his own thoughts, worrying the vagabond only slightly. The man seemed capable of handling his own problems, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he was being a bit too hard on himself.

Tsume and T’yang both seemed to be in noticeably brighter spirits, and Tal gave him a mental pat on the back for taking Raewyn off of her hands to allow the two the time to bond. “I can still play matchmaker, it seems.”

“For anyone other than yourself.” Darren snorted, roughly shoving his summoner onto his backside with a flick of his head. Tal laughed, gripping the beast’s horn and hoisting himself back up to his feet.

“Good morning to you too, grumpy.” As the group wordlessly began to move out, Eri tripped over a root, a move he knew was odd even from having known her for such a short time. As she clutched her stomach in pain, Tal shook his head once, before placing a powerful hand on her shoulder. Before she could so much as squeak in protest, he hoisted her off the ground, and pushed her up onto Darren’s back, leaving her with only a cheeky wink before continuing on with the group, humming an old sailor’s tune happily. “Ha! Carrying all the weight my ass! Hoisted her up no problem at all! I still got some strength in these bones!”

“You sound like an old man.” The summon shot back, slowing his stride ever so slightly to smooth the ride for the wounded summoner on his back. It wouldn’t do if she got hurt anymore from him carelessly stomping through the forest.

As the group moved in silence, Tal idly shifted his war hammer from shoulder to shoulder, ivory eyes glancing between the various members of the group, although he often found himself glancing between Jake and T’yang. It felt as if he could reach out and grab the distrust Jake felt for their newest addition, and he really couldn’t blame the man for it. But, if they wanted to stand a chance of rescuing Loki, they couldn’t be watching each other for knives in the back. But how could he fix this..?

“Trust is a hard thing to gain, Tal. You can’t force it, nor wish it into existence. She will simply have to earn it.”

“Aye…just worried what might come of this. We really don’t need anything else acting in our enemies favour.”

The rhino didn’t respond, but Tal knew well enough that it shared his views. It wasn’t their place to go mucking about in the group’s relationships though, so he forced his worries to the back of his mind, and quickened his powerful stride to walk beside Tsume.

“So…who lit the fire under your ass this morning?” A merry chuckle filled the air, as he nudged the monk with his elbow.

by **Loki** Sat Jul 09, 2011 9:38 pm

Jake had been the first to speak upon waking, and much to Tsume's surprise, he didn't insist on immediately charging into battle. "I'm with you on that, granted that we can hit up a town or inn or something along the way. We need medical supplies, and some of us;" Jake pointed to his burned clothes. "need some clothes." The monk grimaced at that and looked at the map that had been left behind by Magi Brycen. As he had expected, there was nothing but wilderness between them and the ruined refinery. It had not been a surprise to him, there was a reason that towns didn't pop up along seams of power; although the yield of crops would be staggering, the rest of the wilderness would be just as rampant. The effort needed to keep strangling vines, weeds, and other invasive plant life would be like fending off a relentless siege. Not to mention the amount of manpower it would take to carve out a sufficient clearing among the mammoth trees. It just wasn't practical. Even technological advances would be useless in the area; anything powered by essence wouldn't last more than a few minutes before the radiant natural essence caused them to overload or otherwise go haywire.

That was the very issue that had caused the Essence refinery to go critical within a month or two of activating only a few decades ago. The idea of tapping into the abundant source of pure Essence was great on paper; a single refinery would be capable of producing anywhere between five and ten times the amount of power compared to the norm. It was quickly discovered that despite taking the necessary precautions in designing it, the influx of energy was just too great. Systems would regularly malfunction and components would blow out practically on a daily basis. It was only a matter of time until something went horribly wrong. And by the second month, something did. A fuse had blown at the most inopportune time in one of the massive cells that stored the collected Essence energy. That itself wouldn't have been enough, but its timing was impeccable. The component it protected was responsible for shutting off the cell's collector that directed energy into it before it could overcharge. In the moment between signaling the collector's shutdown and actually shutting it down, the fuze failed. For all intents and purposes the system had registered that it had done so and went about business as usual; though in actuality power was still flowing into the fully charged cell. Fifteen minutes later, an onsite engineer had noticed that particular cell was radiating unusual levels of excess heat. Five minutes after that they had figured out the issue and had been in the process of a manual shutdown when the cell went critical.

The storage cell exploded much like Marinik's pistol had when Loki caused it to overload, though on a scale several million times larger. Massive shards of the tank compromised those around it causing a chain reaction that caused that entire quarter of the facility to fail catastrophically. Although the physical damage was limited to massive shrapnel damage since the storage units do not contain combustibles, the release of that much Essence at once is extremely deadly to all organic life. Those on site instantly felt disoriented, weak, and experienced severe headaches. Within ten minutes they grew nauseous and began vomiting blood as their hair began falling out in clumps. Fevers spiked into dangerous temperatures within the first hour. Seizures, tremors, and ataxia was experienced by nearly everybody who had been exposed. Within two days, not a single person survived. After a week, all plant life within a five mile radius of the facility wilted and died leaving a ominous clearing of weathered dirt. There was no lingering Essence in the site that would prove detrimental to organic life, quite the opposite really. There are numerous theories that try to account for it, but nobody truly knows why the site had become entirely devoid of all naturally ambient Essence. Even the insignificant levels found everywhere on the planet are absent, which is universally accepted the reason no new plant life grows upon the land.

"Unfortunately, we do not have that option. There are no villages anywhere near where we will be traveling. We would have to turn back to Janik, which would give them all the excuse they need to kill Loki." Tsume sighed. "We're not under a deadline to get to them as long as we remain on track, though I think it would be best if we don't doddle when we don't need to. For Loki's sake. We'll be travelling through the leyline the entire way, so I can work on healing wounds at night. It'll be extremely exhausting for me, so it will be best to do it when we finish walking for the day. As for the clothes, I have a few spare sets if you think you could fit into them. Feel free to cut them where necessary to make them fit otherwise."

"So by the looks of it, it's me, you, and the woman that are going to be carrying all the weight."

Tsume shrugged. "We also have the enlarged Darren and Alco to fall back on."

"I don't care if you are leader T, the woman walks up front. Whether you trust her or not doesn't mean I do."

The monk winced at Jake's blunt words. As much as he wanted to refute his paranoia, Tsume knew he didn't have any solid ground to build his argument upon. The only other character witness to T'yang was Tal, but nobody present has been with her for several years. A lot could change a person in that time and given her actions of the day prior... There would have been no way Tsume would have been able to win that debate. Plus, he was emotionally involved, which only made his credibility on the matter even more tenuous.

“I will lead, but have never been to the fortress. So, I am unfamiliar with its layout.”

Tsume let out a short breath of relief as T'yang accepted those terms willingly. "Thank you. I'll take point with you." He said gesturing to the map in his hand. As he went to put it back in the envelope, he realized there was something else inside. It appeared to be a smaller envelope with 'Raewyn' written upon it by hand. He looked up to see the young lady still clearly worn out from her encounter. I'll wait until tonight to give this to her when she has a little more time to clear her mind. Something tells me the contents will not be beneficial towards a day's travel.

After a few minutes, the group had finally gotten into motion. Tsume had been in the process of moving from the rear after having made sure nothing was left behind and there would be no stragglers who had been putting on a tough front to mitigate the severity of their injuries. Thankfully Tal had saw to it that Eri was taken care of before the monk could close the distance. Shortly after passing the large man, Tsume heard his heavy footfalls quicken and was alerted to Tal's presence at his side with a nudge of an elbow. “So…who lit the fire under your ass this morning?” The sound of Tal's chuckle always helped ease the monk out of his impervious emotional shell. With a grin, Tsume joked back. "You're just jealous that I'm able to wake bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning while you are only able to do so after a long night of binging. I still am baffled by your body's ability to reverse the effect of a hangover so that you only feel its effects on mornings where you haven't consumed half Darren's weight in alcohol the night prior."

After a moment, Tsume's voice lowered to just above a whisper so that only Tal would be able to hear. "Yesterday was the first encounter where the whole of the group hadn't walked away with only moderate injuries. Simply put, we took one hell of a beating and lost one of us in the process. Though we may have walked away from the battle, I think it is unlikely that you'd get a unanimous ruling that we were victorious... On top of that, Loki had practically been adopted by the group in one manner or another, which is all the more true since he had been exiled from his home less than a day before meeting us. He's more than just a kid; several of us have come to view him as more of a younger brother or a son. Had I not gotten them up so abruptly, they would have had time to mull over yesterday's events and there's no telling what sort of state that would have put them. They may not have pressed ahead for the sake of the Temple, but there was no doubt in my mind that they wouldn't hesitate to go after Loki. Truth of the matter is that they have now made things personal for everybody who had grown attached to the boy. Myself included."

After a half day of walking, there was still a few hours of daylight left as they broke camp. Tsume knew that it would be unwise to press on when several were still trying to recover from their injuries. On top of that, he wanted to make sure he had as much energy he could spare to attempt another healing. Being tired from a full day of traveling would only be a hindrance to what he'd be able to accomplish. As everybody set about getting settled, Tsume pulled Tal aside so he could speak to him in private. Despite his hulking size, Tal had the biggest heart of the group and the monk got the impression that Raewyn would need such a person present once she had been given the sealed envelope. If nothing else, to ensure she wouldn't be manipulated by whatever it contained. Ideally, he would have had Loki help her through it, but that obviously wasn't an option. He had considered reading it beforehand, but thought better of it since it was only asking for trouble to intrude upon the privacy of a young girl.

The monk's tone was somber when he spoke as he shown him the envelope containing Raewyn's name. "Tal, this was in the folder with the map that the Magi left behind for us..." Tsume knew that Tal would instantly understand his line of thought. "Go to her and get her relaxed with some conversation. I very well may be the bad guy when I give this to her and she will need your empathy. It would be best if you came off as being entirely unassociated with this until she gets a chance to read it."

Once Tal had his instructions, Tsume approached Jake already having concealed the letter in his clothing. "How are your injuries?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed, but the main thing I'm worried about is infection." Jake then leaned in and spoke in a hushed tone to prevent people from overhearing. "As much as I really hate to admit it, I'm going to need medical attention sooner or later, but I can stave it off until we get Loki."

Tsume nodded, glad that Jake didn't try to hide the severity of his wounds. "I'll work on restoring your wounds tonight then. We still have enough medical supplies for the others to see that their cleaner injuries are maintained. After all, it is much easier to dress a cut than a focused sunburn." The monk clapped his hand lightly on the man's shoulder. "I'll be back shortly and we'll get to it."

He then moved to Eri who looked distracted with thought now that she had finished laying out her gear. Being a fellow summoner, she had the potential to help him with the healing; with as labor intensive as it was the monk would take all the help he could get. Plus, it would help to preoccupy her mind. Tsume stood a few paces away from her in her peripheries and waited a few moments until she eventually noticed his presence. "Your injuries recovering just fine?" He smiled at her answer, glad to hear that his experimental crafting had worked out; especially since it had been in such a vital location. "Would you be interested in learning how to work the healing technique? I'll admit, I'm basically going off theory, but it hasn't failed thus far. I could use the help and perhaps a new perspective would catch something to make the process easier."

A smile spread across his face when she accepted his offer. "Good. We'll be working on Jake tonight since his wounds aren't as easily cleaned as the others. Head over to him and I'll meet up with you momentarily."

He stepped a few paces away from her and frowned. With those matters taken care of, it just left him with one last issue of importance. Tsume looked over to Tal and Raewyn and suddenly felt as though the letter in his clothing had become a lead ingot. He looked around camp once more to see if anything more needed to be addressed, but to his disappointment, everything was in order. There was always the option of conversing with T'yang for a bit longer. They did some casual conversing as they led the group, but nothing too in depth. With a heavy sigh, he disregarded that option; there was work to do and putting it off wouldn't make things any easier. Walking the short distance to the seated duo was like walking through a thicket with as much emotional resistance there was trying to hold him back. Once close enough, he knelt next to Raewyn and withdrew the letter from his pocket. "This... was in the envelope the Magi left behind... I don't know what it contains, but know that whatever it is, we'll be here for you should you need us." His voice was gentle as he handed the Goddess the letter with her name scribed upon the front. "I'm going to see to Jake's wounds for a little while. If there is anything you need from me, I'll be there." He held her hand firmly in his for a moment before relinquishing the letter and departing towards the other two he kept waiting.

by **Silvan Arrow** Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:21 pm

‘This is so humiliating…’ Eri fumed quietly while she rode on Darren’s back. She knew logically that there was no shame in taking the time and precautions necessary to heal, but she hated above all else showing weakness to anyone, especially when everyone else was perfectly capable of walking despite their injuries.

Arashi could easily sense his mistress’ frustration and train of thought through their bond. True, but did any of the others fight their foes from the air? he asked, following her unspoken questions. Despite his constant reserve of calm, Eri could still detect a tendril of annoyance and uncharacteristic possessiveness from her Summon partner. Eri was his. His Summoner. His partner. It should be his duty and privilege to carry her, but instead that task went to another Summon while all of her Essence went towards healing.

As the hours progressed, Eri resorted to silent meditation to stave off boredorm and keep both her and Arashi calm. The bond between Summoner and Summon went both ways. If meditation could help a defeated Summon regain its strength, why could it not work the other way? She carefully took down the barriers around her mind, ready to slam them up again if her emotions spiraled out of control, but with Arashi as her anchor, she had nothing to fear. She retreated into herself, shutting out the world around her, and reached across their bond, widening and strengthening the link until she could see it in her mind’s eye. In times past when she had tried to meditate, she could only catch glimpses of the bond as a bright shining thread that connected their hearts and minds. But now, guided by Tsume’s lessons and bolstered by the leyline, she could finally get a clear view of the bond. Instead of a thread, it was a thick, braided rope that shone bright white like Arashi’s feathers and pulsed its light in time with their heartbeat, like a beacon in the darkness. She could feel Arashi’s strength and vitality, feeding her energy to help her heal along with the Essence in the leyline.

As her consciousness moved closer to the rope, she realized that the threads weaving the rope together were different memories and experiences they had shared together. She reached out to touch a section of the rope and caught glimpses of memories from the past two weeks: her unlikely meeting with the group during the fight with Marinik, fleeing the collapsing forest, learning the truth about Owen’s past, diving in a frenzy after Kuresh when he went after Jake.

Eri’s heart stalled with a painful, shuddering beat, reflected by the shining rope, as her consciousness followed a different thread of memories. Within a few short seconds, she relived the experiences and raw emotions after she made that fateful promise in the forest. The words echoed painfully in her head, just like they had every day since then.

“I want you to put me down…for good.”

“NO!!!” Only now that she had taken down all her mental barriers and was alone in her consciousness did she realize just how much her heart railed against the very notion of striking him down, promise or no promise. She would do it if necessary to honor her word, but it would destroy her utterly. When had her mindset changed so drastically? When did she start to…care?

“No…no…no…”

“Eri?”

“No…no…”

Mistress, come back! Eri!

Eri’s eyes flew open as her spirit was roughly jerked back into her body. The afternoon sunlight felt unusually harsh after being in the darkness of her mind, and she squinted out of reflex. Her breath came in short gasps, and her body was covered in a cold sweat. She didn’t know who had called her name, and quite honestly she almost didn’t want to know. She pointedly ignored the others in case they were giving her concerned looks and asked Arashi, ‘What happened?’

You were away from yourself for too long. You got lost in your memories, and I almost couldn’t pull you back. He paused, and Eri could tell he was hiding something.

‘Arashi, what else happened? What…what did I say?’

He reluctantly continued. You…repeated Jake’s words aloud and then started mumbling “no” over and over until you returned to yourself.

Oh Goddess… Eri’s heart sank as the color drained from her face. ‘How…loudly?’

Just above a whisper, but loud enough.

Eri didn’t even want to hazard a glance at Jake for fear of meeting his eyes. They had barely spoken in days, and she felt responsible for the rift that had formed between them. Not that they had ever been particularly close, but she knew from the beginning that she could rely on him to watch her back in battle. Now, though, with another battle looming that could very well end with all of their deaths, she knew she had to at least try to repair the damage and speak her peace like she had done with Owen. Even if Jake wanted nothing to do with her, at least she could die in peace knowing that she had done all she could.

Eri avoided eye contact with the others for the rest of the afternoon and busied herself, ironically, with a sewing kit. She was still wearing her torn, blood-soaked clothes from her fight with Jasper and Kuresh, and the sight of all the dried blood was starting to make her uncomfortable. Luckily, she still had her original forest green tunic and grey pants in her pack from before she met with the group. The fabric was a little frayed around the armholes and neckline and had a few tears here and there, but it was a vast improvement over her current attire. She salvaged some strips of black and grey fabric from the hems of her current tunic and pants and stitched some black and grey trim to reinforce the edges. At first the needle felt clumsy and unfamiliar in her hands, which were more used to wielding a sword, but eventually the forced sewing lessons from her mother kicked in and the result wasn’t too shabby.

Tsume called a stop relatively early in the day so he could tend to the others’ injuries. Eri slid off Darren’s back and was pleased that her stomach wound only gave her a slight twinge. She gave the rhino a fond scratch behind the ear and whispered, “Thank you. I owe you one.” The mood in the campsite was quiet and solemn as everyone set out sleeping pallets and other gear, which unfortunately gave Eri more time to think and brood about Loki’s situation. She tried to shove those unpleasant thoughts out of her mind by cleaning and sharpening her father’s sword with a whetstone.

She caught a flicker of movement out of her peripheral vision and turned her head to see Tsume patiently waiting to address her. “Your injuries recovering just fine?”

Eri gave him a grateful smile and nodded an affirmative. “It barely hurts now, and traveling in the leyline is speeding up the healing.”

Tsume returned her smile and asked, “Would you be interested in learning how to work the healing technique? I'll admit, I'm basically going off theory, but it hasn't failed thus far. I could use the help and perhaps a new perspective would catch something to make the process easier."

Eri couldn’t hide the glint of eagerness in her eyes when he made the offer. “Of course. Helping you is the least I can do after you saved my life.”

Tsume’s smile only grew larger, which was a relief considering how quiet he had been since yesterday. “Good. We'll be working on Jake tonight since his wounds aren't as easily cleaned as the others. Head over to him and I'll meet up with you momentarily."

Eri’s good mood abruptly evaporated as soon as Tsume left. After her unintentional slip of the tongue during her meditation, she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to look Jake in the eye again. Not to mention the agonizing awkward distance between them that was slowly driving her insane. Perhaps you can take advantage of this opportunity to try and mend the damage? Arashi offered.

‘How?’ Eri asked desperately.

Arashi just gave a shrug of his wings in her mind’s eye. My kind tends to favor a more direct approach, but I find interactions between male and female humans most baffling.

Eri growled inwardly in frustration. ‘Sheesh, you’re no help,’ she groused. But then she got an idea. It was completely ridiculous and probably crazy, but then this was Jake she was talking about. She pulled a scrap of paper and piece of charcoal from her pack and hastily scribbled something on it before tucking it in her pocket.

Eri carefully blanked her expression, keeping it a mask of calm stoicism, as she crossed the campsite to where Jake was sitting. Still, she found it difficult to meet his eyes when he looked up at her questioningly. “Tsume requested my help with using a summoning technique to heal your wounds,” she offered by way of explanation. Luckily said monk appeared before Jake could say anything or offer a sarcastic comment.

“Good, you’re both here.” Tsume knelt behind Jake’s seated figure and gestured for Eri to join him. His attitude was all business as he removed the remains of Jake’s jacket and shirt to expose the burns and wounds underneath. Eri winced in sympathy; those had to hurt. “First, I need to explain the theory and process behind the technique of mending existing flesh. Given enough practice, a Summoner can manifest living flesh from the Essence within them, everything from circulatory systems to organs to bones. It’s the same basic principle as summoning your creature, except the living flesh you create is not bound to your Summon.” He went into a little more detail on the specifics of what they would be doing before asking, “Does this make sense?” Noting Eri’s slightly confused expression, he assured her, “Don’t worry, I’ll instruct you more as we go.” He placed his hands over one side of Jake’s burns and instructed her to do the same. She followed his lead and took a deep, steadying breath. She kept her eyes open but let her vision go hazy and unfocused as her mind slipped into a meditative state.

Suddenly Tsume’s voice echoed in her head, following the now-familiar pathway between their minds. 'Eri, can you hear me?' She nodded, still lost in a meditative trance. 'I want you to focus on the process of summoning Arashi, every little detail down to the smallest threads of Essence.' At the same time, he projected images into her mind of how he analyzed summoning Alco. 'Do you see it?'

After a few moments, Eri replied, ‘Yes.’ The process of calling upon their Summons was roughly identical in practice, but each one had subtle differences and nuances that reflected the personalities of the Summoners. Whereas Tsume was very methodical and technical when summoning Alco, Eri’s technique was more free form and relied more strongly on the emotional link between her and Arashi.

'Good. Now use that as a guide to direct your energy into your hands, and imagine it radiating outwards into the wounds. It will be more exhausting than you might expect, so don’t panic.'

Eri did as Tsume instructed, and almost immediately her breath left her lungs in a strangled gasp as the Essence poured from her body through her hands and into Jake’s wounds. Tsume had warned her, but she didn’t think the process would drain her so quickly. Her hands took on a slightly green aura from the Essence pulsating around them. ‘Tsume?’

'You’re doing fine, Eri. Just keep it up.'

His calm, steady voice reassured her, so Eri pressed on with grim determination. Slowly but surely, the angry red around Jake’s burns started to lessen as she and Tsume purged the infection that had started to build. She became acutely aware of their linked minds working in tandem, methodically identifying areas to mend and then combining their strength to repair the wounded flesh. Even with their combined strength, Eri could feel her energy lagging more quickly. ‘Arashi…’

I’m here, Mistress. Call on my strength. She greedily plunged into the deep well of Arashi’s energy, but it still wasn’t enough. Her breath came in desperate gasps, and her eyes squinted shut from the effort required to sustain the healing. You’re keeping your emotions blocked, and it’s holding you back. Remember how they gave us strength in our last battle. Use that strength now, Arashi urged.

Eri hesitantly tried to comply, but it took a monumental effort all to itself to remove a block that had been in place for so many years. She felt Arashi’s mind join with hers to help, and she instantly felt a new surge of strength as she recalled the fierce tide of emotions that had welled up when Kuresh had gone after Jake, the same sense of rage, protectiveness, and that thing she still couldn’t identify. She followed that thread of emotions to recall other memories and feelings that all started and ended with him. She felt herself opening up more and more, unaware that some of those images and emotions were leaking across to him: a warm embrace in a forest clearing, the hurt and confusion that immediately followed, the nightmares – oh Goddess, the nightmares of a double-bladed axe sinking into her back, the silence that she tried to fill with outward coldness, and a warm sense of caring that overrode all the others. She reached for all of these and poured them into her flagging energies, now so lost in her own mind that she barely registered Tsume’s presence anymore. She could feel the flesh knitting together beneath her fingertips inch by agonizing inch, and she lost all track of time as she focused solely on the healing.

“Eri…”

She vaguely heard a voice calling her name, but it could have been a dream for all she knew.

“Eri, stop. He’s fine now.”

Tsume’s hands gently pried hers from Jake’s shoulder, and the break in physical contact abruptly slammed her back into her own body and left her gasping and wide-eyed as she slumped backwards, supporting her weight on her palms as she desperately tried to fill her lungs with oxygen. “T-Tsume? What…?” A brief coughing fit ended her sentence midway as she met his weary but proud expression.

“Not bad for your first attempt,” Tsume complimented with a slight smirk. Eri followed his gaze to inspect their handiwork. Sure enough, the burns and wounds had been completely healed with little more than faint scar lines to mark where they had been. The monk forced a hearty tone into his otherwise exhausted voice and clapped Jake on the shoulder. “Well, Jake, I trust you’re feeling better? You should be fine, but let me know if you have any complications later.” He rose on shaky legs and offered Eri a hand to help her stand. “Get some rest. You’ll need it after expending that much energy.” Her face still bore a dazed, bewildered expression as she met Jake’s eyes briefly and then staggered back to her bedroll. But she had managed to slip a note into his pack unnoticed before that:

Jake,

I need to speak with you. Wait twenty minutes after I leave camp, and then follow my tracks.

-Eri

Eri forced her tired, aching muscles to move despite their protests. She dug her spare pack out of her gear and threw her repaired change of clothes and a first aid pack into it before slipping away with a brief nod at Tsume. She found a small clearing about a half-mile away from camp that was safely away from prying eyes. She quickly stripped off her ruined tunic and cleaned and re-bandagd the wound on her stomach. It had scabbed over during the trek today and would be mostly recovered by the morning, thanks to the effects of the leyline, but she wasn’t taking any chances of infection. She then changed into her spare tunic and pants and refastened the black leather belt and sword belt around her waist. With that done, she had nothing left to do but wait.

The minutes dragged by in what felt like an eternity, and she alternated between pacing back and forth and simply staring out into space. Her heart raced erratically as adrenaline and nerves kicked into overdrive. One would think she was about to fight to the death, not simply talk with someone. Finally Arashi’s voice spoke calmly into her mind. He approaches, Mistress. Jake slowly emerged from the treeline and stopped, regarding her calmly and waiting for her to speak.

“So you came after all,” Eri stated simply, as if she were making an observation about the weather. “I very well may die in our next battle, considering I barely survived the last one, so I guess I’m trying to make sure I don’t have any regrets in case that happens.” She kept her tone casual, cordial even, while her heart was hammering against her breastbone like a panicked bird beating its wings. As the next words formed on her lips, her stoic mask fell away, replaced by an expression that was pleading and nearly helpless. She spread her hands, palms up, almost in a gesture of confusion, as the words tumbled out in rapid succession. “I don’t know how it happened, but I…care, Jake. I care.” She emphasized that second word, like she had never used it before and was now marveling at the sound of it. “I used to not care about anyone except myself and Arashi, but now I care about duty-obsessed Temple Monks, spoiled young Goddesses, suicidal merchants, and homeless teenage boys that somehow think I would actually make a good role model.” She paused briefly before continuing more slowly. “I…even care about you. I don’t know why you won’t let anyone in and always keep up this sarcastic, joking façade.” Her sharp gaze flicked upward and met his abruptly with an aura of pure determination. “I know you have a dark side that’s always fighting for control; I saw it in the last battle. And I don’t care, because I know there’s good in you as well. I’m not giving up on you, and I never want to have to fulfill the promise I made.” Her eyes then softened, and her voice dropped to barely above a whisper as she glanced to the side. “I’m…sorry for being so cold to you lately. I was…I still am...scared and confused, and I thought ignoring it would make the problem go away. But instead it’s been eating me alive, and I just needed to speak my peace before I completely lost it. I regret not doing a better job protecting Loki, and I don’t want anymore regrets with you.”

Eri risked glancing at Jake’s expression, but she couldn’t get a read on him at all. Her face burned from embarrassment as he remained silent. “I…I’m sorry. I’ll just…go now…” she stammered as she moved to leave, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole...

by **quakernuts** Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:52 pm

Jake's little statement to Tsume about how things were going to go with T'yang went unchallenged, which was a good thing. Jake didn't want to go through another near fight with him, but he wasn't about to put someone who was trying to get the Goddess killed or corrupted a mere night ago the buddy pat and full trust of everyone here. Everyone had made it pretty clear, with the exception of possibly Tal and Tsume, that they didn't trust her, but Jake was going to make it pretty vocal. When she took up the lead with Tsume, that was good enough for him. She was in sight and within rushing range should she try anything. When Tal joined them up front, Jake relaxed a slight bit more. He was a new addition as well, but he also knew Tsume personally and not through romantic means.

Jake cast a glance back at Eri on the Rhino, and gave a small laugh as her cheeks were completely red with the embarrassment of having to be carried the distance. Owen was off doing his own thing as Jake had come to anticipate of the man. The tattoo seemed vaguely familiar to him, more something he saw or read once rather than something he should know off hand. He had seen T'yang's slight hesitation when she saw the tattoo, which was the only reason he was giving it so much thought. Raewyn seemed to be physically fine, although he could tell she was tearing up inside from having sent Loki alone to be captured by himself. To think, a few nights ago Jake had nearly killed her in a fit of anger. Seeing her walk beside Eri gave him even more ammunition for laughter. The one person who seemed least likely to be a parent figure seemed to somehow easily gain the trust of both of them. Ironically funny, but he quickly returned to his state of being on a constant state of alert. Just because they said they wouldn't attack didn't mean they wouldn't.

A few hours into the trip, nothing was really being said and the group had descended into either a state of determination or sombre despair. Jake was the first one, refusing to let those feelings once again grip his mind, and he focused solely on his fist hitting this Lord Udonis in the face with the force of a wrecking ball. It made a smile creep on his face, until he heard a couple words behind him. Barely above a whisper, and had it not been so quiet, he might not have heard them.

"I want you to put me down...for good." He recognized these words, and he instantly stiffened but remained walking. He turned his head towards her, pretending not to hear exactly what she said.

"Eri?" He asked, not exactly sure if she heard him or not. He didn't want to hear those words again, the feelings and thoughts he was pushing to the bottom were finding a way through those very ones, and he wanted it to stop. When she woke up with a start, he stared at her curiously for a moment but she refused to meet his eyes. She knew what she said, and for some reason it disturbed him. He remembered those words, and he stood by them. He would rather be dead than a prisoner in his own body forced to watch through blood stained glass at the horror being inflicted by his abilities.

He returned to simply staring ahead, keeping T'yang in his peripheries and maintaining constant concentration on his mind. Mainly the how many ways he was going to absolutely destroy these guys at the factory, regardless of hometown advantage. They were going to lose, and Jake was going to rub their faces in it.

After about half the day was over, the group decided to sit down for some well needed rest and relaxation. Jake wanted to keep going, to make sure they didn't waste any time getting there and making these guys regret ever crossing Jake's path...their path. However, he knew that the others didn't necessarily have the fortitude he did, and he relented with a little bit of a sigh by helping everyone else settle in and getting everything ready for making the camp. It pre-occupied his mind a bit more, and he was finding his good mood returning to him. He liked it, and a smirk was now on his face constantly. Life was simple. Go to place, beat up bad guys, get brother-like kid out, strike heroic pose. Jake was still thinking about what pose he would use when Tsume came up to him and asked about the nature of his injuries. Jake told him straight up, but not without lowering his voice first. He was still in pain, but he had years of experience hiding it. He knew when he needed help, and when he didn't. Tsume offered to fix him up, and Jake wasn't going to argue. If it kept mainly to the wind harassing his back, it was manageable, but if he were to hit the ground hard he doubted even he could keep a yell of pain from escaping from his throat.

It was only a few minutes later that Eri walked over to him. His good mood was still in effect, so he put a smile on his face. He had a guess as to why she was here, and before he could say a sarcastic comment about a masseuse she cemented his guess in place and Tsume showed up just a second later. As they were removing what little of his jacket remained, he put on a pout. "That was my favourite jacket!" Then he paused for a second. "Or better put, my only jacket." Jake shook his fist. "Those bastards!" When the comment was returned with concentrated silence, Jake gave a sigh and relented to being the quiet patient. Everyone else seemed to be brooding over the coming battle, but Jake was excited. He loved it when things were simple, and even though Loki's life hung in the balance, he couldn't shake the happiness that was controlling his words and actions.

When they placed their hands on his burn, he twitched. That was saying something when someone who gets punched by big brawling fathers barely even moves when hit. He grimaced slightly as even the light touch felt like rubbing a cheese grater against his back. He felt the power coming from their hands, the knitting of his skin coming back together was one of the weirdest feelings he had ever experienced. It wasn't weird bad, but it wasn't weird good either. It was simply weird in every fashion of the word. Suddenly memories that weren't his own started flashing before his eyes. Blurred pictures with words drowned out by other words over lapping them. He had a hard time understanding what was going on, but he caught a few pictures of Owen, Loki, Tsume, Raewyn, and finally himself.

One image came in very clearly, and it was one of him sinking his axe into Eri's back. the thought made him stiffen so much that his back, not fully healed, screamed in protest. No words came from him, no other motions, and no other clue as to what he just saw as Eri and Tsume finished up with his back. Tsume clapped on his shoulder, stating for him to come find him if there were any complications. Jake forced a smirk on and nodded, still in somewhat of a paralyzed state of seeing something like that. He didn't know exactly where it came from, but he had his ideas as Eri walked away from him. That wasn't a memory, or at least, he didn't remember ever doing anything like that.

A little while later, he managed to find a note in his pack by his bedroll. He read it, grimaced, crumpled it and slipped it back in. It was not a meeting he was looking forward too, but neither was he going to ignore her either. If she wanted to say something, she needed to be able to see it. So, with a little patience involved and his good mood still clinging on despite the few unsettling things, Jake finally managed to catch sight of Eri leaving the clearing and travelling into the forest. He gave his twenty minutes plus a few to make sure, and wandered up to Tsume.

"Hey T. I'm going to go check the area. Something's...bugging me. It might be that I just have no idea where we really are, or that I don't trust those as-" Jake looked over at Raewyn sitting within hearing range. "Bad people." Jake corrected himself in front of her, and with his consent, took his axe off of it's holster and strode into the forest.

It took a little bit to catch Eri's tracks, since he left in a different direction to avoid suspicion. He felt more like a high school kid skipping class to make out with the head cheerleader or something. Not that they were going to make out or anything, or that her note included anything that might make that seem like a reality, or that he was even thinking such a thing. Well, I did bring up the thought...ok...Maybe I do need a shrink cause my mind is definitely not in it's right place right now. Jake thought to himself as he walked into a small clearing with Eri standing on the other side. The eerily familiar situation made the last of Jake's good feeling go poof as he finally confirmed what this conversation was about.

As she started to express the reason why she brought him out here, and what exactly was going on in her mind, Jake started having doubts about showing up here. He was suppressing the darker thoughts and urges, and now they were starting to surface once more as her explanation went on longer. As she finished, her face flushed and her manner flustered, Jake stood there like an idiot. He didn't know what to say or how to say it. He didn't do 'feelings' he did beatings, there was a clear cut difference. When she apologized and started to walk off, Jake gave a rather loud throat clearing noise, and watched as she turned to face him. He kind of fidgeted in his spot, and even though he had been with a few women in his time, none of them really involved feelings in any way.

"I'm just going to get this out and say I'm not good with expressing my feelings, or dealing with the feelings of others." Jake said, a little harsh but it had to be known. "The face of a Joker is also superior to the face of a broken man." Jake stared at her, his composure completely strong and looking like he was in complete control, though his face lacked any humour that it held mere minutes ago. "I know you care Eri, about them, about me, about this entire group. I have always known since the clearing." Jake paused for a second, before finally his gaze fell to the ground.

"Why do you think I've been pushing you away?"

Jake looked up at her, slowly closing the gap between them as he continued to talk. "I am a dangerous man, to not only those around me but myself. The reason I told myself I joined this group was because of the fighting and the action, when really it was simply a distraction. I have a dark side, if you want to call it that, that is gaining, and at times gained, control. I don't call him a darker side, I call him Jake as well. He is me, and there is nothing I can do to fix that." Jake was in front of Eri now, gripping her by the shoulders. "Can't you see that? I can do nothing to stop him from coming out, and I know I sound like a psych ward patient, but that's the truth!"

He fixed her with a stare that could have shattered rock for the intensity that was held within his irises. "The last time he was in control, he was will to do anything to remain that way." He stopped for a second, before looking away for simply a moment. "He wanted me to kill you in order to kill me." Jake looked back at her, staring into her eyes for a moment before breaking contact and backing up a few steps.

"I care too Eri, and for that sole reason I have to keep my distance from you. He'll use you as a weapon against me, and I can't allow that, for both of our sakes." Jake took a deep breath for a moment, never having really told his feelings since he was a small kid. "Know this though, I will always have your back and while I'm still able to move, I will continue to do so. As for everything else..." Jake paused, turned his back to her and started walking back to the woods. He stopped a few steps in, and looked back at her.

"I'm sorry." Jake whispered, and disappeared from sight within the confines of the trees. It felt similar to a cage the way the branches started to envelope him, and at the moment, he didn't care. He had fought battles that would have killed normal men ten times over, and he could say with all honesty that was the hardest thing he had ever done.

by **Silvan Arrow** Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:37 pm

Viemera: The Essence of Deceit [Complete] - Page 7 Viemerabackgrounderi

Eri had never felt like such a fool in her life. She shouldn’t have done this, shouldn’t have expressed her feelings like this. She started to turn away, but the sound of Jake clearing his throat forced her to stop and face him again. He started out speaking confidently, if a little harshly, which relieved her slightly. But then he paused and looked at the ground.

“Why do you think I’ve been pushing you away?”

Jake continued speaking, his voice eerily calm, as he approached her and explained about his dark side. Once again she got the sensation of a prey animal trapped in the gaze of a predator, but she held her ground. “I don’t call him a darker side, I call him Jake as well. He is me, and there is nothing I can do to fix that.” Jake gripped Eri firmly by the shoulders, almost like he wanted to shake some sense into her, and the physical contact – the first between them since the clearing – brought back emotions and memories of both pain and pleasure. “Can’t you see that? I can do nothing to stop him from coming out, and I know I sound like a psych ward patient, but that’s the truth!”

Eri wanted to say, ‘Yes, I can see that, but it doesn’t matter. I already said I’m not giving up on you.’ But the words died on her tongue as he fixed her with such an intense gaze that she actually trembled beneath his hands. She had this overwhelming desire to close the distance between them and wrap her arms around him, but for what purpose? To offer comfort? Jake certainly wasn’t the type to desire comfort. To offer strength? He was so strong already that there was nothing she could offer him. Then why? All she knew was that at that moment, she would have done anything, made any promise, if it only meant he could overcome this darker side and be the Jake she had glimpsed once before.

“The last time he was in control, he was willing to do anything to remain that way.” He paused and looked away, and Eri instinctively dreaded what he would say next that he couuldn’t even make eye contact. “He wanted me to kill you in order to kill me.”

‘Oh Goddess…’ Eri couldn’t stop the soft gasp from escaping her lips. Even she hadn’t been prepared to hear that. Green eyes met blue momentarily before Jake took his hands from her shoulder and backed up a few steps. The loss of contact made her feel unusually cold, and her arms subconsciously wrapped around her torso. Why did she feel like she was losing him, that he was about to disappear from her life forever?

“I care too Eri,” those words gave her a momentary thrill, “and for that sole reason I have to keep my distance from you.”

‘Please no…’ Eri felt something come undone in her chest, like a crack had just formed in her heart.

“He’ll use you as a weapon against me, and I can’t allow that, for both our sakes.”

‘Don’t say that…please just let me help you!’ she wanted to scream, but she was paralyzed on the spot. The crack widened…

“Know this though, I will always have your back and while I’m still able to move, I will continue to do so.” Those words should have reassured her, but instead they only made more cracks form and made the ache in her chest worse. “As for everything else…”

Jake turned away and started walking back into the woods, and Eri instinctively took one stumbling step after him. ‘Please don’t go…’ He stopped and looked back at her one last time with a hint of finality.

“I’m sorry.” It was barely above a whisper, and then the shadows reached out and enveloped him as he disappeared into the forest. At the same time, that cracked piece of her heart broke away completely and shattered into dust.

Eri forced her voice to work around the strange lump forming in her throat. “…Jake! Wait! I…” A strange choking sound ripped its way from her throat, which closed up completely and made it hard to breathe. Her legs suddenly refused to support her weight, though not because of spending all that energy healing Jake, and she dropped to her knees, staring numbly at the ground. She clutched herself more tightly, like she was literally holding herself together, while one hand drifted to rest over her heart, which was hammering painfully against her breastbone. Another of those choking sounds came out of her mouth, this time accompanied by salty moisture dripping from her eyes. Shocked, she touched them with trembling fingertips. Tears…the first she had shed since nearly losing her father all those years ago. And the choking sounds were sobs. She had vowed never to cry or shed another tear, yet here she was, crying her eyes out in the middle of the forest over someone she had known only a few short weeks.

The tears continued relentlessly as sobs wracked Eri’s frame and stole whatever strength was left in her body. She used one hand to prop herself upright while the other clutched at her chest. She didn’t know what to do or think, but she had this overwhelming sensation that she didn’t want to be alone right now. Not ever again. “A-Arashi…” she croaked miserably.

And then suddenly he was just there. She didn’t make a conscious decision to summon him. Maybe it was an instinctive reaction to her sudden outburst of emotion, but she didn’t care. The white eagle, still enlarged from being in the leyline, stood before her, his wings circling her as if shielding her from the outside world. She focused on the soothing warmth radiating from his massive form and rested her head against his soft, downy feathers as he crooned softly in her ear. Oh Eri…I’m so sorry…

“I…don’t understand,” Eri forced between sobs, too distraught to use her mental pathway. “Why…does it hurt…so badly?” She clutched at her chest harder for emphasis.

Arashi’s voice was calm and serene. You have feelings for him. Strong feelings.

Eri shook her head in denial, but she knew he was right. “I don’t want them! Not if they’re going to…hurt like this…”

Shhh…it’s okay. Sometimes the heart goes against the mind like this. It’s only natural when you care for others.

Eri only sobbed harder and fisted her hands in his feathers as anger flared up, hot and insistent, amidst the pain. “I don’t need anyone else! I never have! Not as long as I have you…” Her rage evaporated as suddenly as it appeared, leaving her feeling even more hopeless than before. “Arashi…please don’t leave me. Not for Raewyn, not for Loki, not for anyone ever…”

You know I would never do that, Eri. And logically, Arashi knew it was impossible. Eri was, quite literally, the reason for his existence. He had been born from her Essence and desires, and as his Summoner, he could not enter this realm without her aid. I am here, and I always will be. Eri didn’t say anything else, but he could feel the small relief that echoed across their bond. He gathered her closer under his wings, like she were a young chick needing protection, and crooned soothingly to her while she soaked through his feathers with her tears.

Eri didn’t know how long she stayed there on her knees crying beneath Arashi’s wings, but eventually she exhausted her emotions and managed to pull herself together. Crying herself out left her with a strange sense of numbness, which was a blessed respite that let her mind finally start working again. Arashi found a stream nearby where she could wash the tearstains from her face and reduce the swelling in her eyelids, but nothing could conceal the bloodshot redness in her eyes. After that, there was nothing left to do but retrace her steps back to camp. It was still daylight, so she hoped the others hadn’t been too worried about her.

Arashi flew low over the forest canopy and perched on a sturdy branch above Eri’s bedroll just before she arrived back at the campsite. She guessed the others were probably surprised to see Arashi after she had spent so much Essence already, but she didn’t care. She kept her gaze downward so hopefully no one would notice her bloodshot eyes, especially Jake, and moved towards her bedroll before Tsume could chide her for using Essence to summon Arashi when she was already completely spent. As for Arashi, he quickly scanned over the battle-worn group, inspecting T’yang guardedly and lingering a few moments over Raewyn in sympathy. His protective instincts flared briefly as he shot Jake a brief but withering accusatory glare. The young man was not the fool he pretended to be. He could no doubt guess why Eri had waited so long to return to camp.

“Wake me if you need anything…” Eri mumbled in Tsume’s general direction before lying down with her back to the group. She almost immediately fell into a deep, dreamless sleep beneath Arashi's protective gaze, though if anyone had bothered to look closely enough, they could still see a few stray tears work loose and trickle down her face.

by **Digital Muse** Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:32 pm

The day's march was mostly silent. T'yang and Tsume led the way and spoke only occassionally, even though seemingly comfortable together. Jake watched them and seemed his usual light-hearted self; just glad to be on the way to another fight. Raewyn didn't understand him at all and sometimes he still scared her. It seemed like Jake went away and someone else was there at times. Most notably during the battle she'd felt him...change and it was ugly and dark. But she couldn't puzzle it out.

Owen, as she now knew him, seemed to be brooding. He barely interacted with the group. His mind many miles away and disturbed. She felt his turmoil and indecision and fear. She didn't like it. They all had to be on the same path, focused on the same goal or they'd never get Loki back alive.

Eri was another that retreated into herself. She sublimated herself so deeply on the walk that Raewyn was barely aware of her presence in her mind. She almost felt Arashi more than she did Eri. That is until the bright spark of dread leapt foremost into Eri's mind. Raewyn certainly felt that! It startled her out of her own pensive thoughts of Loki and her family and how very far away she was and how unhappy she was about it all. Having adventures are better to read about than to have.

Considering her woes, Raewyn began to become aware that here, along the leylines, she could feel those in her group far more strongly than before. She could sense thoughts and emotions quite distinctly. She already knew they felt hers too whenever she didn't control them. Could she do what Maeve had done? Speak to them or influence them, help them? They were so exhausted and hurt. Tsume could heal them, could she too? She bit her lower lip as she walked along the trail behind Tsume and T'yang, thinking. What did she know of the Goddess? Essence was concentrated and dispersed through her..wasn't it? She was the center of it's presence in the world. If that was true, then if say Eri used too much of her Essence, couldn't Raewyn give her some back?

It was a lot to think about as the day passed. She found herself probing and pushing into the thoughts of those around her. Tal was open, hearty, content and simple. No subterfuge or manipulation was needed. He was comfortable. Owen was dark and closed, afraid of being exposed, of being hunted, he worried deeply and Raewyn found herself drained trying to fathom just what it was she could do to help him. Eri had retreated and it was only after she'd jerked back to reality that Raewyn was able to sense her worry for Loki and something else niggling at the edges of her consciousness that was familiar to Raewyn, but that Eri seemed completely unaware of. The warmth of belonging. Tsume and T'yang were supremely difficult to read. Perhaps their training at the Temple made the difference, but she felt only residual worry from Tsume for the others and his exhaustion. From T'yang, she felt...a subtle air of superiority and narrow focus of purpose. Raewyn didn't like it. Raewyn's eyes slipped to where Jake walked along to the right and behind of T'yang. His distrust was palpable. He was worried about Loki too, they all were. But Jake also had something else heavy and deadening on his mind. Something inside he didn't trust. Was it that sense of other that she'd noted? What was it? She wish she knew more....it was all so confusing.

Her head had begun to throb from her little experiments into just what she could do when Tsume called an early stop for the day. T'yang and Tal set about making camp so Tsume and Eri could work on healing Jake's wounds. Before they started, however, Tsume approached her looking distinctly uncomfortable. He told her of the letter the Magi had left and held her hand briefly before reassuring her they'd be there if she needed once she'd read it. Raewyn held the letter in suddenly cold hands. She didn't want to open it. She wanted to throw it straight into the fire and never know what it said. She childishly chose to slip it into her pocket...as if tucking away any potentially bad news it might contain.

She settled in next to the small fire, staring into the flames. Tal wandered close to sit with her companionably. She liked the vagabond. He never seemed to have a care in the world. Maybe she should be a vagabond instead of the Goddess. As Tsume and Eri settled to work on Jake's wounds, Raewyn watched them, curious and hoping to see or sense what they did so she could learn too. She could sense them speaking through their telepathic link, but couldn't really make sense of precisely what they were doing. She was just too tired. Giving up, she returned to the fire, glad that Jake would be better. After a bit Eri left the camp to clean up and a bit later Jake went off on his own as well. Everyone seemed to just be grateful for the day to be ended. She'd stopped extending her own senses so there was only a light buzz of background noise from everyone's thoughts and emotions. But nothing Raewyn could really pick out.

That is until perhaps a half hour later. Heart-wrenching grief and pain tore through Raewyn's mind. Eri! She thought. Raewyn wavered slightly with the impact of it. Eri's heart was broken. And Jake! Jake was there...at the center of it. Jake mind was a mess of emotion too. What was happening? Raewyn nearly stood to do something...anything to make it stop. Then Jake returned to camp with a hard, stoic look on his face. Eri did not return for some time, her face swollen from crying and went directly to her bedroll, avoiding them all. Raewyn looked between the pair back and forth. What in the World? She'd speak to them. She needed to fix this somehow.

Just as she rose, she suddenly remembered the letter in her pocket. Drawing it out, she held it in shaking fingers and glanced up once toward Tal's reassuring face. Finally, after a few long minutes passed, Raewyn tore the sealed flap open and withdrew a single sheet of paper with a simple note written in an elegant hand. Maeve's. She was positive of that.

"Dear Goddess. Your father looks forward to seeing you again. You see, it was his generous donation of blood that allowed me to establish the link with you despite the distance. We are all eagerly awaiting your arrival, until then, sleep well."

As Raewyn reads, she slides out a photograph of her father shackled to a chair, but otherwise evidently unharmed. Her hand shakes visibly and she presses the photograph to her breast. She remains utterly still for man, many minutes after having read the letter. Her eyes closed as if in deep concentration. Finally, swallowing, she sought Tsume, knowing he would be wondering what the letter might possibly be about. Marching up to him, she took a deep breath and announced. "They've hurt us. They've taken Loki and now they've harmed my family. All because of me." She looked around at the others in the camp before continuing. "It ends here." Raewyn enunciated each syllable with a deadly finality. "I want them dead."

by **Guilty Carrion** Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:45 pm

The day’s travel had been easy, although the odd step would occasional tug at his still healing chest, and Tal would spend the next few minutes battling the pain into the back of his mind. Darren carried his charge dutifully and gently, ensuring his steps didn’t rock the wounded woman too much. Watching the quiet interactions between Tsume and T’yang tugged gleefully at Tal’s heartstrings, and the vagabond found his mood to be soaring when they made to break camp. Darren got a complimentary scratch and thanks, and Tal suppressed a knowing grin when Tsume approached him. Now the evening would be spent chatting about how well things were going between him and T’yan-

His mood crashed when he caught the look on the monk’s face, and he wasted no time in following the monk to privacy. As the envelope emerged, Tal frowned deeply. They weren’t allowed to get in high spirits, were they?

"Tal, this was in the folder with the map that the Magi left behind for us..." It was going to be bad news. Horrendously bad. "Go to her and get her relaxed with some conversation. I very well may be the bad guy when I give this to her and she will need your empathy. It would be best if you came off as being entirely unassociated with this until she gets a chance to read it."

“Ye got it.” As Tsume departed, Tal called out to his summon with his mind, the rhino pausing in it’s grazing near the edge of camp to look in his direction curiously. “They left a note for Raewyn…Tsume wants me to help her if it’s what he fears.”

“What does he fear?”

“The worst, what else? Tsume isn’t an optimist and for once, I’m agreeing with him. One fight is all ya need to know they aren’t going ta pull any punches.” The summon nodded in agreement, returning to it’s grazing, although Tal could sense the giant beast stewing over his words, and thinking for the days ahead. Darren always was the cautious one in their partnership, three steps ahead of the Vagabond in almost every conversation they had.

“Keep her company.” Tal rose a curious brow at the animal, slowly walking over towards the campfire where Raewyn sat silently. “I am worried. Let us leave it at that for now, Tal. Focus on her for now. I am content to wait.”

Their link fell back into silence, and Tal shook his head at Darren’s stubbornness. It wasn’t like anyone could actually HEAR them talking through the link…oh. Wait. Couldn’t the goddess?

A smug “Yes” echoed in his head, and Tal just shook his head and plopped down on his rear beside Raewyn. The two exchanged no words, instead sitting in quiet silence, but the air between them was warm and friendly, so Tal saw no reason to break the stillness with unnecessary words. As the minutes ticked by, and the camp stilled in silence, Tal found himself wondering where the others had wandered off to. Shouldn’t everyone be sleeping or eating?

No sooner than the thought formed, Jake returned to the clearing, face cold and emotionless. A chill ran down Tal’s spine, after a moment of brief eye contact with the man, and he slide slightly closer to Raewyn out of protective instinct. Something wasn’t right with Jake. That much was clear.

Eri’s return, her face streaked with tears and shoulders shaking with the emotion bottled within. His heart wrenched in his chest, and he could feel the question gaze of Darren locked on the hovering form of Arashi above them, the summon probing at the great bird’s mind for details. This was not something you wanted to start a battle with…especially a battle already so lopsided.

This was not a good omen for the days to come…

A sudden start from Raewyn jolted him from his thoughts, and the vagabond watched the standing girl with worried eyes. Her small hands shook with trepidation, as she examined the small envelope in her grasp, before she looked to him, and he pushed all the warmth and happiness he could into his smile. It seemed to do the trick, as she soon opened the letter. Craning his neck ever so slightly, Tal’s eyes darkened at the sight of the photograph, and Raewyn’s suddenly still form. Placing a tentative hand on her shoulder, the vagabond opened his mouth to speak, only for the girl to move forward with purpose, a straight march to the monk.

She spoke with conviction, and with a tone that seemed so wrong from a girl so young. “It ends here.” Tal’s heart plummeted into his stomach as she finished her thoughts. “I want them dead.”

Words escaped him before he knew what he was saying. “No.” He could feel eyes locking on him, and he swallowed hard to summon his resolve. Rising to his full height, the man shook his head quietly at the Goddess. “We’ll get them all back…but we aren’t going to sink down to their level. You aren’t going to sink down to their level. Yer better than that.” He paused to look at the others, a dread feeling gripping his spine. Death was what they all wanted, wasn't it?

by **Loki** Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:56 pm

Tsume felt lightheaded after tending to Jake’s wounds even with Eri’s help. Mending torn flesh is a relatively straightforward process he had come to discover, it just took a lot of mental muscle. Infections proved to be a whole new beast; a living entity that fought for its own survival and readily adapted to threats. It had been extremely taxing and he found himself thankful that he put Jake at the top of the list. If the wounds hadn’t been regularly cleaned or allowed time for the infection to really take root, Tsume doubted that he would have had what it took to purge it from the man’s system resorting to doing what he could and hoping his natural immune system could handle the rest. Fortunately, that would not be something that needed to concern him.

The growing night had been quiet as diurnal animals moved to their shelters while nocturnal ones were just beginning to stir from their slumber. The monk looked around the camp in a dreamy daze as a distant voice in the back of his head tried to remind him of some fact that he had forgotten. Where’s Eri? Ah yes, must be training with Loki again. Slowly the fatigued gears in his mind turned and he remembered that Loki was not with them. Wait… She shouldn’t be training alone… Tsume struggled to get to his feet, but he didn’t so much as move from his seated position. His body deciding to completely reject the order from his brain to stand. A moment later Jake wandered into the forest and Tsume felt more at ease. Jake will look after her. He’s a good man, even if he doesn’t want anybody to know it.

He hadn’t even been aware that T’yang was nearby until she spoke somewhere from his peripheries. ”Are you alright?” Tsume’s voice had picked up a slight slur as a result of the deep exhaustion. “Jesh tiured.” He wanted to say more, but couldn’t find the effort in him to do so. A moment later his balance gave way and he began to drop, though much slower than he had expected. It wasn’t until he felt the warmth of T’yang’s warm lap against the side of his head did he realize that he hadn’t collapsed, instead she had guided him into a laying position without his body being fully aware of her touch. After failing another attempt to speak, he instead conveyed his thanks by nuzzling against her weakly allowing his eyes to be urged closed by her gentle caresses of her hands along the side of his head.

A second later, or so it seemed from a skewed perception of time, Tsume had snapped out of the world between consciousness and sleep. His mind was in a haze, struggling to sort out reality from imagination as Raewyn’s words began to register. "They've hurt us. They've taken Loki and now they've harmed my family. All because of me." The severity of her tone caused his brain to labor even harder, but it was still sluggish by comparison. "It ends here." Tsume finally recalled what he had forgotten earlier: the letter. Alarm bells began going off in his mind. "I want them dead."

A chill of terror slithered down Tsume’s spine as the weight of her words registered with the dutiful monk within him. With all the power at a Goddess’ disposal, young or otherwise, for one to gain a taste for death brought with it very dire implications. It was one big step on the way to corruption. Unlike killing out of self-defense, willfully taking a life of another was an exercise of proving superiority through indomitable power. Once somebody with the potential of a Goddess got a taste of that, it stood the very real chance of becoming an addiction even if the original intentions seemed noble. From there, it’s only a matter of time before the corruption takes hold, putting the free will and lives of everyone in jeopardy. The nature of the Goddess was about the renewal of life and the very pillar about which the natural order of things was supported. That was why the entire world flourishes whenever a Goddess comes of age.

One of the closely guarded secrets kept by the temple was just how closely the state of the natural world is tied to the Goddess. It’s as if the environment becomes a reflection of her own emotions and desires. When Eraclea was at the height of her power, savage storms tore across the lands and even the more tame creatures of the wild turned feral. It was widely regarded that it had been a result of the corrupt Goddess’s direct will; the terrifying fact of the matter is that it had not been. The world became a hostile and dangerous place because the Goddess had been a hostile and dangerous person. That is why the Temple trained people like Tsume. It was as much for the sake of the Goddess’ defense as it was to actively seek out and eliminate any threats to her physical, mental, and emotional well-being so that she would not have to sullen her hands with the deed. So that she would not get the opportunity to get a taste for power.

Almost as if punctuating Tsume’s line of thought, a low rumble of thunder rolled through the skies from the distance mere moments after Raewyn’s resolve was announced. The monk winced at the sound, knowing that it hadn’t been simple coincidence; especially considering the night sky was clear of any clouds as far as they could see through the opening in the towering forest canopy. He had to reason with her, to talk to her, to warn her about what that path held for her. Had he only had the energy to do more than lift his head a few inches from T’yang’s lap he would have done so. Unfortunately, after a few seconds of holding his head aloft, his remaining reserves failed him and he once again lay upon his former lover’s lap. The bone deep concern shown clearly in his eyes moments before a chilled gust of wind howled through the camp; the sort of abrupt draft that serves as herald to a powerful storm.

by **Digital Muse** Sat Aug 20, 2011 5:07 pm

The walk the following day had been blissfully uneventful. Considering the injuries some of the group had sustained, both physical and mental, it was best. Had they been attacked in their present state, they would have been wiped out easily. T'yang walked at the head of the group and Tsume joined her there. She knew he'd done so to try to take the edge from Jake's sharp distrust. It wasn't necessary, but she appreciated the gesture anyway. She felt Tal's beaming smile. She couldn't fight a smile of her own; he'd always been an old romantic.

When Tsume called an early stop for the day, she went about making the campfire while Tsume and Eri healed Jake's rather severe burns. Her own wounds, were still healing, but not life-threatening, so she prepared a simple meal near Raewyn. The girl seemed far too introspective to speak to, however. Not long after the meal was started Tal came to sit beside Raewyn. He'd definitely taken on the role of comforter for the vulnerable goddess and T'yang felt he was probably the best choice of all of them. Tsume had to lead them, T'yang, herself, had no softness within her. Eri was barely older than Eri and Jake was too ready to run headlong into a fight. Her eyes slipped to the enigmatic Owen. She knew something of his history from the planning with the other Magi and he seemed to have withdrawn in a truly dangerous way. She'd speak to Tsume about him when there was time.

She watched Eri head out of the camp to bathe in a stream to refresh herself. Then Jake headed out in another direction. But her eyes were on Tsume. He had used far too much of his own reserves and was weaving drunkenly on his feet. Without making a sound, she rose and was at his side as if she were made of no more than smoke. A light hand at his back and elbow guided him to lay down with his head in her lap. T'yang was genuinely surprised that he hadn't simply dropped to the ground in a heap. She stroked his temples gently, knowing the soothing touch was likely completely unnecessary.

T'yang was meditating lightly when Raeywn suddenly rose to her feet obviously in distress. The young goddess marched to the pair of them and announced her determination that the Magi be killed for the crimes they'd committed against the group and her personally. T'yang was slightly taken aback by the solid wall of hatred the girl projected. Before she could speak, however, Tal interjected, "No." He seemed to be more than aware of the dangers that this path would create for Raewyn. "We’ll get them all back…but we aren’t going to sink down to their level. You aren’t going to sink down to their level. Yer better than that.”

Ordinarily, T'yang would have agreed with young Raewyn. Revenge had served her well for years. It had helped her to survive and deadened her emotions so she couldn't be hurt again. But, like Tsume, she knew of the true nature of the devastation caused by Eraclea. Her mood and sheer corruption was the basis for nearly all of the
natural disasters that had ever occurred during her regime. A rolling, distant thunder made T'yang look back over her shoulder with some apprehension. Tsume was too weak to move. After her return from the woods, it seemed that Eri was in much the same condition.

Looking back to Raewyn, she spoke with her usual soft, but somehow compelling voice. "Young goddess. You are this world's lifeline. Fall into darkness and the world suffers." T'yang's dark eyes rose to meet Tal's eyes with a small nod. "She is stronger than they give her credit for." T'yang looked down at the exhausted Tsume when his head dropped back into her lap once more. "Raewyn, don't make him wrong about you."

by **Loki** Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:19 pm

The next several days of travel passed without incident as they made their way to the ruined reactor, healing any injuries along the way. Though it never rained, the weather had become unusually cool for the season and more often than not thunder rolled in the distance. Tsume knew that it had been a result of Raewyn’s mental state, but had been very cautious about bringing it up with her. She seemed at a state where she was constantly poised for battle and the monk knew she lacked the discipline or experience to handle those emotions. There was a considerable risk in confronting her at that point, even with words. A single misstep potentially had devastating results. At this point, the only thing that was likely to appease her was closure to this situation. Whatever that end may be. Tsume hoped that after the dust settled, Raewyn’s hands would be clean from the dirty work that would likely occur.

On the afternoon of the seventh day of travel, the stood before the clearing to the weathered structural behemoth that stood in stark contrast to the massive forest around it. The several hundred yards of bare earth between the two only served to make it all the more foreboding. Now that they had a clear view of the horizon, the group could see the darkened sky surrounding their whereabouts. Directly above was a canopy of dull grey clouds, but off in the distance they drastically faded into something much darker and more menacing. There was the occasional flicker of light as lightning erupted in the denser clouds, though the bolt never leapt to the ground below. A chill shivered down Tsume’s spine as he realized that the storm wasn’t moving in a linear direction with the wind. It had been gradually spiraling around them in a slow, lazy circle that could only be noticed after several long moments of observation.

The group strode into the clearing, remaining on high alert for a potential ambush. About halfway to the structure, a large service blast door opened with the sound of laboring motors and creaking metal. Once it opened entirely, it was quite evident that it had been a massive lift that would travel underground rather than reveal a hallway into the reactor’s interior. Brycen and the massive summon exited the lift and moved with a casual stride to meet the group, both parties stopping once the distance between them had been reduced to about fifty yards. ”Lord Udonis will receive you now. Please, follow me into the lift.”

“No.” Tsume said authoritatively. “What makes you think we’re so foolish to be led blindly into a trap where you could so easily kill us?”

”I assure you, Monk, if Lord Udonis wished you dead then you would be dead.”

“If he’s so confident of himself, why doesn’t he meet us here in person rather than sending a pair of his lackeys?”

”Because he does not trust that you came here to negotiate with him in good faith.” A petulant grin spread across the Magi’s face. ”Shoving conflict down our throats is hardly a civilized diplomatic tactic.”

Tsume was a little put off by the fact that his previous remark following the battle had been quoted back to him when it had seemed they had been left alone. Still, he did not concede his stance and replied with a terse mocking laugh. ”He makes several attempts on our lives and he doesn’t trust us?! In what universe does that make sense?”

Brycen shrugged indifferently. ”You intervened in his affairs and took something from him. He was simply trying to get it back. It was strictly business; you shouldn’t take it so personally. Lord Udonis is a man of his word and the fact that he allowed you time to recover from the battle unmolested while you travelled here should be more than ample proof of his willingness to compromise.”

“You talk about Raewyn as though she is an object rather than a living being. Nobody has a right to possess ownership of another’s freedom. I fail to see how we could possibly come to a compromise, I would never let you take her.”

Brycen chuckled in genuine amusement. ”Clearly you do not fully grasp Lord Udonis’ intentions. If you would simply come with me to meet him, you might just very well find what he is willing to offer quite appealing compared to the alternative.”

Tsume squared himself and exerted an effort of will to bring his spear into existence. Planting the butt of the weapon in the ground finitely, he stood defiant. “I have a negotiation of my own to take to your boss. Either he meet us out here, on open ground, with Loki unharmed or we will be forced to kick in the front door and get the boy ourselves.”

The Magi tisked in disapproval. “That is unfortunate. Lord Udonis was afraid you would say something like that.”

Without warning Tsume was blindsided by an intense wave of fatigue that hit him like a virtual hammer blow. It took all of his will to remain conscious and standing, utilizing his spear to keep his knees from buckling and succeeding by a very slim margin. In his peripheries, he saw Owen laying face down on the ground, breathing heavily in deep slumber. The man was out like a light. Clearly it had not just been him who was hit by the attack which could have only come from the one Raewyn dubbed the Dreamwalker. ”Impressive. Very few could withstand Maeve’s power when they aren’t expecting it when amplified by the leyline.” Slowly, Tsume steadied his footing though the bone deep mental and physical exhaustion never let up. ”You should just let it take you. It won’t hurt as much.”

At that, several figures atop the structure and from the tree line behind stood in plain view and began volleying lances of energy from energy rifles. It was immediately apparent that these people were trained professionals rather than undisciplined thugs as their fire was steady and carefully aimed rather than opting for the prey and spray method. Tsume had lazily moved to one side to avoid one such shot, but was a just little too slow and a beam grazed his bicep. The instant it did, his entire arm went numb and hung limply. Despite his sluggish mind, he looked at his arm to survey the damage. There was none. He instantly realized they intended to subdue them with nonlethal rounds where they would be free to do as they pleased.

Once the attack begun, Tsume expected the dose of adrenaline to break Maeve’s influence, if not at least take the edge off it. Unfortunately, that was not the case and the rush he normally felt when going into battle never came. A moment later, two more well aimed shots hit him in the torso and Tsume fell into unconsciousness.

Tsume gasped as he woke with a start, sitting upright in a flash. He was sweating and breathing hard as he looked around to find himself in the middle of their camp. The campfire was still burning and his bedroll was delightfully warm. Oh thank the Goddess, it was only a dream. Looking around he noticed several other lumpy bedrolls filled with their sleeping contents. “You’re awake.” T’yang’s effeminate tone greeted him, but there was something alien and faintly sinister to her tone. She stood into view just on the opposite side of the low burning fire and the shadow that shrouded her from view seemed to melt off her. A flicker of movement from next to her drew his attention to the war fans that seemed to gleam in the firelight. Adrenaline caused his heart to race a moment later when he realized that it was not the fans that were glistening, but the crimson liquid upon them. His gaze returned to all the limp forms and realized that there was no steady rise and fall of breathing and at a harder glance noticed the discoloration to the fabric that seemed to soak through.

”They’re gone, Tsume.” The monk stumbled out of his bedroll and backed several paces away from his lover. His eyes met hers, alarmed, hurt, terrified, and questioning. ”Your job is done here. Now it can finally just be you and me.”

by **quakernuts** Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:58 pm

Jake focused his mind on the nothingness that often drifted in his subconscious. He had been on his own for so long, fending for only himself, and not caring about the consequences that he simply couldn't deal with anything else. He wanted to say this was something he could easily shove aside, just another fight that he could, and would win. Yet, he didn't really know. Tell Eri he couldn't allow himself to get close had been the hardest thing he had done, and taking into account the things Jake was used to doing, that was an amazing admission. He continued to sit there, staring out into the forest long after Eri returned and everyone fell asleep. Eventually his eyes became too heavy for his mind to function anymore, and he let himself fall into a dreamless slumber.

Over the course of the next several days, Jake put on a face as he always did. He continued to act the happy fool, just ready to beat something to a bloody pulp. It was something he was good at, being able to act like something he wasn't. He could remember a time when he would have never raised a hand to hurt someone else, but that time was dead in more ways than one. Jake joked and walked with an air of arrogance almost the entire time. He was determined, if anything, to put everyone's mind at ease that he could do his part. One way or another, they would get the kid back, and Jake was going to get some much needed ass kicking therapy. He didn't avoid Eri as he had done before, sometimes ending up walking beside her, although the two of them never exchanged words. Jake kept up most of the conversation for the group though, talking to almost everyone else to keep something other than sombre silence fall over them.

On the seventh day, they stood where they needed to be. Jake noticed the storm, but didn't pay too much attention to it. "Ooooh, lightning." Was all he said about it, before continuing with the group to the building that stood on the other side of the clearing. When they got closer, and the door opened to reveal two men striding out in all their superiority, Jake unsheathed his axe, and was already starting to quicken his stride towards them when a lingering sense of danger seemed to hit him. Something was different, and he could quite place it. Sure, the place was an opportune ambush point, and he had already dealt with that feeling of uncertainty, but there was something else. He held his ground, standing beside Tsume as he laid into the men with words sharp enough to pierce skin themselves.

A couple times, Jake wanted to interject himself, but a subtle flicker of Tsume's hand kept him from opening his mouth. Jake didn't like being told to shut it, even in such a subtle and polite manner, but he understood what was at stake here, and let it slide. It wasn't until Tsume started refusing their 'offers' that Jake started getting fidgety. Something was wrong, something was very wrong. Where was the ambush? Why were the men acting like they were stalling? Why was there suddenly a lightning storm in the distance that had yet managed to reach them? It wasn't until Jake actually decided to take a good look at the storm that he noticed that it was moving in a circular motion, like the eye of a hurricane. "Oh shit..." Was all Jake could say before fatigue hit him like a sledgehammer to the face. He was down on one knee, using his axe to hold him up even in that situation. He noticed that everyone had also been hit with it, as they were obviously in various states of what appeared to be a group...sleep spell? He had no idea what it was, but even as he struggled to regain his footing, men from atop the structure started shooting their rifles. Even Jake's enhanced reflexes couldn't move him fast enough in this state as several beams hit him dead center in the chest and he collapsed backwards onto the ground unconscious.

Jake opened his eyes to find himself standing amid a village. One that he could remember directly from memory, and one that no longer existed. It had been burned and razed to the ground with everyone in it. There should have been nothing but a clearing filled with grass and a few flowers, but instead, buildings and lights flickered where nothing should have been. Jake walked slowly down the street, the silence filling the area making him so twitchy that even the slightest of movements had him moving for his axe. Something was incredibly wrong here. He knew this wasn't real, he knew that and yet something else was incredibly wrong. If this was supposed to be the village where he grew up in, where were all the people?

"The people would simply get in the way, I prefer complete emptiness to mindless slaves to pitiful lives." Jake froze as he looked at the other end of the street, to see his darker self standing at the other side. Something was different this time though, it was as if the barriers that Jake had put up in his mind had suddenly been cast aside. He was still wrapped in shadows, as he had always been, but now Jake could make out an exact copy of himself within those shadows. Jake looked around for any sort of clue as to why, and his darker self only snapped his fingers a couple of times to get his attention.

"Hey, listen. Not to interrupt your thoughts as to 'how the fuck?' and 'why the fuck?' here, but I decided I'm simply going to tell you how it is." The Sadistic bastard casually strolled slowly down the street, pointing to houses as he passed, and watching as they burst into flames. "See, here's what happened. You and your little band of temple bitches went and ended up getting yourself into another trap. I would say it's a surprise, but I would be lying. Needless to say, somehow through this attack, someone else entered your mind, put you into a semi-coma state, and released all of your mental barriers. I.E, my jail cell." He stopped for a second, the flames seeming to be sucked into the darkness that surrounded his person.

"So here's how it's going to go down. I want out, I want freedom, and I want control. The only thing now standing in my way is you." He was about ten feet away now, and he started circling Jake, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he did so. "Could I ask you to leave? I could, but we both know you wouldn't. Could I lock you away like you did to me? Yes, but I would have to be in control first, so that's not yet an option. Could I simply take control while your body is in a coma? No, since neither of us can break the spell on our own, and you won't work with me for fear of letting me in control. So, I only see one option."

Dark Jake turned towards Jake, and flexed his hands. Double bladed axes appeared in both hands, exact replicas of the one on Jake's back. Jake didn't back down, staring at him in such defiance that it would have forced a lesser mind to surrender on it's own. "Killing you is the only way I'm going to get out of here. It won't destroy your essence, at least, not without more considerable effort once I'm in control, but it will allow me to be in charge."

"You're cocky for someone I've beaten at least three times in the past month." Jake said, edging his darker self on, who only shrugged.

"Yes, yes you did. Thing is, I was chained, and you were also motivated. Things have changed. I'm no longer in my cell and I'm in control of this reality." He looked around at the flames that had spread to the entire village. "I thought it would be fitting to kill you where I was born." Jake said nothing as a sadistic smile painted itself on his darker self. Suddenly, without warning, Dark Jake was launching himself across the ten feet separating them with amazing speed. Jake barely side stepped in time, and even then Ekaj swung around and elbowed him so hard in the head that he went flying into the wall of a burning building. The flames, instead of burning him, licked at him without heat, and instead whispers. Recounting his failures, his regrets, his guilt. It was meant to sap his resolve, weaken him on a deeper level. He hated to admit it, but it was working.

"I OWN THIS WORLD JAKE!" Dark Jake yelled from where Jake was propping himself into a standing state. "I OWN THIS BODY!" Darker Jake launched once more across the clearing, but Jake ducked under, grabbing his axe as he did so, and slashing outwards only to be met with nothing but air. Before he could even guess what was going on, he felt a hand grab his neck and spin him around through the wall into the center of the village. The fountain there spouting blood rather than water, and shadows formed underfoot of people he once knew, all whispering or shouting at him. How this was his fault, how everything was his fault. He should have died at the village like a man, tried to save someone. Instead, he ran like a coward, he ran and saved his own life.

Jake could feel his resolve weaken even from this as Darker Jake landed with a crash, forming a crater a few yards in front of him. As the sadistic smile grew, and he walked forward with hatred and purpose, clones of him appeared beside him until there was five Darker Jake's all walking towards Jake in unison. Jake said nothing. No cocky remarks, no taunts, no hatred or anger stemming from him. There was nothing but the sole thought of what would happen should his Darker self take control. Even as the odds stacked against him, the laws of physics and reality no longer accounting for his enemy's actions, he slowly started striding forward to meet them. His stride became a jog, and his jog became full blown run as he brought his axe up to meet the ten that were swinging to join him.

by **Silvan Arrow** Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:37 pm

For the first time in his few short years of existence, Arashi felt…helpless. He could protect Eri from physical harm but not from the pain boiling in her heart. She slept deeply but fitfully, her face contorted from her subconscious battle to keep her emotions contained. As he watched over her from his perch, he felt a questioning probe from Darren and instinctively started to sink into a protective crouch. However, he quickly relaxed upon realizing that Darren and Tal were genuinely concerned. They knew Eri was hurting and wanted to know what had happened so they could help.

Conflict warred in Arashi’s mind. He protected his Mistress, protected her secrets, protected her privacy. It was not his place to share with them what had transpired between her and Jake. And yet…maybe he also had to protect her from herself when her secrecy could be her downfall.

Glancing down at her sleeping face, he made up his mind upon seeing more tears trickle down her cheeks. Locking eyes with Darren, he said, It is not my place to repeat my Mistress’ words or betray conversations she wishes to keep private. She would know I had told you. However… Now he got a positively mischievous glint in his eyes for a split second. If I were simply recalling the images that I remember and you just happened to be listening to my thoughts…well, I certainly can’t control your actions, now can I? Arashi made a show of ruffling his feathers and pointedly focusing his attention on Eri rather than his fellow Summon. Yes, I believe I will think to myself about what just happened because it distresses me so.

And that’s exactly what Arashi did. He recalled the entire conversation between Jake and Eri through his mind’s eye, down to their tones of voices and the agony he felt ripping through Eri’s chest as Jake walked away. He heard Darren snort in surprise but pointedly made no indication that he had heard. As the images faded away with one last thought of Eri weeping in the forest, Arashi finally met Darren’s gaze. I don’t know how to help her, he admitted. If your Summoner knows what to do, then please… He trailed off, not knowing how to continue, but based on Darren’s expression, he knew he got the message.

The next few days of travel passed rather uneventfully, which gave Eri the time she needed to recover physically and finish helping Tsume treat the group’s injuries. Healing the emotional hurt, however, progressed much more slowly. She woke up the morning after talking to Jake feeling raw after crying herself out, but the night of sleep also gave her a blessed sense of clarity. As her logical side replayed their conversation and picked it apart, she began to realize that yes, Jake did care, and that was exactly why he was keeping his distance. They didn’t speak to each other, but Eri could occasionally catch a glimpse of hidden emotion in his eyes whenever he walked beside her. She still had moments of melancholy that she tried to conceal from the others, but she also felt a sense of determination that grew stronger with each passing day. She had to find some way to help him. She didn’t know what or how, but the goal gave her something to focus on other than the pain and her worry for Loki’s safety.

Arashi also refused to leave Eri’s side the whole time they traveled. He flew as an aerial scout during the day and remained at her side during the night. He and Eri meditated together in the evenings, reviewing their past battles and going over strategies based on what little they knew about Lord Udonis’ minions. They knew their next battles would make Jasper and Kuresh look like fledglings, so they needed to have their minds in complete sync so they could respond to whatever Lord Udonis threw at them.

Eri noticed a disturbing change in Raewyn’s demeanor during their travels. Arashi told her about Raewyn’s desire for vengeance against their enemies, and she noticed that the girl was much more somber and constantly on alert, ready to snap at a moment’s notice. The clouds and thunder that seemed to follow their group only added to the grim atmosphere. Eri didn’t know how to help the young Goddess, but she made it a point to stay near her while they were traveling to offer some semblance of security and comradeship.

Eri didn’t need her eyes to tell her when they arrived in the clearing that marked their appointed meeting place. She had gotten so used to the enhanced Essence levels in the leyline that she felt its absence like a punch in the gut as soon as she stepped onto the bare earth of the clearing. She initially gasped for breath for the first few seconds, and Gale Cleaver, which she had summoned earlier in preparation for battle, vanished back into the elements without her consent. She felt Arashi falter in flight above them as he too felt the weakness. ‘Hang in there, Arashi. Lord Udonis’ minions will have the same handicap too,’ Eri thought grimly as she followed Tsume’s lead and stood before the broken-down refinery.

The atmosphere remained tense, like a drawn bowstring ready to snap, as Brycen and the hulking, shadowy Summon came outside to greet them. She drew her father’s sword and waited out the exchange between him and Tsume. She knew this would come down to a bloody battle either way; it was only a matter of time.

Even so, she wasn’t prepared for how they actually began the battle. A sudden wave of fatigue broadsided her like a massive gust of wind and brought her to her knees. She dug the tip of her sword into the ground and desperately gripped the hilt to remain upright, gritting her teeth in defiance. ‘Arashi, stay away! Find Loki! Get him and Raewyn out of here!’ she shouted mentally as she fought against her own body to stay alert. Then unseen foes started raining down energy bolts from above, and Arashi screeched in rage as Eri failed to dodge them and got struck in the arms and legs. Numbly she realized that she they were only trying to incapacitate them as she collapsed and sensed Arashi dive-bomb the attackers to protect his mistress.

‘Arashi! NOOOO!’ Eri tried to command, but it was too late. The marksmen nailed Arashi square in the chest, and he plummeted to the ground paralyzed and fell unconscious along with Eri.

----------

Eri groaned in pain and laid a hand on her throbbing head as she regained consciousness. As soon as she got a handle on her surroundings, however, she didn’t know what to think. “This is…my village!”

Sure enough, Eri got to her feet in the town square of the village where she was born. Everything was exactly the way she remembered. The local farmers and traveling traders had their booths lining the square while the villagers milled amongst them, haggling on prices and exchanging friendly banter. The midday sun shone brightly from a cloudless sky, and the familiar scents of water and freshly tilled earth filled Eri’s nostrils. Muscle memory took Eri past the bustling crowds and toward the outskirts of the village without even thinking, to where she knew her father’s smithy would be. As the small log cabin and adjacent smithy, along with the smoke from the forge, came into view, Eri broke into a run. She couldn’t keep the delighted grin from spreading across her face. “Dad! Mom! I’m home!” she called, expecting her parents to come outside to greet her. It had been so long. Nearly five years since she had left.

‘Arashi, we did it! We must have won the battle!’ she exclaimed mentally. They must have gotten Loki back, beaten Lord Udonis, and gotten Raewyn safely to the temple so she could come fully into her power. Everything was as it should be. ‘…Arashi?’ Eri received no answer from her Summon, not even a twinge of his Essence.

Eri’s steps faltered as reality suddenly slammed her like Tal’s war hammer. Her parents didn’t live in this village anymore. They hadn’t lived here since Eri was a child. So then…why was the forge lit?

Eri received her answer as the door to the smithy opened and a figure she had not seen in five years stepped outside. She stood motionless, regarding the beloved face that had been her source of comfort, her solid rock, for so many years.

“D-Dad…”

Anton Kiryakov was a handsome man, over six feet tall with a muscular upper body from a lifetime of swordplay and blacksmithing. He still had a full head of thick black hair, which was starting to show streaks of grey, but was otherwise clean-shaven. Despite the hot climate in the village, he wore shades of black and grey, using the excuse that they wouldn’t show soot, and his ever-present sword belt was fastened around his waist. But while Eri’s eyes told her that this was her father, his expression was not right. His chocolate-brown eyes were lifeless and sad, and the laugh lines that had always surrounded his mouth and eyes had deepened into aging wrinkles.

But it was his voice that sent Eri’s heart sinking faster than anything. His deep, rich baritone voice held only disappointment as he said, “Eri…you should not have returned. You failed me, just as you failed them…”

“W-what? What are you talking about?” Eri stammered while she frantically tried to reach Arashi. ‘Arashi, where are you? And where are we?!’

“Your Summon can’t help you here,” Anton continued in that same dead tone of voice. “No one can help you now. You cannot escape from this dream world.” A shiver of dread slid down Eri’s spine as steel whispered from its sheath, and Anton held out a sword. “I will make sure of that.”

by **Digital Muse** Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:05 pm

*T'yang*

Surprisingly, the following week of travel was without conflict; either within and without. Given the territory they were moving into was the lair of Lord Udonis, T'yang took up a position within the group near Raewyn, so she might shield the girl immediately if needed. She was as uneasy as the others about bearding this particular lion in his den, perhaps more so, as she had been in his employ for some time.

Topping a hill, the group could see the massive concrete bunker-like factory below surrounded by a dead zone. As they moved down toward the factory cautiously, heavy steel doors opened in the face of it and Brycen emerged with the huge, dark Summon behind him.

Tsume came to a stop about 50 yards from Brycen, not trusting him at all. T'yang moved to stand before Raewyn and as she did, noted the dark, roiling thunder clouds above their heads. She frowned, watching them briefly. She'd seen this before. Eraclea. The devastation of the corrupt goddess was tied to her emotions. And now, Raewyn was doing the same thing. While Tsume and Brycen traded words, She half-turned toward Raewyn and whispered to her. "Raewyn, you must calm yourself. Your anger and pain affects everything around you." T'yang placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "We will succeed, I swear it. Do not allow hatred to rule..."

Before T'yang could finish her thought, a crashing wave of intense exhaustion dropped T'yang like a stone. She landed heavily on her side unable to even break her fall. Her eyes fluttered momentarily as she fought to remain awake, but she simply couldn't and her world went black.

Pain. T'yang woke to a pain in her shoulder. With a groan, she rolled to her back and nearly gagged at the smell of a pig sty. "Hey! Get the hell up. Lazy, good for nothing...." A pair of heavy boots stomped into view. Looking up, T'yang saw a heavy-set man with a balding head come into focus. She didn't know him...where was she?

Apparently she moved too slowly, because the man kicked her viciously in the ribs, driving all the air from her lungs and rolling her a few feet in the slop. She was enraged. How dare he think to touch her!? She coughed and clambored to her feet quickly, red with rage and whispered her call to the shadows. She would make him pay!

To her utter shock, nothing happened. No shadow answered her. She reached out with her senses and could not feel the Essence in the world at all. Fear hit her with the force of a titanic wave. What had happened? She snatched at her fans, but her hands met nothing but the rags of her common dress. Goddess! She backed up against the wall staring at the man trying once again to call her shadows, but to no avail.

The man looked at her angrily, "What the hell is the matter with you? You crazy or something?" He stepped forward, grabbed a handful of her dark hair and dragged her out of the pig sty as if she were nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

T'yang was so stunned she could barely think. She was unable to feel Essence, unable to call her Shadows...her fans had been taken from her. She was defenseless! She struggled in his grasp, but could not break out of his grip. He finally flung her bodily toward a stone cottage where she fell to her knees in the dirt. What had happened to her? Angry tears leaked down her cheeks. T'yang dashed them away with an angry fist. She couldn't even control her own emotions!

As T'yang began to rise to brush the dirt from her rough and ragged clothes, a plain-looking woman with red, frizzed hair stepped out of the cottage and wrinkle her nose at the smell that permeated from T'yang's clothes. "Sweet Mother!" She exclaimed. "You been rolling with the pigs? I don't know why we put up with you. You're useless! Always have been!" The woman then bent to pick up a water bucket and thrust it at T'yang. "Get yourself down to the well and bring that back smartish or I'll take a cane to you useless back!"

T'yang was so enraged, it almost made it difficult to breath. No one dare speak to her that way! And yet they had, with impunity. They had no fear of her, they cared nothing for her. And then it slammed into her. She...was nothing...no longer a Saturate. Something had happened to take her ability to sense and use Essence away. Her knees almost buckled at the thought. "Oh Goddess." She whispered. A sharp rap hit her shoulder painfully. "There'll be no talk of such rubbish here!" The woman hissed at her. "You'll end at the end of a rope if you do. Now move!"

*Raewyn*

The approach to the abandoned factory frightened Raewyn . She felt the apprehension of the others keenly. But, she was eager to get her Father and Loki back. And make them all pay. They'd had a week of unhindered travel which was good on one hand, but it had keyed up her nerves nearly to the breaking point. The constant thunder that seemed to follow them did nothing to help the situation at all. As they approached the building, the door opened revealing Brycen and the huge dark Summon. Raewyn listened to the exchange with less and less patience.

T'yang suddenly turned to her, warning her to calm down, "Raewyn, you must calm yourself. Your anger and pain affects everything around you." T'yang placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "We will succeed, I swear it. Do not allow hatred to rule..."

The Shadow user staggered suddenly, then fell bonelessly to the ground. As Raewyn looked around the others were also going down either from an unseen source or energy rifle shots from men hidden in the trees. Raewyn screamed out "Maeve! Maeve! Give my Father back!"

Maeve's answer was a blast of overwhelming exhaustion. Raewyn side stepped drunkenly, fighting the oppressive feeling of hopelessness that pulled her to the ground. She looked to Tsume who leaned heavily against his spear trying to keep his feet but before she could try to help him, he was shot and went over in a heap. No longer able to fight the exhaustion, Raewyn fell to her hands and knees, and then onto her face in the dirt.

Raewyn woke refreshed. Looking around, she was in a verdant green forest. The blankets of her friends gathered around the fire as usual. She smiled. They were alright. It had been a bad dream. She was rather pleased that she'd gotten up earlier than Tsume. Climbing from her blankets, she decided to take the time to go to a brook she heard burbling along nearby.

Walking along a faint trail left by countless other travellers or game, she didn't notice that in her wake the blankets of her friends suddenly collapsed and turned to dust. At each footstep, the grass became burned and blew away in the breeze. The trees along the way weakened and began to fall one after another. Before they hit the ground, they turned to a powdery ash that left a cloud in the air to be carried away.

Raewyn took deep breaths, she felt good. Energized, like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt positive for the first time since this madness had begun. Bending to her knees, the young Goddess reached to dip her hands into the water, but it steamed up and disappeared into the very air, leaving fish and frogs stranded. After a few seconds, they too turned to dust and blew away.

Raewyn jumped to her feet horrified. What was happening? Oh no! It was just like the forest! Had it only been 3 weeks ago? She was killing everything around her! She stood rooted to the spot, not knowing what to do. Truning on her heels, she ran as fast as she could back to the camp site only to find everyone gone, their blankets empty. Her hand flew to her mouth, eyes wide with shock and horror. "No! No! I didn't mean it!"

"Didn't you?" A familiar voice asked. "This is what you will become. This is what you are."

"Shut up!" Rawyn covered her ears against Maeve's voice. She ran from the intrusive voice, but everywhere she went, everything died, turned to ash and blew away. The power and Essence she drained from her surroundings fed her, she grew stronger, felt invincible, it was wonderful. No! It was wrong! She had to stop it! As she grew stronger, the larger the area was she drained. Soon villages were being destroyed, people died in the poses her power caught them in.

"Oh no...Goddess!" The epithet didn'tseem as applicable now that she was the actual Goddess. "Help me! Somebody help me!" She turned in a slow circle praying for anyone to come and save her. But there was no one. No one at all. Jake, Eri Owen, Tal, Tsume, Loki. All gone. Killed by her. All her fault. Tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks. She couldn't go anywhere without killing everyone and everything around her. But...if she stayed rooted in place...she would die. "Some body..." she whimpered.

"We tried to help you, young Goddess. Tried to save you from yourself, to save your friends. But their misplaced loyalty killed them. You killed them and now? It's too late." Maeve appeared to take particular joy relaying that news.

Raewyn dropped to her knees heavily sobbing inconsolably, causing her shoulders to shake. "No you didn't. I know you lied." Raewyn whispered, just trying to hold onto a tiny shred of her sanity. "You caused it all." Suddenly Raewyn got very, very angry. She used her new found glut of power and reached out the vast distance from the plains where she was to the factory where she assumed Maeve was. "I will find you and kill you all!"

by **Guilty Carrion** Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:11 am

The thunder loomed, far, far too close for his liking. The chill in the air had forced him to break out his old fur lined cape for some extra insulation(when probed for why he simply didn’t put on a shirt, he had dismissed it with a simple “Makes me itchy.”). It also doubled for an excellent blanket, but most nights he had found himself staring off at the blackened heads trailing behind them, always on the horizon, never gaining, but never falling behind.

Of the many omens he’d seen lately, that was defiantly shaping up to be the worst. Darren was unusually quiet as well, barely speaking and whenever the summon did it was more of a stern wall of “Shut up.” that told him to leave well enough alone. Top it off with the unending silence between Jake and Eri, plus Owen’s sudden case of being an absolute recluse…this wasn’t exactly shaping up to be their rallying victory against their enemies.

“More like sheep to the slaughter…” The words felt like poison the moment they left his tongue, and Darren snorted roughly at his side in annoyance.

“Have some faith, Tal.”

“Nice of ya to start talking to me again.” The beast rumbled quietly to itself, nudging the summoner affectionately with the side of it’s horn, earning a chuckle from the bearded man.

“I have simply been thinking over what happened with Eri…”

“Arashi told ya? What happened?”

“Something along the lines of confessional heartbreak.. For now, it’s best not to worry about it. We’ll try and help once we get Loki back.” Tal nodded once, as the group slowly came into the yawning gap of essence that surrounded the ruined factor, grimacing as the sudden departure smashed into his body like a freight train, but aside from the minor grunt he gave, the vagabond gave no outward sign of the discomfort. Darren trudged dutifully onward, his powerful frame never stopping as they pressed into the center of the clearing, their ‘hosts’ emerging moments after they arrived.

Tsume handled the talking, shooting back and forth with the man on their terms, whilst Tal took a good hard look at the Shadow Summon that dwarfed them all. “The hell you think it is?”

“Powerful, but that’s as far as I can tell. You can practically feel the power pulsing off of it…”

“It’ll be trouble if we start a fight.”

“When we start a fight…rush it. One big hit, everything we have. It can’t take everything we can throw.”

“What do you mean wh-” The wave of exhaustion crashed into Tal, his ivory eyes falling closed for a brief moment before he tore them back open. Darren roared in anger, seemingly unaffected by the wave as he thundered forward towards the Shadow figure. Tal grit his teeth, forcing himself forward to support his summon. As the riflemen started raining down their bolts, he willed his helmet forth, deflecting a blast off the dark metal seconds before it would have hit his head. His left arm fell limp at his side, a blast catching his shoulder and deadening the entire limb. He pressed forward, trying to catch up with his charging summon, but as his allies fell, more and more of the weapons trained in on him and he began to succumb to the mass of fire.

A round clipped his knee, throwing him into the dirt painfully. “Dammit!” His breathing was laboured, as he looked forward to call to Darren. The Shadow Summon stepped forward to meet the stampeding rhino, and much to Tal’s shock and horror, stopped Darren`s rush with a single hand. Gripping the unbroken horn on the rhino`s snout with it`s nebulous hand, the abomination forced the beast of burden into the earth with a powerful twist of it`s hulking frame. “Darren!” He tried to stand, only for the blast to catch him in the chest, draining what remained of his energy in a flash.

A sickening snap sounded, and a mighty roar of pain filled the clearing, as the Shadow Summon lifted half of the freshly shattered horn above it; Darren’s snout a mangled mess of bone and blood, his tiny eyes closed in what Tal prayed was simple shock.

He collapsed into the dirt, eyes falling shut as the exhaustion overtook him.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The strong breeze of the salty ocean air stirred Tal from his slumber, and the vagabond sat up groggily to gaze out over the quiet waves of the water dance in the moonlight. Where..? Blinking once in surprise, then twice again in recognition, Tal rose on wobbly legs to take in the scenery change. “This is…the pier down by Mum’s house.” Turning on the ball of his foot, he was rewarded with the soft lights of the Somer skyline, countless boats and ships anchored off in the distance by the seemingly limitless harbours and docks.

He plodded forward in a daze, brushing past countless faces from his youth, whilst others drifted past with heavy memories attached, or even a light hearted story clinging to their warm faces. What were they all doing here..? Most of these people had never been to Somer…

A familiar sight beckoned him from the end of the street, and his pace quickened into a sprint, grabbing the worn familiar handle and throwing the door open with a powerful push. Once again he found himself blinking, the smiling face of Tsume and his companions welcoming him home. “What are you all doing here..?”

Tsume laughed, a warm rich sound that took the edge of his unease but something was still…off about all this. Hadn’t he been doing something? “What, friends can’t visit you on your birthday, old man?”

Tal chuckled, slapping the Monk’s back. “I’m only 31, grandpa.” The group laughed with the pair, and for a moment, Tal dismissed his concerns to the back of his mind. Must have been a bad dream. “What was I dreaming about, Darren?”

Chilling silence was the only response. That gave him pause, and he reached deeper into his mind, searching for the stubborn animal within the corners of his subconscious. Nothing. Not even a half asleep grunt.

The vagabond looked about the room with a more discerning eye, taking note of the eerily familiar furniture. Old carvings and chips revealed themselves to his inquisitive gaze, and Tal grimaced at the memories. He had made most of these when he was but a boy…his mother had gotten a newer set when he last visited, free of all his handiwork. “ ‘Scuse me…just need to get Darren. I’ll be right back.” Stepping back out into the quiet night, the summoner reached out with his essence to summon forth his friend, knowing the rhino would fare much better than he would in this situation.

Something cold grabbed hold of his reaching call, but when he tried to push the foreign touch from his essence, it simply latched onto him instead, pulling and forcing itself into life. His essence flared painfully, as the shadow’s around him seemed to pulse with excitement, before the blinding flash engulfed them all with oblivion.

The sky shaking roar reached his ears first, followed closely by screams and the splintering off wood and stone. He blinked quickly, trying to remove the blur from his vision as the thunderous noise grew louder and louder.

Rubbing his eyes free of the blindness, Tal’s heart plummeted at the shadow that loomed over him. “..Darren?” The rhino focused it’s eyes on the form of it’s shaking summoner, towering over him and even the nearby buildings. Dark shadow’s swirled and danced like fire along his body, wreathing the creature in black as it roared furiously at it’s master. “Oh Goddess no…” Before he could react, the massive beast smashed him aside with a powerful flick of it’s head, sending him crashing down the street, landing in a crumpled heap against a half crumbling wall. Coughing roughly, he turned his gaze upwards, watching the massive form advance slowly towards him, crushing people and buildings alike, leaving the dead and wounded in it’s wake.

“FIGHT. FIGHT OR DIE.”

Splaying his calloused hands against the cracking road, Tal staggered to his feet, gazing up at the titan that was his friend. The beast bellowed, and the vagabond felt the corners of his eyes burn with un-spilled tears as it closed in on him.

“Don’t make me fight, Darren…not you.”

by **quakernuts** Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:28 pm

Jake crashed against the wall of one of the houses that encompassed the town center. His form bloody and injured as he used the wall for leverage to prop himself up. The five shadow forms of himself walking steadily, if somewhat slowly, towards him. He wiped the blood from his mouth, and out of his eyes as he finally regained his footing and stood to match the height of those in front of him. The middle of the shadows stepped forward, one axe hanging over his shoulder, and leaning on the axe by the hilt as the blade pierced the ground with a dark embrace.

"You know, I did always admire one thing about you Jake." The darkness started. "And that was your ability to continue fighting, even when victory was obviously out of your grasp. Hopelessness doesn't seem to affect you. Neither do the feelings of fear or regret, or even guilt." Ekaj picked up his weapons, and swung them around in circles slowly. "How does it feel to live a life where you don't care that what you do may affect many...many lives Jake? You call me evil, yet you are a whirlwind of destruction that has no eyes to see the destruction, has no ears to hear the cries of the destroyed, and no soul to give a damn even if you did." Jake was breathing heavy by this point, although it was out of rage rather than exhaustion. Ekaj simply smiled.

"Feels good, doesn't it? The beast inside you, wanting for a release. Why don't you give it to him Jake? Why don't you let it out...to play." Ekaj gave a dark smile, and instantly all five of the shadows launched across the clearing. What they weren't expecting though, was resistance as Jake sidestepped them all, and buried his deep into the skull of one of them. The shadow evaporated as it fell, and the other four ignored it as they all started swiping at him, hoping to kill him with simply a fury of blows. Instead, sparks of red flew every which way as Jake managed to parry each and every blow with such practised precision it didn't even look like he was trying. Suddenly the shadows all swiped at once, and were caught with nothing but air and Jake back stepped and launched himself into the group, knocking them to the ground in several directions as the force of his blow destroyed what unity they had. Jake didn't give them a chance as he leapt on the closest one and neatly sliced it's head off. The second one managed to get an axe up, and blocked the first blow only to get a kick in the face and an axe in the head. The third was partially standing when Jake ran at him and clothes lined him so hard that he flew in the air, and was quickly sliced in half and evaporated into nothing but blackened ash.

A slow clapping was heard as Jake looked around for the final one, only to see him standing on one of the huts on the outskirts of the village. Ekaj stopped clapping, a wind suddenly appearing from nowhere to blow the ash of the fallen shadows in circles around the center. Soon they were in the middle of a tornado, the ash and wind so thick that nothing outside of the immediate town center was visible save for swirling vortex. Jake stood, defiant in the middle of the center, staring down his shadow self as he jumped from the hut and landed gracefully on the ground.

"I like your spirit Jake. We both know it's kept you alive for this long. I, however, am getting tired of seeing it constantly get in my way. You think you are winning by defeating those clones?"

"No." Jake said before Ekaj could continue. The shadow stopped for a second, and was suddenly set upon as Jake's axe nearly embedded itself in his skull. A quick reflex parried the blow, and Ekaj dodged the follow up punch as Jake kept launching himself at him. Finally Ekaj jumped backwards, too far to have been physically possible, and stood fifty feet away from Jake. The wind was whipping at their over coats as a red liquid slowly started seeping into the square until it was up to their heels. Jake looked down, and saw the blood of everyone that had died either through his actions, or inactions. He threw up a mental wall, if somewhat of a weak one, and looked over at the Shadow who was laughing.

"It's not so easy, confronting what you've done! I would start worrying about whether you'll die from my axe, or drown from the blood. There is so much more to come."

"You talk and talk and talk! You have yet to prove to me you are anything other than a parasite! A fucking leech who tries to sap what little I have left of my mind! You try to convince me I'm the monster, but all I see is an image. This is nothing but a dream, a fake reality in which you like to play God!"

"You are not the monster Jake!" Ekaj yelled back. "We are the monster! Take responsibility for your actions!"

"I'm about to!" Jake said as he summoned his earth armour around him, the ground swallowing the axe and making it appear as if his arm was an elongated weapon. As he charged across the square, Ekaj did the same thing, only with two weapons for arms as Jake swung at him. Ekaj twirled around him, and slashed his back, sending Jake stumbling forward and crashing into the blood. As he propped himself up, he noticed the blood would be up to his ankles if he weren't in armour, and he knew that if he did start drowning in the red liquid, that there would be no coming back. Precognition hit him like a hammer as he rolled to the side to avoid a twin axe attack being buried in his spinal column. Jake kicked out, and sent Ekaj flying through a hut, which collapsed in on itself.

Almost as soon as Jake was standing, a two by four came flying out of the wreckage, missing his head by mere inches as Ekaj followed it through. A flurry of attacks from both ended up with shards of earth being shed as the blows connected, and blood or ash shed from those they hurt. Eventually they ended up in a stand still as they locked weapons, the blood quickly rising, and nearly above Jake's shins even in the armour. He would not get this far to simply fall now. He would not allow it.

"Feeling the burning sensation in your chest Jake?! That's not lack of oxygen! That's a lack of a heart!" Ekaj yelled as Jake launched out, and managed to land a solid punch on his ribcage who gave out of the standstill with a mighty whoosh of air as everything he had in his lungs left him in one instant. Before he could recover, Jake took his head and connected it to his knee with such velocity Ekaj did a backflip before landing in the blood, the liquid nearly burying him. Jake walked forward, his axe already raised in the air as he closed the distance. As he reached striking range, the blood swallowed Ekaj whole seconds before the axe was brought down, and met with nothing but emptiness. Jake looked around, the blood up to his knees by now in his armour. There was an eerie silence that not even the maelstrom just outside the square could fill.

A slow laugh filled the area, and Jake looked for the source only to come up with nothing. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Having fun yet? I know I am!" Ekaj's voice filled the air.

"Enough with this fucking bullshit! Enough with the talking, enough with the taunting, enough with the introspective as shit questions! Come out here, and let's deal with this! I don't want you a part of me anymore than I to you!" Jake yelled, his fury over coming his normally stoic mind state.

"But I do so enjoy it, watching your mental state deteriorate as you force yourself to overcome something that can't simply be smashed aside. It's much like watching a child finding out his favourite crayon is missing, and going mad because it's no longer his."

"I said enough!" Jake yelled at the air, smashing his axe into the blood as it neared his hips. Even as he said this, he started to forcibly calm himself down. He was losing control again, and that was exactly what Ekaj wanted.

"It is exactly what I want." his voice sounded from all around once more. "However, it is only one of several options at my disposal at this moment in time."

"I bet one of them doesn't include me, kicking your ass, again." Jake yelled back, which was received with a hearty, and completely unforgiving laugh.

"No, it doesn't. That's because that's not going to happen. However, if it's a resolution you so seek, so shall it be granted." There was silence afterwards as Jake whirled around, and the blood seemed to stop at his hips. As he looked at it, he forced his mind to think of other things, anything, to avoid thinking about what all the blood meant. Suddenly he felt a tug at his arm, and whirled around to see a zombified looking shadow. It's eyes of pure red looking up at him, and Jake froze. He recognized the face, as deformed as it was.

It was his father.

Another tug at his right caused his arms to be dragged down as the form of his mother appeared to start tugging him down. He was still frozen, not having dealt with the memory of those faces for so long. Soon another pair of hands joined, and another, and another. Faces he all knew from his past. His friends, his childhood sweetheart, people from his village, people he had killed, people whose lives he had left in ruins. The sheer number of them not only had the physical mass to start tearing him down into the blood, but the psychological mass as well. Each one was dead or destroyed through him, and it weighed on him just as heavily as they weighed him down through sheer numbers. Despite this, he stood tall, even though his resolve was incredibly weakened. He grabbed one of the shadows, and tossed it around, grabbing others and throwing them as well, but they were simply too numerous as Jake was brought to his knees. They clawed and scratched and grabbed until his armour was no more, and he was up to his neck in blood. Soon, even his head was submerged as the shadows of his past forced him to deal with the amount of death and destruction he had wrought.

An explosion burst from the sea of red, and the shadows rained as freely as water from the clouds and the blood receded from the ground and disappeared among the outward vortex. Jake lay on his hands and knees, heaving up more blood that wasn't his own and struggling to even retain that posture. He attempted to stand to his feet, only to fall on his stomach. A couple more attempts met with the same response. Suddenly, a black axe was held underneath his chin, and lifted his head to look at Ekaj.

"It's not easy, is it?" Ekaj asked, his voice filled with so much seriousness that it nearly stunned Jake on its own. He wasn't joking or sarcastic or mocking, but simply stating a question. "It never should be, and the fact that you have made it that way has disgusted your own soul Jake." Jake looked at the Shadow, as the swirls of blackness receded to reveal Ekaj as a complete copy of Jake. Ekaj let Jake's head drop, and stepped to the side. "For the sins you have committed, you have been cursed with a burden. I am that burden, but I am so much more. I am your judge, your jury, and your executioner." Ekaj's axe rested blade tip against the back of Jake's neck as he simply lay there. "I am not your end Jake Tyier, I am the beginning of your retribution." Ekaj lifted the axe up...

And brought it down.

by **Digital Muse** Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:03 pm

Maeve smiled as she sat comfortably on a pillow inside the bunker-like factory. Her silken links to each of Raewyn's companion's dreams were strong and she teased at their fears with all the expertise of a spider sucking the life juices of ensnared flies. She playfully batted away Raewyn's feeble attempt to reach her.
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Raewyn was still on the dry and desolate hilltop, her attempt to reach Maeve had only served to drain and kill hundreds of miles more of people, animals and plants.

As pure, raw Essence flowed into her, her limbs became bloated and swelled. She just kept blowing up like a balloon. She felt the heady buzz of power within her and it made her laugh hysterically. She lost track of how many lives ended because of her. It didn't matter. She was the Goddess. She could do anything she wished. She lay back, feeling the warmth of the sun on her face, not registering that she continued to bloat while the world died around her.

The devastation was like a tidal wave slowly rolling over the land and sea. Inch by inch everything in it's path withered and turned to dust to blow away on the breeze. Raewyn kept growing, her clothes shred from her body as she became misshappen and took on the golden hue of her easily definable Essence. She didn't notice. She was beyond such small things. Raw power radiated from her like a dome of radiation.
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Maeve's bowed head jerked up when she was cut of suddenly from all of her maipulations as if someone or something had cut a thread. What had happened? It had to be Raewyn! But how? The little bitch had found a different way to block her.

A sardonic voice behind her asked, "Not as easy as you said, Maeve?"

Maeve looked back at Brycen, "Shut up and do your job. I'll do mine." The Dream Walker bent her head in concentration once more gathered up the filaments of her web that had ensnared Raewyn's protectors and fed their deepest fears.
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Raewyn's dream faltered and went black like a light switch had been turned off. She didn't wake and felt heavy and exhausted. Before she could claw her way to consciousness, the dream was back. She felt the world as if it were an extension of herself. It was her and she was it. She revelled in the glory of it. But in the back of her senses, she noted something wrong. Something dark and diseased was attacking her world. She had to stop it. It was her duty as a good and benevolent Goddess.

From afar, she heard someone shout to her. Turning her head, she saw the gleaming white wings of someone she thought she'd lost. Her heart soared. Loki! He was alive! As he drew nearer, however, he was different. He was a man. He wore the robes of a Temple monk and had the same clean-shaved head that Tsume had favored. As Loki strode forward, his wings glowed brighter and brighter, then slowly began to turn purple as he absorbed more and more of the raw Essence near her.

"Loki!" Raewyn cried. "Oh praise be, I thought you..."

"I've come to stop you, Goddess." He interrupted her with a grim determination. There was no friendliness in his tone, no familiarity of comrades.

"What?" She looked at him confused as she watched a cold sweat break out on his forehead. His wings were now completely purple and he knelt to release the excess energy back into the earth at his feet. The grass momentarily sprang to life before withering away again instantly when Raewyn drew the essence from it.

"You have become the danger we always feared. You are killing the entire planet. Far worse than Eraclea could ever have been. The needs of the many..." He gritted out. It was clear being so close to her Essence drain was almost more than he could stand. Giant tendtils of light burst from beneath his robes and he drew his super heated katars from their sheaths.

It was then that Raewyn realized just what he intended to do. He had been sent to kill her. By the Temple! She tried to sit up, but found that she'd become so bloated with power that she was immobilized. She could do nothing! Instinctually, she reached into his mind, to try to convince him that he was wrong. But in doing so, she saw all the deaths and devastation she'd wrought. Millions of people had died. The riots had lead to the deaths of thousands of Saturates and their families. Whole nations had vanished forever. She shrieked in pain when she realized that the disease that she felt in her world was her. She was the darkness!

Loki was forced again to release the excess Essence into the ground to keep from passing out under the strain of it. Straightening, he tensed, "Good bye, Goddess." He launched himself at her, the white-hot blades of his katars leading the way. He buried the blades deep into her chest while the tendrils completely enfolded her, holding her fast.

Raewyn screamed in pain as Loki continued to stab her. She lashed out with her mind, a telekinetic force back-handed Loki sending him nearly 25 yards away. She bled from multiple mortal wounds, the raw essence within her, however, healed them. "Loki! You have to stop! Don't make me hurt you!"

"You already have! You killed them all! Even your own family! But, you wouldn't know that, would you? Nothing reaches you anymore. You're just as selfish as you were when you were a child. But I won't let you end the entire world. You'll have to kill me too." Loki spread his wings and with a great downward stroke, lifted into the air as easily as any bird naturally born to it. Once again the raw Essence he absorbed began turning his wings and ropey tendrils a violet-purple, but rather than attacking the Goddess with his katars, he drove the tendrils into her hair and released every bit of stored energy and power he had into her head at once.

The resulting blast sent Loki flying, his wings tattered, his body bloodied and broken. He landed limp as a rag doll hundreds of yards away from the point of impact. Raewyn was thrown as well, turned nearly inside out by the explosion. All the Essence reserves she'd stored were entirely dissipated in healing her shattered body and she was once more her normal size, though she still glowed a golden hue.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she crawled to Loki's side. She stroked his bloodied cheek with trembling fingers, "Please...don't die. I didn't mean to hurt anyone...it's not my fault. Please don't leave me." She got no answer.

by **Silvan Arrow** Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:57 pm

Arashi

Arashi returned to consciousness slowly, his surroundings as black as the insides of his closed eyelids. He realized with a jolt that he was on the floor of a massive birdcage, its bars glowing an eerie silver against the inky blackness. Wakefulness hit him at once, and he immediately felt as if he were dying. All the wind left his lungs in a rush, leaving him gasping for breath until spots swam before his eyes. He felt his heart take one last shuddering beat before halting completely and felt his body come to the brink of collapse, where he would dissolve back into the elements, except no relief came. That sweet, merciful blackness followed by the dreamlike state where he would await Eri’s call did not come. Instead, he hung in a terrible state of limbo, on the cusp between death from the physical world while not being fully alive. It was a terrifying, horrific state, this living death, and he thrashed on the floor of his cage helplessly as his tongue lolled out of his gaping beak.

A sadistic, feminine laugh echoed through the abyss, taking delight in the Summon’s torment. “It hurts, doesn’t it?” Arashi didn’t recognize the voice, but he still felt as though he had heard it before. “I have always wondered about the connection between Summoners and their creatures, but I never had a chance to study it until now. Amazing what dreams can accomplish, isn’t it?”

Then the memories rushed back from overheard conversation where Raewyn had spoken of a Dreamwalker. You’re…Maeve. The Dreamwalker that the Goddess mentioned…

Maeve’s figure melted out of the shadows and appeared before Arashi. “Pretty perceptive for a Summon that’s in a state of living death.”

What…have you done…to me?

Maeve’s mouth curved into a sneer. “I take back what I said about you being perceptive. Are you so dense that you just forgot about your Summoner?”

I don’t…

“For the love of… Just reach out and try to contact her! That is, if you can…”

Even in his weakened state, Arashi’s mind instinctively followed the mental pathway that was as familiar to him as flying. He tried to reach out to Eri…and then plunged into complete nothingness.

Arashi gave a pained, indignant screech. What have you…!

Maeve gave that same sadistic laugh. “I’ve cut off your link to your Summoner. As long as you and she are trapped in my dream world, you can’t reach her, and she can’t dismiss you to end your suffering.”

Suddenly it all made sense. Summons could not exist apart from their Summoners. The link between them sustained the Summon through the Summoner’s Essence. Without that link, Arashi experienced that sensation of death over and over, even though he knew it was only in this twisted dream world that Maeve had created.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you die,” Maeve stated, though Arashi definitely wasn’t comforted by her tone of voice. “I have other plans for you. Perhaps you would like to see your friends?” Maeve gestured to the shadows, and several portals opened up like windows, showing the other members of the group struggling in their own dream worlds: Tsume reeling from the guilt of killing his comrades, T’yang stripped of her powers and kneeling in the dirt like a slave, Jake fighting his darker side in a sea of blood, Tal locked in heart-wrenching combat with Darren, and Raewyn weeping next to Loki’s dead body.

Eri…what have you done with Eri?

“Oh, I’m sorry. I should have known you would want to see her over any of these other fools,” Maeve replied in mock pity. “Here.” Another portal opened at the wave of her hand, allowing Arashi to lay eyes on his beloved Summoner.

Eri

Eri instinctively backed away as her father stalked toward her with lethal intent, her eyes never leaved the blade clenched in his fist. “Dad…I don’t understand! How have I failed you?!” she pleaded, hoping to buy a few precious seconds.

“You abandoned us, left us to live in poverty while you gallivanted into the wilderness like a child,” Anton stated in an accusatory tone. “Your mother grieved herself half to death while I have scratched a living out of dirt. And it’s all because of you. Because you are a Saturate that the Therians despise.”

“No! I left to see the world! To let you and Mom live in peace! Where is Mom? Let me see her!” Eri cried.

“It is too late for excuses. You are no longer my daughter, just a disappointment.” Anton lashed out with his sword, and Eri barely managed to draw hers in time to block. She barely kept her wits together enough to deflect her father’s blows. The thought that he would even draw a blade on his own daughter…it was just too much for her mind to comprehend.

“Is this the best you can do?” Anton taunted. “I thought I trained you better!” He swung again, and this time Eri barely managed to keep her footing due to the strength of his blow. She had forgotten over the years just how strong he was. This was no training battle where he kept himself in check so she could learn. He was using every ounce of muscle and raw power that he had gained from a lifetime of blacksmithing. She mindlessly ducked, wove, and parried his blows, though she refused to strike against him.

“You think those people you accompany are your friends?” Anton pressed, once again trying to play mind games. “Do you think they care about you?” He took advantage of her doubt and dealt another series of brutal blows. “They will throw you to the lions without remorse, all for the sake of a little girl that they place on a pedestal as a fake Goddess!”

“You’re wrong!” Eri exclaimed, countering Anton’s blow and forcing him back a pace. “You know nothing about them!”

“Oh, don’t I? Perhaps you simply need more convincing.” Anton abruptly stopped his attack and leaped back a pace. The scenery of the village melted away, plunging Eri into complete darkness as the ground collapsed beneath her feet. She cried out in surprise as she fell down, down for what felt like an eternity, before collapsing on what felt like a cold stone floor.

Eri groaned in pain as she staggered to her knees and then her feet, using the tip of her sword for balance. She stood on a stone platform the size of a village square, and at the edges were towering walls of fire. The heat was stifling, and she gasped for breath as a sheen of sweat coated her body. If she didn’t believe in hell before, she certainly believed in it now.

“They will betray you, you know…” a female voice spoke from nowhere and everywhere at once. “I have seen the images that haunt your dreams, the fears you will not voice. I assure you, each and every one of them will come true.”

“Who’s there?! Show yourself!” Eri demanded.

Arashi

Maeve cackled sadistically. “It is so easy to get under her skin. Her mind practically reeks of fear and doubt.”

You know…nothing about her! Let her go! Arashi screeched mentally as he thrashed on the floor of his cage. His chest was burning from lack of oxygen, yet his body still persisted. The surge of adrenaline from his rage made his heart want to beat faster, but it remained persistently silent.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll release her dead corpse once her mind destroys herself from the inside. Now then, shall we continue?”

Eri

Before Eri could call out again, two holes suddenly opened up in the ground on either side of her. Chains shot out from them, wrapped around her wrists, and retracted again, brutally forcing her to her knees. Her sword flew out of her grasp and clattered to the ground, only for a hand to pick it up.

“I remember when I forged this sword,” Anton mused, turning the blade over in his hands and inspecting it with a practiced eye. “It was one of my finest pieces.” He turned a harsh eye to his daughter. “You have disgraced it.” Iron shackles rose up out of the ground and clamped about her ankles, holding Eri in place. She gritted her teeth against the throbbing in her legs and glared up at her father, struggling futilely against her bonds. “I could kill you right now, but I’d rather make you beg for it after I show you what will happen to the people you call friends.”

“You’re wrong… Whatever you want to show me is a lie!” Eri seethed.

“Is it now? I am only showing you what is in your own heart.” Anton waved, and a pillar of fire burst from the middle of the stone floor and melted into the figure of Owen. Anton stood behind Eri and spoke ominously. “He will perish, either through battle or from his illness.” As he spoke, Owen screamed in pain and gripped his head as it it would split apart, before collapsing into a pile of ashes.

Tsume, T’Yang, and Tal appeared next and acted out Anton’s next words like puppets on a string. “They will abandon you and meet their ends either through betrayal or in the line of duty.” Tal jerked to the side, as if struck by an invisible sword, and fell with a bloody gash across his chest, while T’Yang stabbed Tsume in the back with a knife. All three collapsed into ashes as well.

“N-no! This…can’t happen!” Eri stammered. Her body trembled with fear, and she somehow couldn’t look away. It was as if some unseen force was holding her head in place and keeping her eyes open to witness each new horror that unfolded.

“You failed this boy, who looked up to you as a mentor.” Eri gasped in horror as Loki appeared next and reached out to her, his mouth open in a wordless scream, before Brycen’s Shadow Summon rose up behind him and consumed him into the darkness.

“NO!” Eri jerked her hands against the shackles, but the unforgiving iron only cut into her wrists and left rivulets of blood dripping from her knuckles.

“Even your Summon will find a more appealing alliance.”

‘No…’ Eri’s heart went cold with fear and grief as first Raewyn and then Arashi appeared before her. Raewyn wore a black dress much like the one in Eri’s dream, where the Goddess had said everyone would leave her. As for Arashi, she barely recognized him. His once-gentle blue eyes had turned black with red pupils, and his white feathers were stained red with the blood of his victims. He truly looked like an avenging angel, a harbinger of death. She abruptly remembered the time when Arashi didn’t respond to her when Raewyn was frightened.

“That’s right, she is the Goddess and controls all Essence. It would be a simple matter to forge an Essence link to him and make you redundant,” Anton stated, as if answering the question she dared not voice.

Arashi

The white eagle screeched in rage, despite the extra pain it caused, and beat his wings futilely as he flung himself against the bars of his cage. You lie! I would never betray Eri! I would never consent to that bond!

“You wouldn’t have a choice, my pet,” Maeve crooned sarcastically. “Now watch as I deal the final blow to her psyche.”

Eri

Before Eri could raise a protest, the avatars of Arashi and Raewyn faded into ashes, only for one last image to form from the flames. There could only be one person left. “No…please no…” Eri practically sobbed as she saw herself wrapped in Jake’s arms.

“Oh, now this is a touching scene. My daughter runs off into the wilderness and finds a lover among the riffraff,” Anton taunted, his words only fueling the fire. He bent down to whisper in her ear, “He will fall to the darkness. Even now his humanity is losing the battle against his darker side. And do you know who his first victim will be when that happens?”

“Please…make it stop…” Tears poured down Eri’s face as she couldn’t tear her face away from the scene that played out exactly like her dream. Jake reached behind with one hand, held up his axe, and plunged it into the back of the Eri he held.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The scream tore itself from the real Eri’s mouth as she felt the blow at the same time as her avatar. She felt the bones in her spine shatter, felt the blood spurt from the the fatal wound, and felt her heart giving out, even though her back remained untouched. However, just as she felt herself dying, her surroundings flickered and went black for a split second before reappearing where she had left off. But she saw something else in the blackness that gave her mind an anchor despite the pain that felt like death…

…a faintly shining, silvery thread.

Arashi

Arashi screeched in mental anguish as he watched his mistress scream like her soul had just been ripped from her body. But then his dream world, along with the figure of Maeve, flickered and vanished for a split second. In the brief glimpse before his dream resumed, Arashi saw something foretelling. As a Summon, he could see and follow the link that bound him to Eri, so by default he could also see other Essence links to a certain extent. It was as if he were at the central hub where Maeve’s mind, a complex sphere of Essence threads, was linked to each dream world through an Essence bond not unlike the ones that bound Summoner and Summon. That meant that all the dream worlds were connected. More importantly, it meant he could still reach Eri if he could just find the other end of their disconnected bond.

He reached out again, more insistently this time, pushing against the death pains that made his vision go nearly black. Eri! You must hear me! Eriiiiiiii!

Eri

“Maybe you’re stronger than I thought,” Anton mused, studying the sword in his hands as if it were the most interesting object in the world. “I thought for sure that blow would destroy your mind.” The avatars of Jake and Eri were still there and had reset to right before he reached for the axe.

“I’m not…finished yet…” Eri ground out even as tears of pain and grief continued to spill down her face and she slumped on her knees with her head bowed.

“Well that’s all right, I suppose. I have all the time in the world to continue this game.” As if on cue, Jake reached for the axe again, and once again the Eri in his arms looked on in horror as the blade came down…

Eri knew she would probably only get one chance. As the blade sank home and the pain set her body on fire, she reached out for that faint silvery thread she had seen and screamed both physically and mentally, “ARASHIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!”

Arashi

Untold levels of agony screeched down their mental link, shattered the barrier that Maeve had placed between them, and struck Arashi like a freight train. But along with the pain came a flood of Essence that surged through his body and made his heart take a massive, shuddering beat. Oxygen flooded his system, and Essence whirled around his body in blades of air. He beat his wings, and the slicing blades shattered his cage into tiny fragments of light.

“What…what have you done?!” Maeve cried.

But Arashi paid her no mind. Already the sudden burst of Essence, which shone like a beacon, was fading as quickly as it had appeared, and he flew towards it as quickly as his wings could carry him. He plunged from one sphere of blackness into an abyss between the dream worlds and found the thread that connected to Eri’s dream world.

Eri, hang on! I’m coming!

by **Digital Muse** Sun Oct 23, 2011 3:32 pm

T'yang stumbled in the direction she'd been pointed to, if only to get away from the shrew and her oaf of a husband. Her mind reeled trying to fathom what had happened. When she looked around, she didn't recognize the village. It was one like thousands of others. The rope from the bucket's handle chaffed against her palm and her muddy, tattered dress clung to her where the mud and filth was still wet. Children ran around and past her singing taunts as they came close. T'yang continued along the dirt road until it became a cobbled street. She still did not recognize any of it. She passed a small idyllic park where an old man was seated upon the wall. He wore gray robes of a Temple worker. The knees and sleeves of it were stained with dirt from his work. T'yang knew him. Morin. The old monk who had tended the gardens of the Temple. And her first murder. Morin's eyes rose from his work-stained hands and he smiled at her gently. "Yes. You remember, don't you? Did I not tell you the truth?"

T'yang just stood there staring. He was dead. It is impossible!

But, Morin continued, "I told you when you ran from the Temple that day that if your heart was so filled with hatred, it could never know anything else. And look what that hatred has brought you." He watched her with the same gentle, understanding smile he'd had the day she'd killed him. "Your parents abandoned you to the Temple because they feared your powers. Did you never forgive them? You knew in your heart that Tsume would be unable to abandon his training and his duty for you and yet you hate him for it." The old man just shook his head at her. "I pity you, T'yang. You will always be alone."

"NO!" T'yang screamed at the old monk. "I am powerful! More powerful than any of them!"

"Are you?" He asked simply.

Enraged, T'yang whispered to draw the shadows to her, she would cut the old man to ribbons! She would flay him alive for speaking to her as he has. But, as before, the shadows did not answer her call. She felt nothing. Nothing save for the angry tears that stung her eyes again.

"Are you?" Morin repeated.

This time, T'yang lost her infamous control. She charged the old man in a white-hot anger. She had not trained at the Temple with her powers alone. Reaching the wall, the old man vanished just as her fingers clutched at his robes. She whirled around looking for him, still nearly blinded to everything else around her in her desire to kill. Looking around, people began filtering in from various alleys and homes and streets. As the faces swam into sight, T'yang recognized them. Each was a murdered victim. So many. Some for hire, others out of spite, a very few in battle. Each face held a memory. They gathered around her, quiet and unmoving. Their accusing eyes staring at her.

With a sharp pain at the side of her head, T'yang fell to the ground. She felt something warm trickle through her matted hair and onto her cheek. Blood. Looking up, the crowd was gone. But a group of boys stood a few yards away laughing. One threw another stone, hitting her in the shoulder when T'yang turned away protectively. Shouting taunts and laughing, the boys ran off before T'yang could crawl to her feet dizzily. Hot tears mixed with the filth and blood on her face, but she no longer cared. She had to get out of this place. She half-ran and half-stumbled along the streets, every one seemed to switch back upon itself or ended suddenly and for no reason. It was a maze. At every turn were people who jeered at her or hit her with cudgels or whips. Some threw stones as the boys had.

Dark hatred bloomed in her heart. She'd kill them all! T'yang screamed to the heavens for the shadows to come to her, to do her bidding. When she did that, everything around her fell absolutely silent and still. It took T'yang several seconds to realize that no one was taunting her because of the roar of the blood in her head. When the realization dawned on her, she turned in a small circle noting a new, black purpose behind the eyes that stared at her.

As one, the crowd surged forward, beating and kicking T'yang to her knees. Someone grabbed her long hair and T'yang was dragged along the street roughly to the square. Shouts of burning her as a Saturate devil matched other shouts of hanging her. As the pain began to overwhelm her body, her mind floated freely. Almost as if observing the events from the outside.

The voice of the old monk, Morin, came to her again. "Do you see yet? Do you understand?" He voice was not accusing. He still used the same gentle tone he always had. "Look what hatred has brought you and think about where you found me."

"Wait! I don't.." T'yang slammed back into her own body again when part of the crowd had pushed too close to the fountain at the center of the town. She and several others fell into the icy water. A few pairs of large hands tried to keep her below the surface to drown her. But, that was far from satisfactory for most of the crowd. They wanted more of a spectacle, it seemed. They jerked T'yang bodily from the water by her clothes and hair. Brief glimpses through gaps in the crowd showed her that a pyre was being quickly assembled. Fear hit her like a sledgehammer. She was going to die. She had no way to stop it. Once again, her control was lost and she screamed as she never had before.

______________________________________________________________

Maeve smiled slowly. "Oh yes. You, in particular are going to suffer, T'yang. And not only because Lord Udonis has ordered it for your betrayal." The Dream Walker sank into her trance once more. She was only slightly annoyed by Raewyn's feeble attempts to break through. After all, the child still had no idea how to use her best weapon.

by **Guilty Carrion** Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:57 am

The window exploded, a hail of glass and wood marking the vagabond’s passage as he smashed into the counter with a painful crack. A half muttered swear was the only sign of his pain, climbing to his feet in spite of the protests to stop. Striding forward, Tal climbed through the window, and stared up at the approaching colossus. “Darren! Stop. NOW.”

“Is this how you fight? With words and feeble cries?” The vagabond barely had time to throw himself to the side, his summon smashing the building behind him into oblivion, buffeting Tal with a hail of stone and mortar. “You don’t deserve all this! A man so weak has no right to life!”

The beast brought itself about, massive feet stomping wildly to try and crush his master into nothing. Leaping back, Tal narrowly avoided his fate, stumbling backwards and breaking into a dead sprint down the street, Darren hot on his heels. “I won’t fight you, Darren!”

The words only seemed to fuel the fury, an unexpected swipe of the snout lifting him clear off his feet and sailing side long down one of the alley ways. “Weakling! Coward!” Tal growled under his breath, managing to right himself and skid to a stop on his feet.

“A coward to fight my friend?! A weakling for not wanting to hurt my brother?! I won’t fight you, Darren. Never you.” He stared defiantly, watching the summon glare straight back, rising up like a black wave on a storming sea. He straightened, rearing to his full height and glaring hard into the titan’s eyes. “Are you just going to scream at me?! Is that all?!”

Darren roared, rearing up before slamming forward, smashing aside buildings like they were toys. The rhino’s horn dropped down, but Tal made no moves to dodge, settling himself low in the rhino’s path. “I won’t!” They collided, and Tal’s hands gripped tight to the tip of the horn, feeling his heels dig painfully into the concrete as the rhino drove him further and further back. The stone wall stopped his path, and the Vagabond pushed against the Titan’s horn with all his might, eyes pulsing with violet essence. “Never you! You’re a brother to me, Darren! You’ve held me strong! You’ve guided me!” His eyes stung, feeling hot tears running down his cheeks as he struggled to keep the attack at bay. “Don’t let it end like this! Everything we’ve done! Every memory! Wak-”

He stiffened, eyes widening slowly as his gaze dropped to the horn. Red blood trickled down. Thick crimson stains settling into every scratch and mark on the ivory. Somer faded from the corners of his vision, cold black swallowing the warmth and leaving him in the cold. Pain fogged his mind, as he looked forward to the source of his injury. The colossus was gone, the normal Darren watching the summoner with misted eyes. “Tal.”

“D-darren.” The bitter tang of iron flooded his taste buds, and he fought the urge to collapse, to drift into unconsciousness.

“…do you remember when we first came to the mainland?”

He smiled softly, chuckling at the question. “How could I forget? All alone on the big old boat, never been anywhere in my life. You kept telling me it‘d be good for me, to get out, and see the world.”

Darren didn’t share the amusement. “We saw a lot of it, didn’t we?”

“Yeah…yeah we did. People, towns…some of the strangest food I’ve ever stuffed down my gullet.”

Darren met his gaze, something soft lurking behind the creature’s hardened gaze. “We can see it again. I know we can.”

“I…I think the fat lady’s singing our song, my friend…”

“My song, Tal.” The summon’s body shone softly at the words, small fragments of the creature breaking off and dancing away as a wisp of purple essence.

Tal’s eyes widened, and he gripped the horn still lodged in his chest with his hand. “Darren! No! No! I-I didn’t!”

“We’re linked, Tal. If you die, I die.” The rhino’s body started to fade, more and more of the essence bleeding from the creatures frame. “But I won’t let you die. I can’t. Not after everything we’ve left undone.”

“What are you doing?! No! Darren! Stop!” He reached for the rhino, but his hands simply passed through the creature’s skull like an illusion. “No!”

“I want to see it all, Tal…but I want you to see it more. You’re my brother, Tal. My friend.” The illusion faded more, barely a shadow against the black that surrounded them. “I’ll do all I can to give you a chance. To give us a chance.” The vagabond dropped from the horn, looking down to see his wound slowly knitting itself back together, skin glowing with the essence of his summon. “But…it’s up to you to fight. To survive. You’ve got to fight.”

He grabbed at the air, feeling the connection with his summon slowly fading into nothing. “Don’t! I can’t! Not without you!” The connection vanished, and Darren disappeared, leaving him alone in the inky black. Ivory eyes flicked over the spot his summon had occupied not moments before, shaking hands grabbing at the air in vain, trying to find some trace of his friend. “Darren…I…”

The darkness swept in.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He woke with a start, eyes wide as he shot up from the stone beneath him. “Darren!” He looked about the darkened room, finding no sign of his companion. Hesitant eyes searched the chamber, the darkness betraying nothing of what lurked in it’s depths, save for a lone towering door, the faintest glimmer of light shining behind the frame. He took a step towards it, and another, eyes widening as the door grew larger and larger with every step he took. Once he had reached it, it loomed over head, handle taunting him just out of reach.

“How bloody big IS this door? I mean I’m a big guy, and I can’t even reach the handle!” The voice was unfamiliar, and yet he was sure he had said it. “What in the hells?” A scrapping hiss behind him spooked the vagabond, and he spun about to face the threat, finding a mirror to have grown out of the black. Approaching cautiously, Tal stared in amazement at gazed back. A boy, barely old enough to walk, with piercing ivory eyes, and a darkened mop of hair atop his head. The familiar headband caught his gaze, and he reached up slowly, only for the image to mirror him perfectly. But…how was this…there was…

The mirror sunk slowly back into the darkness, and he reached out to stop it, only to catch sight of his hand and stare at the limb as if it was the strangest thing in the world. This didn’t make any sense. What the hell was going on? Cracking stone snapped him out of his thoughts, and he half turned to see the source. The cold floor was bursting up, dark tendrils creeping through the cracks. He had a feeling he didn’t want to be here when whatever that was got through.

Skirting around the crack, he reached for the handle, fingers barely grazing the handle. “C’mon!” He jumped, but the handle seemed to dart just out of reach whenever he got close. The stone groaned in protest, more of the black spilling into the room, and he fought to keep the panic down as he struggled with the door. “Goddess dammit! Just fucking stay still!”

The stone shattered, and he glanced back to watch a lupine head peer into the room, frigid eyes locking with his own terrified ones. It snarled, the liquid-like shadow spilling from the dark to join with animal-esque creature, and Tal pushed his back tight to the door, trying to keep as much distance between him and the creature.
It surged forward, and he ducked to avoid having his head taken off by it’s fangs. It shattered apart against the wood, only for the parts to slither back together and reform. He swallowed hard, spinning to the door and leaping up at the handle again, managing to catch the tip, and he tugged down with all his might, grinning in triumph as it swung open without delay. Tal wasted no time racing out the door, sprinting down the empty street as fast as his little legs could carry him. The shadow beast was hot on his heels, always a step behind no matter how fast he ran or how many turns and twists he took to try and lose it. His chest burned, tiny lungs pumping frantically to keep him in motion, and yet his pursuer seemed unhindered by anything that served to block his path.

It felt like hours, but before long, he stumbled into what looked like the center of town, scurrying up the steps without delay. At the top though, he froze in place, staring out over the countless buildings, darkened forms of man and beast crawling towards him from every which direction. “Oh goddess…” There was no where to run. No where to hide. It was everywhere.

He stepped back, only to trip backwards and land with a thud on his backside. Staring down at what he had tripped over, Tal found the head of his war hammer, lodged in the stone by some unknown force, handle standing ready for willing hands. He gazed down at his own, shaking his head softly at them. “I…I can’t. I wouldn’t even be able to lift it…”

“It’s alright.”

He blinked, looking up at the source of the voice. “Raewyn? W-what are you doing here?” The young goddess smiled, eyes watching the approaching darkness with a serene calm.

“I’ll keep you safe. Just stay behind me, alright?”

He paled. “No! They’ll rip you apart! Look, we’ve got to get out of here, we just…” She shook her head, still smiling despite the odds.

“There’s nowhere to go, Tal.”

“But…you can’t, you won’t…” The goddess turned, watching the lupine beast stalk up the steps, eyes watching her with a dark fascination. “Raewyn, please! We can run, or…or…” The creature leapt forward, and Tal’s eyes widened in panic. “RAEWYN!”

“I’ll do all I can to give you a chance. To give us a chance. But…it’s up to you to fight. To survive. You’ve got to fight.” Darren’s fading face flashed before his mind’s eyes, the pain lurking in his eyes. “I won’t let you die.” He looked to the shadow, and everything snapped into focus.

His hand smashed against it’s snout with the power of a freight train, sending the shadow sprawling down the steps. Heavy breaths shook his frame, and he gazed down at his adult form with cold eyes. The creature climbed back to it’s feet with a growl, and a dark glare settled on the vagabond’s features. “No.” It leapt forward, only to be caught by his massive arm, holding tight around it’s neck. “You won’t touch her. Not while I’m still alive.”

He cast it down with a flick of his wrist, reaching back with his free hand to grip the handle of his hammer. With a single tug, it broke free of the earth, and he rested it back on his shoulder as he gazed out over the approaching horde. “You want her?!” He stepped back, placing himself between the shadow’s and the young goddess. “You’ll have to get through ME, first!”

The wolf darted forward, but the hammer slammed down, smashing the creature into the concrete and shattering it’s form into a pool of inky muck. He stared hard at the ink on his hammer, before turning his sights back on the rapidly approaching horde. “You, or me.” A cold smile split his lips. “Sucks to be you.”

by **Loki** Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:40 pm

“T- T’yang… What have you done?!” Tsume’s voice shook as a myriad of unpleasant emotions and shock rattled him to his core. She killed them in cold blood. There hadn’t even been a fight when she deftly slaughtered them in their sleep. The weight of their demise, specifically by the hands of the woman he had trusted enough to put them in such a vulnerable position, was enough to literally cause him to stagger as comprehension set in.

”I simply removed the only thing that stood between us. Their sacrifice was necessary for our love to blossom once more.”

“Love?!” Tsume spat at the word, his tone full of acid and condescension. “You betrayed them… You betrayed me. You killed the people I vowed to protect!”

T’yang’s hips swayed with leonine grace as she stepped around the fire towards him with a casual swagger. Clearly she felt no remorse for her actions. ”And now you are free of that vow. Free of all vows save for one… The one you made to me all those years ago when you promised you’d be with me forever. You broke your word to me once, but now we have a second chance to make up for lost time.” A seductively suggestive smile traced her lips; rather than causing his libido to stir with desire, it was his stomach that lurched with revulsion. The blood of his companions upon her hands was still fresh with recent life, it was unfathomable how she was able to disregard it so entirely as to be able to shoot him that look.

“Damn you woman! Just look at yourself!” T’yang purred erotically as she continued her advance, clearly misinterpreting the monk’s words as a compliment. This only infuriated Tsume that much more. “You’re a monster!” That exclamation struck home as her strides froze, her expression that of offended incomprehension. ”I.. I don’t understand. I did this for us.” Tsume made no effort to hide the chastising bewilderment from his expression. “You’re mad! You did this for none other than yourself. You killed my friends as casually as you would swat a fly and with less remorse! I could never love somebody who has grown so jaded to the value of a human life…”

T’yang’s stance became more tense and poised for conflict at the utterance of that statement. “There’s only one life I’ve ever cared about other than my own. Keeping them alive would only give you reason to hold yourself hostage like before. I cannot lose you, not again. Tsume glared daggers at the crazed woman before him as he held his hand to his side where a spear coalesced into existence. “You lost me the moment you deemed their lives expendable.”

Leyline or not, the effort needed to maintain her power among so many individuals at once was great. Especially now that they had begun fighting back rather than giving in to their fears. A sheen of perspiration shown on Maeve’s brow among the droplets of blood, one for each victim, as she continued to weave their nightmares. Despite all this exertion, her thoughts were still lucid and she was slightly taken aback that the monk had so easily shed aside the feelings he had for T’yang. She pouted at the realization that he would not permit her the fun of watching him suffer emotional turmoil in choosing between his heart and his duty. Maeve almost felt pity for T’yang for how fragile their love truly was.

Duty had nothing to do with it, however. It was no longer the Temple’s doctrine that drove Tsume, at that moment he couldn’t care less about his obligations as a monk. It was his misplaced trust in T’yang that lead to his friends’ murders. This was now personal. ”You’re not actually going to threaten to take your own life again, are you? They’re dead and gone, what could you possibly stand to gain by doing something so foolish?” Tsume’s took the spear in both hands and snapped into a crisp offensive stance bringing the lethal blade to bear upon the traitor. “As I said, you’re a monster.” The man’s tone was cool and devoid of obvious emotion with all the undeniable certainty as if he was stating that water was wet. “I will personally see to it that you will never get the chance to take even one more innocent life.”

Without an instant of hesitation, Tsume attacked.

by **Digital Muse** Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:34 pm

Raewyn knelt cradling Loki's broken body against her. She found she couldn't cry. It disturbed her more than anything else had so far. She had always felt a connection to Loki, he was the one closest in age to her. Someone who insitnctively protected her while the others had made her safety a conscious decision, he simply did it for her. She'd had a crush, certainly, but it hadn't had a chance to blossom into anything more because...because... Raewyn frowned slightly. What had happened in the intervening time? Loki had become a man. Why couldn't she remember any of it?

If they had reached the Temple and she had become the Goddess in truth, surely she would have remembered it. Even as she considered the discrepancy, Raewyn felt an intense pressure inside her mind. A feeling she'd become intimately familiar with. Maeve. The Dream Walker was manipulating her again. Raewyn leapt to her feet shouting Maeve's name. She fairly radiated with power. In an instant, the scene around her shattered and it left her in a dark place. The only light was a tiny light emanating down what appeared to be a long corridor. "Maeve," Raewyn whispered. "You're over-extended. I can feel it. You're weaker." Raewyn extended her senses, trying to connect to her companions. She had a hard time finding them in the dream-scape Maeve had them all locked within. Only their intense emotional distress allowed her to follow the link within the Essence surrounding her to them.

Raewyn suddenly remembered the old factory, the ambush. Why did Lord Udonis want them alive...but tortured? How was Maeve able to invade all of their minds? Raewyn kept moving toward the speck of light in the distance. She found Eri first. The intensity of her and Arashi's desperation made them easy to find. Arashi attacked Maeve's cage, shattering it to the shock of the Dream Walker. Feeding the slender link of Summoner to Summon, Raewyn poured what Essence she could into it to make sure they reconnected in Eri's mind. Raewyn saw the isolation that Maeve had woven within Eri's dream and it only further fueled her need to beat the Dream Walker at her own game.

"Surprised, Maeve? Unlike you and those you work with, we are more than merely together for convenience. We have trust. We care!" She sent a pulse of raw Essence down the hallway she travelled along, illuminating the way. At the end of it, she saw Maeve. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on the Dream Walker's brow as she struggled to hold the dreams under her control. "That's two, Maeve! You can't have us anymore! I won't let you!"

Maeve looked up, almost surprised to see Raewyn for a moment. But she merely smiled. "You think so, little girl? You have no idea what I'm capable of." The woman then closed her eyes once more and Raewyn was slammed out of the long hallway to a seeming limbo of light and a disconcerting lack of up or down. As she turned in circles, she could see each of her friends still struggling within their own personal hells. Tal having lost Darren, Tsume being betrayed by T'yang, T'yang treated like a pariah, Eri's fear of being abandoned and alone and Jake...what was that? Jake fighting himself. But not himself. That's what she sensed! Jake's dark side, his lack of control haunted him and he feared it taking over! She understood now.

Raewyn had to choose who to help first and seeing Jake about to die made the decision instantaneous. Screaming, Raewyn lifted her hands and using what she'd seen of T'yang's powers, she slammed a pulse of shadow into Jake's dream. It speared through the boundaries of the dream, and crashed in Ekaj's back, throwing him off-kilter just before the axe fell on Jake's neck. Continuing on, the spear of darkness tore through the opposite side of the dream realm much like Brycen's portals revealing Eri in her chains.

by **quakernuts** Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:48 pm

There comes a time when everything you've done, or wished you could have done, seems to flash before your eyes. They say that when you are about to die, memories of your passage through this world flicker in front of you like an old movie. Filled with black and white areas, colours that signify just what your actions were aligned with at the time of their choosing. They also say that people who are dieing, see a bright light. A beacon to guide them from this world into the next, if they are found worthy.

Jake saw none of these things.

He watched from the corner of his eye as the axe was brought into the air, but did nothing to stop it. He had lost, and his strength which was of incredible magnitude in reality, had abandoned him. However, his life would not be ending at this exact moment, for as the axe was brought down a beam of darkness shot from nowhere. It broke a hole in the dream that Jake knew was a fabrication made from another essence user. It hit Ekaj in the back, and spun the axe to land directly in front of Jake's face. It continued past his darker self, and seemed to tear a whole in the fabric of non-reality itself on the other side of them. Jake could feel a slight glow come over him, golden in nature as he felt his strength return to him.

"Time to get up and fight Jake." Jake could have sworn he heard Raewyn's voice, but didn't have time to investigate what had just happened. Ekaj was encircled in shadows once again, but his anger was making them whip out uncontrollably at their surroundings, destroying buildings and the ground.

"WHY?! I had him! This body! This Vessel! It was mine!" Jake looked to where the hole had been torn between their dreams, and went wide eyed as he saw Eri, crying out in a voice that he couldn't hear. It tore at his heart to see her this way, and he quickly gave a glance towards Ekaj who was still lashing out at everything and cursing some unknown deity or person. He had one shot, so Jake decided to take it.

Grabbing his axe from the ground, he quickly launched himself at Ekaj, who was so busy being angry at the whole unjustifiable action of saving Jake's life, that the tackle took him by surprise and they both fell to the ground. Jake used his body as a leveraging point, and rolled over top of it towards the portal. He could feel the shadows licking at him as Ekaj yelled after him.

"NO!" Ekaj yelled before Jake dived through the portal.

Landing in a roll and dispersing a disturbing image of him killing Eri into nothing but wisps, he found himself on a stone platform with Eri wrapped in chains and a man standing beside her. Without asking any questions or giving off any smart remarks, he quickly launched himself at the man. "What is thi-" The man started before Jake hit him with enough force to send him reeling. He parried the axe blow to the head, then another, and then another until he was on the edge of the tower and cooking on the edges of the fire. "This should not be possible!" The man yelled before Jake threw his axe in the air. The man watched it, which was the wrong move before Jake hit him in the chest with a multitude of blows so fast it was almost impossible for the eye to trace. Finally he broke away, and as the axe fell, he smashed his fist into the man's jaw and sent him flying into the towers of fire, catching the axe one handed above his head.

He stood there for a moment, wondering just who that man was but not spending the time to really worry about it. He jogged over to Eri, and quickly cut the chains in half that were keeping her pinned in place. This was a definite change of pace from his dream, but not really that much of a welcome one. She stood slowly, feeling her wrists for damage. "Hey, you al-" Jake wasn't allowed to finish as Ekaj came flying through the same area as he had and speared him in the back.

"You will not escape me you pathetic piece of meat! I'm the embodiment of your darkest desires! Your darkest fears! I already own you!" Ekaj yelled as he tried to ram his axe into Jake's face. Jake kept dodging back and forth before kicking the man off. Ekaj flew backwards, and Jake stood only to dodge to the side as an axe came flying at him. Even in Eri's dream world, Ekaj still had power to do the impossible. Even as Jake looked back to where Ekaj had been standing, his darker self was already rushing him.

they parried, attacked, and blocked back and forth so quickly that the shards of sparks that were being created from their weapons colliding would have looked like a blacksmith's grinding stone. Despite both having a brawler style of fighting, their reflexes honed to supernatural levels allowed them to create a deadly, but intricate dance with each other that no other could hope to compete with.

Suddenly, after only seconds of fighting, there was a break as an axe hit home on one of their shoulders.

Ekaj looked over at the axe with a split second of unfounded surprise. This was not going according to plan. Everything was falling apart, but he would sooner have both of them die than give the body back over to it's original owner. With a feral roar, Ekaj tackled Jake, carrying him to the edge of the tower. Jake, pounding on Ekaj's back with increased intensity, was defenceless as his darker self carried them over the edge of the tower and through the flames.

Jake had simply traded one Hell for another.

by **Silvan Arrow** Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:43 pm

Arashi

Arashi traveled between dimensions all the time when answering Eri’s summons, but the process was practically instantaneous. If he could have stretched out the process over many minutes, it would probably resemble what he felt traveling between Maeve’s various dream worlds. He flew as quickly as his wings would carry him, but he never seemed to cover any distance. He hung suspended in a featureless black abyss and would occasionally catch glimpses into the other dream worlds through hazy portals. However, the one that held Eri always seemed to elude him. Just when he thought he was getting close, the portal would flit just out of his reach. It was enough to make him screech with frustration just for the heck of it.

And time constantly worked against him. The silvery thread that he followed that connected him to Eri was quickly getting fainter and fainter. Each pulse of its light grew weaker until it alternated between vanished and appearing. He desperately tried calling to Eri, but he could not reach her mind. He feared that whatever torture had caused her to cry out so suddenly to him had forced her mind to sublimate to protect itself, which meant he could be trapped here indefinitely if he couldn’t find her.

Just as the only line connecting him to his mistress faded permanently, the thread flared to life with a sudden burst of blazing gold, as raw and pure as fire. Arashi recognized it instantly. Raewyn! The light emanating from the link nearly blinded him with its radiance, and suddenly he could see a clear path like a bright doorway at the end of a dark tunnel. He redoubled his efforts, fearing the light would fade, but the Goddess’ powers sustained the link long enough for him to burst through the light into whatever awaited him below…

Eri

Eri’s mind no longer registered time, and her eyes looked down blankly without actually seeing. All she could feel was the constant, throbbing pain in her body from the dozens of times she had felt Jake’s axe plummet into her back, even though her body was physically untouched.

“How ironic. The girl who couldn’t stand even the thought of being with people now can’t bear to be without them.” Anton circled his kneeling daughter critically. “You think it makes you strong, having these emotions. These…feelings…” He practically sneered the last word. He abruptly grabbed Eri by the hair and jerked her face upwards to meet his eyes. “It makes you WEAK!” he hissed. He released her head abruptly and continued his circling, almost like a vulture evaluating a fresh kill.

Anton barked a laugh before continuing his monologue. “And the saddest part is that you have no idea what you’re even feeling! That one emotion you can’t identify but you always feel when you look at him!” He pointed harshly to the frozen image of Jake and Eri. “Well, look at him!” Eri weakly obeyed, her mind too far gone to think of anything else. The scene flashed to several different memories that still somehow made her heart beat faster even when her mind wanted to tune out everything: him cracking jokes at her expense, a fleeting embrace in a dark forest, the promise of death that still bound them, and the dark form of Kuresh diving for him with hungry bloodlust.

“Please…make it stop…” Eri begged. Even in her pain-clouded haze, she couldn’t help the emotional reaction from seeing those images play out in front of her again.

Mercifully, the images faded until the same one of Jake about to bring down the axe reappeared. Anton whispered harshly in her ear, “That love is your greatest weakness.”

“L-love?” The word felt so alien and foreign coming from her mouth.

“Don’t you see? You will bring yourself to ruin by loving him! Either you will have to keep that promise and kill him, or he will kill himself from the darkness in his heart.” Anton’s face took on an almost mournful expression. “That’s why it’s my job as your father to make sure you never feel it again.” As if on cue, Jake started to bring down the axe again, and Eri’s eyes widened in horror at the pain she knew was coming…

It was just as agonizing, if not more so, than the first time, and Eri screamed and arched against her chains, struggling in vain to escape the torment. She didn’t even notice the spear of shadow that ripped a portal into her dream world, nor see the figure that tumbled through from the other side. All she registered was the sudden absence of pain when the illusion dispersed, and she slumped forward onto her hands and knees.

“What is thi- This should not be possible!” Anton cried, but Eri didn’t turn her head to see what was happening.

The next thing she knew, the chains binding her wrists and legs shattered and fell off her, and she looked up and gave a frightened start at seeing Jake, the absolute last person she expected to see, standing over her. But somehow…somehow she just knew that this was the real Jake, not an illusion bent on torturing her. She stood as if in a trance, rubbing her wrists numbly. “Hey, you al-” Before he could finish, another figure crashed into him from behind and sent him tumbling clear to the other side of the stone platform.

‘W-what is happening?!’ Eri wondered in bewilderment. Her mind still felt so numb from physical and emotional pain. She just didn’t know what to believe anymore.

But then she heard a familiar, beloved screech that she could believe.

Impossibly, Arashi broke through and into her dream world in a flash of golden Essence that could only have come from the Goddess. Eri! What your father said, he was wrong! Your heart, your emotions! They are your greatest strength! You must believe that! The white eagle made a beeline and landed in front of her, wrapping her in his wings and savoring the bond that once again pulsed between them.

Eri immediately felt the pain in her back vanish as Arashi fed her his strength, and she cupped his beak with trembling hands. “Oh Goddess…this is real! You’re actually here!” she cried in pure, unadulterated joy and relief.

But they could only allow a few brief seconds to enjoy the blessed reunion. The all-too real sounds of Jake warring with his darker self waged behind them. “Even now, he managed to save me…” She remembered what he had said to her during their last encounter, when she had told him she cared:

“Know this though, I will always have your back and while I’m still able to move, I will continue to do so.”

Eri looked behind her and saw her father’s sword…no, her sword…lying on the ground. She didn’t even spare a thought as to what had become of her father. She picked up the blade with trembling hands, closed her eyes as if in prayer, and then sharply looked up to meet Arashi’s gaze with pure determination. “It’s time we repaid the favor.” Her Essence swirled around the blade like wisps of air, and her mind snapped into battle readiness as she leaped aboard Arashi’s back. ‘Together.’

Together.

Summoner and Summon took to the air just as Ekaj tackled Jake over the edge of the stone and through the wall of flames. Eri gasped and sent Arashi into a steep dive straight towards the raging inferno, without thought to their own safety or the hellish burning they would endure. She swung her sword, sending a shockwave of air to slice through the blaze and give them a clear path. Arashi deftly plucked Jake out of the air with his talons just as the scenery around shimmered into complete darkness and reformed into a desert, with nothing but flat, featureless sand as far as the eye could see.

The ground rose up to meet them too quickly, and Arashi had to practically fling Jake away to keep from crushing him into the earth as his talons dug for purchase. Eri tumbled roughly off Arashi’s back and rolled into a crouch, bringing her sword up defensively. “Jake! Are you-” Before she could finish, she saw Ekaj quickly closing the distance to his other self, with murderous intent in his eyes while Jake was trying to pick himself back up from the rough landing. Eri launched herself from her crouch and somehow managed to come between them. She swung her sword up to block Ekaj’s axe just as it swung down to deal the deathblow.

Eri growled savagely under her breath, now face to face with the abomination that had caused both her and Jake so much torment. “Get away from him, you worthless piece of scum!” she snarled. Her rage gave her the strength to hold Ekaj back long enough to summon Gale Cleaver with one hand and slash for his chest. Ekaj barely leaped back in time to dodge, obviously having Jake’s heightened reflexes, and gave her a look of pure disgust. Obviously her appearance was not part of his game plan. Arashi landed beside her and screeched his defiance, extending his wings in a threat display.

Eri turned one eye back to meet Jake’s gaze, who by now had gotten to his feet and looked ready for more. “What do you say we end this fight for good?” Her lips quirked into a half-smirk, half-smile. “I’ve got your back.”

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