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 Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:19 pm
You didn't, none of this is real, none of this is real, none of this is re-
You would know if you had. Believe me.
The old, old pain that Emma felt through the link nearly tore her heart in two. None of this showed on her face, of course. Emma hugged Scribbler back, keeping silent and slowing her racing heartbeat.
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:23 pm
"So where to now?"Farskon asked, unsure. He was very shaken, and he was shivering. Everything felt so real; he was on the verge of crying, and losing his composure.
He bit his fingernails nervously, and looked around. He still did not know what it meant to "complete" the simulation.
The paladin spotted an indigo castle above all the buildings though it was far away in the other side of the city.
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:29 pm
Scribbler gave Emma's hand one last reassuring squeeze before she let go, a puzzled expression on her face as she tried to piece together the experience.
"Well...I'm sure of one thing now," she began slowly. "We can't truly die here...it will just send us back to the beginning. As real as the pain feels, it doesn't carry to the real world."
That was the theory, anyway. She ruffled her feathers uncomfortably -it had replicated the goring sensation all too accurately- and turned her attention to the horizon.
"Perhaps the castle?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:33 pm
Emma continued her mental mantra, still working on calming the frenzied hammering in her chest.
"That may be helpful."
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:35 pm
"Yeah," Farskon nodded, and scampered toward it's direction. People pointed and muttered at Nyrk and the Paladin; the humans.
The vendors did not make offers to the humans, but they did make offers to Scribbler, and Emma.
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:56 pm
The offers were summarily ignored in favour of moving forward, though she did give a few futile glares to those that discriminated.
Every so often the inkmancer glanced at Emma, worried at the faint aura of pain coming from the elf.
[...and I have to go. ^^; Sorry!]
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:01 pm
As they got closer to the castle; Farskon gasped loudly.
There was Vaswedes talking to a pale lanky troll who was robed similarly. They seemed to be discussing something, and the troll was listening to him in interest.
On their lapels they had what looked like Order of Merging, but It's eye was shown beside a sun.
This was not the Vaswedes they knew, and he was younger. Middle aged with a few streaks of grey, and his hair cropped short.
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:01 pm
Surprisingly enough, Emma actually did stop and converse with one of the vendors, and through some miraculous transfer of denarii , Emma procured herself a horn-carved comb. She masked her emotions, drawing calm around herself like a cloak-
And stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the vampiric scourge.
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:19 pm
The two walked off, without paying notice to the Paladin or Emma.
Farskon was still shivering, and he found himself whimpering. Stop it, he thought. It's just a simulation, and this is the past form of him. The past, before he had abducted his brother, forced him into the Darkling World, caused him pain, and suffering, and was one of the reasons the paladin's friends were dead.
The Paladin continued to shiver; afraid, angry, confused, and unsure all at the same time.
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:04 pm
Scribbler had fallen back sometime during the trip and was now watching both sorceress and paladin from behind, almost bumping into Emma as the enchantress stopped suddenly.
"...?!"
Vaswedes in the past...and a troll. Perhaps they needed to...
Maybe...no, that can't be it. Why would he want us to follow him?
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, the paene's gaze stalled on the shivering paladin, and instinctively wrapped the boy in a feathery hug.
It wasn't that cold.
"Think they want us to follow?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:06 pm
"I don't know..." Emma said quietly, drawing the folds of her recently acquired shawl around her. There was a chill in the air that definitely wasn't the temperature.
None of this is real, none of this is real, none of this is real...
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:10 pm
Many people seemed to be going the same direction as the simulation Vaswedes. They did not enter from the front of the castle as there was no front door.
"So are we going inside?" Asked Farskon who pointed in the direction people walked in. The paladin ducked out of the feathered hug, and began walking t the side of the castle.
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:44 pm
Scribbler folded her wings back carefully, appearing to have not felt a thing. Then, soundlessly, she followed the paladin into the castle.
If one squinted, her steps were the tiniest bit less sure than they were before, her posture the slightest bit more hunched.
The simulation seemed to be taking its toll on all three of them, and she wanted out.
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:48 pm
Emma echoed Scribbler's sentiment and felt her power bubbling beneath the surface, still churning and howling from the aftereffects of her...attackers. Her mind no longer remembered, but her body did. The enchantress closed her eyes for a moment, taking the magic that now threatened to burst from her and squeezed.
It was just about as easy as stuffing a hurricane in a soda can.
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:58 pm
Farskon sensed the uneasiness of the others, but his was of a different sort.
He knew if any saw the mark then it would be over. Inside the castle was not much of a castle at all but what looked like a huge auditorium but it had many rows, and a political event was about to start.
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