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When Delmin walked out of the cave with that sad, strange expression on his face, Seir froze momentarily. Something had to have happened in there to produce the mix of emotions the demon could faintly taste, but it would likely be difficult to get the human to tell him what had occurred. Seir had only been to the rift twice; once when it had first been discovered, and then once after he'd been told that Delmin was hearing a noise coming from it. The other man had been remarkably close-mouthed about the entire thing, which was all the more astonishing given the nature of the relationship between the two. It wasn't that Seir thought Delmin was hiding anything from him, just that there were things he didn't know, and didn't want to ask about. The same worked in reverse, of course, as there were certainly things the demon hadn't told Delmin, and he felt relatively confident the questions would never be asked.

"Did something go wrong? Tell me all about it," he said, slinging an arm over Delmin's shoulder and motioning expansively with his other hand. "I am here to listen to your troubles," he continued, intoning the last with wry seriousness. The other man gave him a sharp look, having sensed a bit of a sour note in the good cheer the demon presented, as he struggled for a moment to shrug off the arm.

"Very funny," Delmin commented sourly, giving up the fight to break free with a resigned sigh. "Alright, alright," he added hasitly as Seir arched an eyebrow, and started to make an undoubetdly unflattering remark concerning the man who was, among other things, regarded as a Prophet, though no one could tell you just which god spoke to him. "It's that roaring sound coming from the rift, the one I told you about?" Seir nodded in reply, not trusting himself to speak. "It disappeared while I was up there," he continued, running a tired hand through his hair and sighing heavily. As this was obviously a matter of some concern to Delmin, Seir bit back on his first thought, stopping and thinking about the matter a little more.

"I'm not entirely sure what you expect me to tell you," the demon said after a moment, dropping his arm back down, looking rather thoughtful. "I, after all, have to take your word that there was even anything to be heard in the first place." Seir's second trip up to the rift had been at Delmin's insistence when the human had first remarked on the sounds coming from it. He hadn't heard anything, not the aforementioned roar, or the soft sliding sound of scales over stone, just the sounds one expected to hear from a dimensional tear, almost a nails on chalkboard sound that tended to keep Seir far from the mouth of the cave. Delmin had been vaguely disappointed, but reassured that Seir had believed him in the absence of proof. Besides, the noise and whatever was making it, seemed as if was something meant for him, and him alone. Once it had left, Delmin grappled with a nearly tangible sense of loss, as if someone close to him had died. "Did anything happen?" Seir asked, unaware of the subtle interplay of emotions rippling through his companion.

"Not that I could tell," Delmin said in reply, frowning in thought as they descended further towards the compound. He could see, distantly, the figure of his top subordinates and knew that the conversation would have to wrap before they reached the trio. "I was there, thinking but mostly spacing off," he admitted with a grin. Free time and privacy were in small enough supply that the pair had manufactured the need for the 'prophet' to go to the mountain once a week to meditate and recieve 'god's word'. "It was there, doing whatever it is strange noises do, and then it just faded away." He shrugged helplessly, looking frustrated. It was entirely too hard to explain, even to Seir, about what he thought had happened. It had felt as though the noise, or whatever was making it, had been called away and that it had left only reluctantly.

"That narrows it down to one option," Seir said, sounding serious and worried. "You're just going crazy," he continued, allowing a brilliant grin to flash across his face as Delmin punched him lightly on the shoulder. That had been his original comment upon learning that the human was hearing things coming from the spatial tear. Delmin laughed and shook his head, amused but unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. That something was going to happen to shake up the largely peaceful and quiet community, and that it would happen soon.

"Crazier?" came the correction as the human gave an answering grin before sobering his expression. They were very near to the compound now, and while there were certain allowances granted (for example, no one would ask what the pair had been laughing about), presenting a serious and unified front was in everyone's best interest. Seir's grin faded as he felt a sense of impending doom, as if a sword was suspended over the compound, ready to drop at a moment's notice.

"Why now?" Delmin asked bluntly, drumming his fingers on his desk as he stared in confusion at the demon seated across from him. "There's nothing there anymore, which you seemed content enough to accept when I first told you," he continued acerbically, feeling apprehensive about letting Seir near the rift again. It wasn't like he could stop him from going alone, but the request had been for Delmin to accompany him, and the man was wary of the reason why. The man was still making trips up every month, and not just out of need to keep to a routine. He'd never admit it, even to Seir, but he was hopeful that whatever had been making all the noise would return.

"It's a family thing," the demon replied, shrugging helplessly and looking slightly frustrated. "They only now got back to me about the entire thing," he continued, rolling his eyes. Delmin didn't quite believe him; the stuff about family was probably true enough, but there was that slight twist against the thin and intangible bond that had formed between them after the soul-pact was completed. Delmin decided not to press on the matter, since he didn't particularly care or want to know anything else about the demons. Seir was enough, made tolerable mostly because of his extreme lack of magical ability, and the thought of having any other demons around made the human's skin crawl. "They simply want me to report on anything I notice about the rift being different, and, of course, anything else you pick up," Seir continued, blithely unaware of the dark nature of his erstwhile friend's thoughts.

"Are they retarded?" Delmin asked, voice leeched of all emotion save a very dry amusement. "You didn't even notice there was anything different in the first place, what makes them think you will now?" Seir winced at the acid tone, but didn't refute the accusation. There was, after all, more than a bit of truth to it. Besides, it was to the best to have Delmin thinking it was all the fault of Seir's demonic relatives. Quite a bit better than him spending any large amount of time pondering the request, so with that in mind, Seir offered an apologetic shrug.

"I won't cast aspersions upon certain members of my family, but regardless of the intelligence of those issuing my orders, the request stands," he said with an admirably straight face, although Delmin could tell that the demon was amused. "But, and I made this clear to them, it is entirely up to you." Delmin rubbed his forehead and leaned back in his chair, thinking. His first, instinctive, reaction was to say no, and despite everything Seir had said, a large part of him still wanted to go with that. But if they did go back up there, and nothing was there, perhaps the already disgraced demon would be left alone. That would be an ideal solution, clearly, as Delmin wasn't keen on having more demonic interference in his life. There was, however, the matter of making up a story as to why it was needed to head up to the cave twice in a month.

"Can it wait until next month?" Delmin asked, sitting back upright.

"As far as I'm concerned, yes. They mentioned something about wanting my 'immediate' impressions, though," Seir replied, rolling his eyes as the human let out a sharp laugh. These demons were even worse than human bureaucrats, it seemed like. "If you're worried about what the others will think, things have gotten to a point where a second visit would go unremarked, especially if we say you've been called up to receive extra guidance. Or something," Seir said, waving a hand airily, neatly dealing with Delmin's next objection.

"That's more true than I'd like it to be," the man replied with a frown, running a weary hand over his face. "Two days, then," he decided, tilting his head slightly to the side. Seir was bright enough to understand why the extra day was needed, and the demon confirmed this with a nod. The sense of satisfaction the other was projecting seemed at odds with the conversation, and Delmin made a note to find out what exactly Seir had planned...once this 'family business' was concluded.

1118 words; 2 joint points

Arithon stood next to the Gate, trying his best not to pace or fidget impatiently. His grey eyes flicked over every person to walk up (and then depart), feeling more and more irritated when none of them were the one he was waiting for. Hand unconsciously sliding to the hilt of his katana, the young demon let his mind wander back over the conversation he'd had earlier that morning.

-----------

"No," Arithon said, crossing his arms and frowning hugely. "I refuse. There's no reason to go out there, to that stupid backwards world."

"I say there is," the head of the d'Arristos House said mildly, steepling his fingers. "And I say that you are the one to go investigate Seir's claims."

"Why now?" he asked stubbornly, refusing to admit his curiosity had been piqued by the elder demon's tale. "That rift and the human had been there for years. Why send someone out now that half of the problem's gone?"

"We're not sure that the...problem has resolved itself. Seir is making all sorts of wild accusations and assertions." He stood abruptly, placing his hands on his desk. "Enough discussion. You're going. There will be a d'Illionas going as well. I'm not saying you have to get along, but at least try to be civil. You'll meet at the Gate. Go." Arithon spun about and left sulkily, all avenue for further argument having been cut off.

-----------

So now he stood, and waited, and endured the side-long glances of the other Clan demons going about their business. Oh, that d'Illionas was already irritating, and they hadn't even shown up yet.

"You are certainly lacking in composure, aren't you?"

Where there must have been nothing and nobody just a second ago, there now stood an individual who held himself in such a way that suggested that he had been patiently standing by Arithon's side all this time. It wasn't to say that he had literally just appeared there, but he certainly was able to create that effect without much effort.

Like everyone else in his family, he wore a white mask that looked not unlike the head of a bird in silhouette. A combination of triangular eyeholes and erratic stitches throughout the middle of the mask made it look as if he were constantly wearing an improperly cheerful smile.

The head of his family had provided the same instructions that must have been given to the d'Arristos. A difference lay, however, in the d'Ilionas being given a small amount of time to make reasonable preparations for a trip that could end up equally perilous and pointless. Hence his slight tardiness, though it was also a long-standing family tradition to show up fashionably late for just about everything.

The pearly-robed demon spoke again. "You are to be my sidekick for this excursion, I assume?"

It was only through a supreme exertion of will that Arithon managed not to jump when the d'Illionas spoke, although a slight twitch was easily discernible. "Creepy freaking mage," he muttered under his breath. "Not ev'ryone thinks acting like a statue is a virtue," he sneered, facing the other demon and sighing internally. Oh, great. Stupid freaking mages and their stupid freaking masks. This one was worse than normal - clearly, that face was mocking him.

"Sidekick?!" Ari spluttered, baring an inch of his katana in reaction. "I am not your damned sidekick." A hand on his shoulder caused him to look up and up as the guard assigned to th Gate restrained him.

"Please sheathe your weapon," the d'Urlos rumbled, tightening his grip slightly. Arithon complied with a slight gasp, and glared balefully at the mage he was being forced to travel with.

"Let's just go," he grumbled, slipping out from under the giant's hand and stepping through the Gate, location quickly keyed in by the d'Ilionas attendant.

"Perhaps, but patience and prudence are virtues you have yet to master," Lysander replied in an almost sing-song voice. All of that eye-twitching he had been doing... it was a miracle that they hadn't leapt out of the poor boy's head.

He chose a rare moment to stay silent as far as the response to his sidekick comment was concerned. The thoughts he had on it, though, ran quite loudly through his head: that Arithon did indeed seem a lot like a sidekick even if he claimed not to be one. Overeager, childish, quick to try and prove his worth as a warrior... Lysander wasn't expecting to have to work with such a greenhorn, but he would have to make the best of it.

The mage followed without a word, the rustling of his robe and clacking together of little pieces of shell and amber that adorned it doing well enough to voice his own impatience.

Arithon continued to mutter under his breath, stopping only when the pair arrived on the other side. Raising an arm to shield his eyes against the sudden glare of the abnormally bright and red sun, he sighed. "Seir'd better get off this rock soon. Not much time left, eh?" he asked of his companion, anger muted in the face of the impending death of not only a star, but the world around them.

"Off over there, I think," he said after a moment, pointing towards what appeared to be a compound composed of simple but sturdy buildings. "Looks vaguely cult-ish." Without waiting for a reply (or at least one while standing around), Arithon stalked off towards the not so distant habitation.

The odd smile of Lysander's mask stayed there as the two demons got a good look at their surroundings, but there's no doubt the face hidden underneath was a great deal less cheerful as he took in this world's doom that was already well underway. "We would be able to tolerate each other for longer," he said in response, laughing grimly. His long sleeves connected for a moment as he fidgeted with the silk gloves underneath them.

He would have gone on to critique Arithon's assumptions on how he would know what in this world would look "cult-ish", but it was really no better or worse than anything he could have come up with himself. Besides, if they found Seir this whole fiasco would go a lot more smoothly if everyone was in at least a decent mood... so he opted to continue his silent following.

About halfway there, Arithon stopped suddenly, casting a sidelong glance at the d'Ilionas. "I hope yer not going in looking like that." He'd already shifted his appearance, appearing human, albeit one dressed in Japanese samurai clothing and carrying a katana. "Could be a problem."

"No, I don't think it will," came another voice - similar to Arithon's, but smooth and sounding rather amused. Seir stood before the pair, arms crossed and a faint smile on his face. "Since you won't be getting any closer. Was there something you gentlemen needed?"

"You should know, since it's yer fault we're out here," Ari muttered, crossing his arms and letting the shift fade. "Feeling a bit more reasonable then? I heard you'd snapped."

"Going straight for the insults, as always," Seir replied, emitting a long suffering sigh and turning to face Lysander. "You'll have to forgive my brother. As you no doubt know, I'm Seir." Head cocked to the side, the older demon waited for the mage to introduce himself, refraining from extending a hand in greeting. It wasn't likely to be accepted, had he offered.

Arithon had a good point about the mage's appearance, he could admit... at least, until another d'Arristos came calmly into view. Ah. That must be the one the two if them had been sent after. It surprised the d'Ilionas slightly that the two seemed to know each other on a more personal level than simple family ties. He silently observed the exchange, amused by what appeared to be a clash of personalities, until he was prompted to introduce himself.

"And I am Lysander," he said, point of his mask arcing downward in a small, cordial bow. "Well met, all things considered. You seem a great deal more sensible than your brother."

"Most people are," Seir replied dryly, ignoring Arithon's immediate bristle at the statement. "Even among the d'Arristos." Seir was quite aware of how his Family was viewed and rather enjoyed defying people's expectations of him. "Thankfully I won't have to explain either of you to the humans. I was hard enough to pass, although," here he waved a hand at himself, "As you can see, I fit in well enough."

"Enough talkin'. You were in such a rush to get us out 'ere, now show us the rift already," Arithon interrupted, drumming his fingers on the hilt of his sword impatiently.

"It's such a shame you never grew out of that phase," Seir returned over his shoulder as he turned and headed off towards where the foothills of the mountains truly began, at a diagonal from the direction of the settlement. "I'd apologize again, Lysander, but I fear I'd be doing that for the entirety of your stay here." Arithon said nothing in reply, gripping the hilt of his katana tightly and muttering under his breath.

Lysander found himself developing a small amount of respect for Seir, if only because of the care he took to present himself... which was a great deal more noticeable than it might have been if he weren't standing right next to an exaggerated stereotype of his own family. Who, for once, voiced an opinion he agreed with.

"I will have to sympathize with Arithon's impatience in this case," he said, in a syrupy apologetic tone - which was probably more for himself than it was for the older of the two d'Arristos. "Shall we go to what we took the precious time to see? Please, lead the way."

Arithon's walk became something like a swagger at the mage's words, whereas his older brother didn't say anything in reply, merely increasing the pace at which he walked. The trip took only a short time - soon the trio was into the mountainous terrain, which was made more bearable by a smooth and well worn path through the rocks. The opening to a cave lay at the end, which is where Seir stopped and waved the other two ahead.

"I'd rather you two go first," he offered by way of explanation. "I'd rather not have my own impressions taint your first look." Arithon eyed him strangely, but stalked into the cave, not waiting for Lysander.

The rift was the first thing the eyes would be drawn to. It pulsed in the back of the cave, glowing with a sullen, red light, casting shadows that moved in unexpected ways. Arithon's grip on his katana grew tighter, the knuckles on that hand whitening. "Feel anything, mage?" he hissed out, voice rough and harsh. This didn't feel normal to him, bearing no resemblance to the portals and other means of inter-dimensional travel that the Xi'Yong demons used.

Lysander followed silently for a while, half glad and half disappointed that the bickering had quited down exchange for a shared desire to get this little adventure over and done with. It amused him a little bit when Seir led them to a cave. How quaint. Mysterious things always had a habit of tucking themselves into caves wherever possible, for some reason or another. The mage gave Arithon a moment to investigate by himself, and after hearing no cries of pain or terror or anything of that sort he decided to glide on in himself.

That rift definitely was nothing like he'd ever seen, and very few things he'd ever read about. "It is... quite unnatural. Not one of ours, obviously, but..." He was having as much trouble getting a good reading as the d'Arristos was, and trailed off to fiddle with something under his robes some more - no doubt adjusting and checking several enchantments he had on his person. While remaining as calm and aloof as he could manage, he waited for Seir to give some sort of explanation.

Arithon snarled something that might charitably be interpreted as 'damn mage' before backing up nearly to the entrance. "I don't like it," he said, shaking his head. "The hell'd this thing come from, Seir?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," came the reply as Seir entered, stopping behind Lysander. "It appeared in here one day. Delmin and I used this as a sort of hideout - I'm aware of how juvenile that sounds, thank you," Seir said, forestalling any comments by his brother. "At any rate, one day this was a mundane cave, and the next, it was host to a dimensional rift. I assume that's what it is?" The not-quite a rhetorical question was directed at Lysander; Seir was certain he was correct in his assumption. The stretching out and eventually snapping of his bond with Delmin was something that only occured over dimensional distances. "We can skip the rest, as I'm sure that part of the story is well known."

"That's quite an interesting little happening," Lysander remarked as Seir told the two his story about the little tear in reality they were beholding, "I don't believe dimensional rifts are usually keen on tearing themselves into space in the way you're making it sound like this one did." One gloved finger fiddled with the strips of light-colored fabric around his mask in a pondering motion, the sleeve falling down his arm enough to reveal small chunks of amber, ivory and shell that were wound around it.

"I am assuming that you immediately looked for signs of anyone else who may have been there and found nothing," he said after a moment of thought, and decided to hold his tongue on any theories he might have had.

Seir shrugged in response. "If you say so," he said noncommittally, knowing that his d'Illionas 'relatives' were much more experienced in such matters, despite his having lived next to to the rift for at least a year. "Something you might not have heard, but the night it happened - at least I assume it was that night. Delmin had, hm. A nightmare, I suppose. He told me that it consisted of what sounded like two screams. Eventually one faded, but the other continued." Seir rubbed the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed. "It may very well be related to whatever he was 'hearing' through the rift," he finished with another shrug.

"S'all well and good, but yer forgettin' a part of the story," Ari said sharply, having moved back in closer, though still obviously uneasy. "You said - an' I quote - that you could feel the Presence." Seir nodded once, rather curtly. "Still able to?"

"Sadly, no. The feeling stopped around when Delmin's bond broke. I believe the two are related, although I couldn't tell you how." The demon spread his hands, looking apologetic. "Ah, as a last note. The rift has in fact grown since it first appeared. It was barely larger than my fist when it formed, and now, well, you can see for yourself," he finished with a gesture towards the now man-high seam in the fabric of existence.

Lysander perked noticeably when Seir mentioned and described the human's nightmare, his posture becoming attentive instead of the aloof stance he had been carrying himself with earlier. "How peculiar," the mage mused. "It does sound like it may be related, though perhaps not on such a direct level. What the human described to you is too abstract for that." He slowly paced around behind Seir in thought. "A prophetic dream of some sort, perhaps? One entity joined with, and then surviving beyond another, symbolized by two voices..."

Thoughts about the few events they knew of around the rift's origin remained clear in the mage's head, eager to apply them to anything else he could get his mind on. This was a mission he was reluctant to go on with, but it didn't stop his determination from completing it successfully.

"So you lost both the Presence and the presence of the human, essentially," he observed, stopping his pacing. Lysander wasn't about to state his theories aloud, but he was wondering whether he might be pulling some of these tidbits together into an arrangement he would not have expected. Maybe one of the d'Arristos would speak up about it instead.

"I leave such interpretations to those who would know better than I," Seir replied almost absently. Truth be told, he had nearly forgotten about the event, and only recently had he come to believe it had more substance to it.

"He's good at losin' things," Ari muttered, having little else to contribute to a conversation going on above his comprehension. Once again, his youth was proving to be quite the inconvenience.

Seir nodded in reply to Lysander, once again ignoring his brother. "That is, more or less, what happened. The mental bond was stretched thin, and I received an impression of pain, thankfully diluted, before the Presence appeared. I'm hesitant to say the two are related, but it seems an almost inevitable conclusion to draw."

Arithon looked between the two demons, an incredulous look upon his face. "Are you tryin' to say that your pet human found the Presence?" Seir offered no direct reply, instead cocking an eyebrow at Lysander, waiting for his interpretation.

There was a fair share of nods and interested "mmm-hmms" and "I sees" given by Lysander, when Seir gave the rest of his account but the mage resisted the urge to start pacing again as he continued to turn over the information in his head.

Ah, and there was Arithon, the only person present at this little party who had the lack of tact needed to say the very thing that must have been on all three of their minds. Just to gain a little bit of amusement out of it, the mage paused for a good moment or two, feigning some intense contemplation at suggestion provided by the younger d'Arristos.

"Yes, well," he started, tilting his head downwards and steepling his silk-covered fingers, "if we abandon bias and observe these facts in their simplest form, it would seem that may be the most probable conclusion," and here he casually held up an index finger, "ridiculous as it sounds."

When neither Seir nor Lysander replied immediately (Arithon had been expecting a shower of praise), the younger demon began to fidget somewhat nervously. "What?" he asked rhetorically and defensively, any further outbursts mercifully cut off by the d'Illionas speaking.

"As you say," was Seir's diplomatic reply as he rocked forward on his heels slightly. "Unfortunately, even if that is the proper answer, it's not something that can be verified by standing around here."

"We need to go there, then?" Ari suggested, eyes narrowing slightly in thought.

"Optimally, yes," his brother said, lifting a corner of his mouth in a wry smirk, "I fear, though, you may not have time to wait around while the Council debates what to do."

Going in that hole in space? Well...

"I certainly didn't agree to come all the way out here just to be told a story that Seir has undoubtedly bored the Council with already," Lysander remarked, his arms crossed beneath his sleeves and suddenly stern voice directed towards the younger of the two brothers. "We'll appear as fools to our families and possibly the entire clan if we return to them now, with something so pointless on record.

"In other words, I agree; it's best we investigate. Who gets to lead the way?"

Seir looked moderately surpised at the d'Illionas' words, turning slightly to face the masked mage. "I'm sure they;'re as tired of hearing it as I am of telling it," he agreed, focusing his gaze on his brother, waiting for a response.

Arithon frowned. "Yer right. Can't afford to stand 'round while the Council bickers," he replied, frown deepening. With a sigh, he strode forward. "I'll go first," he said, taking one last step and disappearing.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Lysander. I shall be sure to tell the Council where the two of you have gone, of course," Seir said as a farewell. "And, ah. If you do find Delmin..." Another d'Arristos sigh. "Never mind," he finished, waving a hand. "There's too much to say. I hope you find everything you're looking for, wherever that rift may take you."

The mage's stance became wary as Arithon entered the rift, almost as if he half-expected it to spit a couple of picked-clean bones and a tuft of red hair back out at the two demons that remained on this plane. Always acting and speaking before thinking of the potential outcomes, that one... he could gather that much from the short time he had spent with him. Oh well. He mentally prepared himself for whatever might happen to him through that rift as he listened to Seir's parting words.

"You are one d'Arristos I believe I could enjoy the company of," he replied with a rare brand of honesty to his voice. "Whatever we end up finding, I believe it may have been worth learning that there are people with sense in your family."

And then, like Arithon, he vanished behind the hole in reality's curtain.

1932 words; 2 joint points

Delmin was sleeping on one of the couches, instead of the middle of the floor. Jin Huang dozed as well, although the Dragon's mind was closer to waking than the human's. It was he who first noticed the vague thrum and bone-aching buzz of the spatial anomaly opening once more. Del shifted uneasily in his sleep, and Jin took a moment to make sure he stayed that way. His host had just now gotten to a deep, restful sleep, and it was something they both dearly needed. It seemed that it wasn't destined to be, as the rift appeared, and Del stirred ever closer towards consciousness.

First to step through, Arithon was the first to arrive. The trip had been quick and relatively uneventful; the path clearly marked and smoothed by a great power. The plane they had traveled through still roiled around the edges with the echoes of that power, which did not feel like their Lord's to the young demon. No, it had felt wilder, stronger, and quite a lot more powerful. He didn't see Del, still asleep, so Ari turned to face the opening, waiting for his erstwhile partner to show up. "Damned mages," he muttered, tapping a foot impatiently, even though Lysander would be arriving shortly. "Always late."

It was perhaps about half a minute later that Lysander and his pearly robes drifted out of the tear in space and into the Pantheon. Part of him had been extremely tempted to linger in that plane a little longer, to try and gain some knowledge by studying the raw energy that rippled at its fringes, but his mission had been prioritized over feeding his own curiosity. A disappointed sigh tried to escape from his mask the moment he had stepped outside of that place.

The first thing in this new world that caught his attention was the noise from Arithon's foot-tapping echoing through the space around him. He sighed again, more audibly this time, and greeted his partner with "Really, are you always going to be this impatient?"

"Hmm, it's a bit dark, isn't it..."

As large as the windows of the room were, they didn't do much good for the interior due to the darkened skies having so little light to shine through them. Lysander wasn't about to try and find Seir's human in the dark - especially since he was a mage, and that made this problem child's play to solve. Without bothering to warn the d'Arristos, he casually raised one of his silken-gloved hands as if he wanted to ask a question, and all but two of his fingers promptly burst into flames.

Arithon jumped backwards, looking startled. "What the hell," he gasped out, relaxing only after the rest of Lysander didn't spontaneously combust. "Warn me next time," the demon requested, dimly aware that his reaction had likely been what the mage had wanted to see, making the odds of a future warning slim indeed. Shaking himself slightly, Ari looked around the room. He didn't see Delmin right away, a dark figure on a dark couch in a still mostly darkened room. "I don't s'pose you know what he looks like?" Either he'd forgotten, or Arithon simply hadn't bothered to learn what Del looked like.

Fortunately, the object of their search chose that moment to wake up and peer blearily at the voices he heard. "You look like Seir," Del said muzzily, squinting at Arithon in confusion. "But...not," he added on. Within, the presence of Jin Huang stilled for a moment, then dove deep within the soul of his host. He didn't know who these new arrivals were, but the spark of recognition kindled within Del was enough to make the Dragon wary.

An amused grin lighted on Lysander's face that, for once, matched the perpetually cheerful smile on the mask covering it. "So you have never seen any magic up close before?" he asked, with a tilting of his head and in a tone that was intentionally gratingly amused. "How sad." The mage sighed and shook his head upon Arithon's question, while replying with "I can't say I do. Seir did not provide us with a description and we never thought to ask for one." He sounded as disappointed in himself as he was in the two d'Arristos for forgetting something so important.

There was an "ah" of bemused relief when the human stirred and spoke, Lysander turning and holding up his handful of flame so he could get a better look at him. The man seemed not entirely conscious - looks like the formalities would have to be taken at an easy pace so he and Arithon both would be able to stay on track. What a bother.

"You are probably observing a family resemblance," the mage started dully. "That is Seir's younger brother, Arithon, and much of the same features can be seen throughout their family." It was horribly tempting to refer to his companion as Seir's little brother just to rile him, but it struck Lysander as a bad idea to try and get more reactions out of him now.

"We are searching for Delmin Brock. That might be your name, yes?"

"I jus' don't like it, that's all," Arithon replied defensively, crossing his arms and frowning at the mage. "It's unnatural." Never mind that he was a demon and demons were typically regarded as something other than entirely natural themselves. When Delmin spoke, Ari twitched again slightly, placing one hand on his sword in case he tried anything.

"Family?" Del echoed, still fuzzy from waking up. "Oh. More demons?" he asked, rubbing his face. "That's just great," the man added with a sigh that quickly turned into a yawn. He didn't like demons. He frowned in thought for a moment.

"Your hand's on fire," Del pointed out helpfully, causing Jin to rumble within in amusement and exasperation. He'd noticed the spark of magecraft and had expected something like that to occur. Del, on the other hand, had dealt primarily with a demon who had very little innate magical talent. "And I might be. Why're you looking for him?" he asked in return, now mostly woken up and more than a little suspicious of the pair who stood before him. There was no way they'd come looking for him specifically. Were they after the dragon? One hand slowly rose to touch the gemstone on his chest in reassurance, which gave off a small glint in the fire provided by Lysander before that was quenched by Del's hand.

Lysander outright ignored Arithon's complaints about magic, and turned his full attention to Delmin.

The lack of enthusiasm in the man's voice was something Lysander took special note of. "I hope it assures you some that our kind tend to hold humans in a similar regard," he replied, and as a side remark he added, "Seir was of the minority opinion." If he had initially met a different Xi'Yong demon... well, the mage imagined his opinion of them would have been a lot less if said demon didn't decide to eat him.

That felt like an idea worth exploring if their little theories on this man turned out to be false.

"Well, it's not so much you that might be object of our search, but... certain circumstances surrounding you," Lysander began. He had decided during his short journey through the dimensional rift that Arithon probably would not be doing much of the talking, whether he wanted to or not. "To put it in very simple terms, we have reason to believe you may have located something - or perhaps it would be better to say someone? - that we have been seeking for a very long time."

He had caught a small glimpse of the gemstone, but didn't mention anything, wanting to see if the human could be whittled down into admitting it was there. Either that, or Arithon would probably blurt something out if he had noticed it.

"That's not really reassuring," Del fired back at the masked demon - was that one related to Seir and...Arithon? "In fact, I could assume that you were here to harm this 'Delmin Brock' you're looking for." They probably would do something to him, unless whatever they were really after was something he could provide.

"And I have no idea what you're talking about," he said in response, shifting around to sit up and stare at the pair defiantly. "So you can just go on back to whatever Hell you crawled out of."

"Wassat then?" Arithon asked, indicating the still covered gem with a jab of his chin. It had sparkled briefly, drawing his attention, and there was something about it that kept it locked there, when otherwise the young demon would have been just as happy to resume ignore the human. Del didn't respond, but a brief hand-spasm indicated that there was something about it that made him protective.

"Well, allow me to assure you that we do not intend to harm you unless it becomes necessary," Lysander replied, his voice becoming almost comically thick with formality and apology. "Such a thing would feel like a betrayal of the one you had a soul pact with, and I would rather stay on good terms with those I respect." He had found no reason to respect Delmin just yet, and as such treated him with noticeably more emotional distance than he gave Arithon. "You have already said enough to confirm to us who you are, so there is no need to try and hide it anymore."

It was too late for Delmin to hide the gem anymore, and the mage only regarded his defiant words with a condescending bundle of laughter. "Perhaps you know more than you think you do," he suggested, but it was more a phrase meant to disarm than a remark that meant anything.

There was something about that gem - more than it being affixed to his skin, which Lysander had seen being done for cosmetic purposes at least once or twice. Almost undetectable little tendrils of old magic, somewhat similar to what he had seen in the dimensional rift, seemed to curl around it and into the human in some fashion. He was quick to decide that it might be worth taking a look at it - especially with how protective he seemed of it.

"Move your hand," he said politely, and knowing the human would probably refuse, the little beads of ivory and shell and amber around his free wrist clacked together as he searched for something among them. His hand fished out of his sleeve, gripping a little handful of his jewelry, and moved slowly to the side, as if he could make Delmin comply just from that gesture.

Del responded with a sharp bark of laughter. "You really don't know how to talk to people, do you? At least Seir was persuasive without being overly threatening." It was a talent Del had noticed and set to good effect among the population of his small 'town'. There was always a slight hint of menace about the other half of Del's soul-pact, but one that most tended to dismiss. If they didn't, well, they tended to end up among those who 'failed' the entrance process. Giving up on concealing his identity as a more than lost cause a this point, Del grinned, showing some teeth.

"I know more than you think I do," came his retort, followed by a brief glare at Lysander. He honestly had no idea what they would be looking for, other than the dragon, and he'd never heard Seir mention anything about dragons...At least not in a positive manner. His hand tightened over the gem further, pressing tightly against his skin. "Make me," Del said tauntingly, looking puzzled as his hand did indeed start to move.

"The hell! Stop it, whatever you're doing," Del demanded, going slightly cross eyed as he tried to stare at his mouth. What had that been? Arithon's eyes snapped to Delmin and he stared at the human in mixed shock and reverential awe, not wanting to say something in case it was a trick of some sort. You never knew, with these humans.

"And you, my friend, are very skilled in the art of deceit," Lysander suggested as he continued to carefully observe the human's responses. "That wall of confidence you just put up is very convincing, I can see how you reached the position you were in before ending up here."

When that sudden new voice hit the mage's ears, it was nearly impossible to resist heeding its command. The small section of his string that he held was released from his fist to dangle below his hand, which caused the spell he had invoked to promptly break. His mask did little to hide a sharp and surprised intake of breath at both the voice and how quickly he had obeyed it. The strange familiarity of it was something he did not like, if it could have that sort of influence on him.

"...prophetic dream indeed," he muttered to himself. "Who is or was that?"

"Thanks for the compliment," Del muttered in reply, fighting to bring his hand back to cover the gem. He didn't know quite why, but Jin Huang hadn't wanted to reveal his presence to the demons just yet. This, of course, would normally have made Del suspicious, but the dragon was still fogging over any thoughts that would cast him in a negative light. Del's musings were interrupted by the sound and feel of his hand smacking his chest.

"....Ow," was his only complaint, rubbing at the spot instinctively. It hadn't hurt, as most of the force had been taken by the jewel, but reflexes were reflexes and hard to stop. "Watch what you're doing," the human accused the demon, dropping his hand down anyway, allowing the gemstone to appear in full view for the first time.

"Lysander," Arithon hissed out at its appearance.

"No one you need to concern yourself with," was Del's haughty reply. He wasn't really sure who it had been himself, although he probably had a better idea than the two demons.

"You wouldn't have hurt yourself like that if you had complied with us," Lysander curtly replied, as if he were a schoolteacher reprimanding a misbehaving child. Whatever Delmin would say in response would fall upon deaf ears, however, as Arithon alerted his attention towards the gem.

He gave the d'Arristos a small nod - which would hopefully be mutually understood as a suggestion that the human should be forcibly restrained if that's what it took to get to the bottom of this - before he abruptly glided over closer to Delmin, half to intimidate and half to get a closer look.

Seir was not stupid enough to have missed something so obvious.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," he started slowly, "considering I have been seeing images and emblems much like the one adorning your chest since before you were born." The mage's voice was just about seeping his sense of superiority at this point.

"You must have made contact with our Golden King, the Futs Lung in some form after you went through that dimensional rift. It would make things much easier if you told us where he is now."

Del refrained from following through on the impulse to stick his tounge out at Lysander. There was just something about him that made Del want to annoy him constantly, and just be contrary in general.

Ari returned the nod, although his was more of a 'I don't have any idea what you're trying to tell me, but I'll pretend I do so you won't make fun of me later' than confirmation or agreement with anything Lysander was thinking. Therefore, he was just as surprised as Del when Lysander moved to cross the distance between them.

"Back off," Del growled out, shuffling backwards on the couch, stopping only before he fell off. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Or who that is," he added on. Jin let a small rumble of unhappiness and amusement ripple through Del. He'd told the human who he was, but it appeared that he'd either forgotten, or the dragon's own clouding had obscured the memory.

This was becoming increasingly frustrating. It had occurred to the mage that there might be some areas in which the human was truly oblivious, which made it difficult to determine where it was he could dig for answers and which lines of inquiry would lead to dead ends. Further complications arose from how his learned tactic of weaving words into a web that desired information could crawl into was simply not working here; Delmin had shown himself to be too learned in the same skills for it to have any sort of effect on him. Oh, yes, they had definite leads now, but - how could they put them to use? It was tempting to start using both physical and magical force at this point.

"Seir's stories about you suggested to me that you may have developed bit of a fascination with dragons - well, a Dragon," Lysander began to explain, suddenly quiet and calm as he was a few minutes ago. "A King of Dragons, if you will." And there he stopped, waiting for something from the human - a spark of recognition, some defiant words, sudden physical movements. At this point they didn't need much, and the mage was betting on Delmin not being able to feign confusion or lack of recognition in this line of discussion.

Del was already quite annoyed by this whole thing, and Lysander's questions only served to further irritate him. The masked demon was obviously used to dealing with people incapable of comprehending his verbal tactics, which was what had likely led to what Del viewed as the atrophying of Lysander's skills. Del could easily recognize what the other was trying to do, and thought it was something of a waste that he hadn't developed the skill any further.

"I've always been interested in dragons," Del replied innocently. "Mythology was something I enjoyed when I was younger, and I won't lie and say that it didn't help me when I was older." He wasn't sure what, exactly Lysander was digging for with this line of questions. Del's answers weren't entirely truthful; mythology had indeed been something he'd studied after that...unfortunate period in his life, but only out of boredom, and then as a means to develop his own 'religion.' He was, however, starting to get the feeling that he should know what they were discussing in this roundabout fashion, and it was simply another source of irritation that he didn't.

And, there it was. It wasn't one of the things Lysander was specifically looking for, but it worked nonetheless: Del's ease at matching his innocent tone and settling into such a seemingly harmless conversation was proof enough to the mage that he was indeed hiding something. Others, he imagined, would have been a little taken aback by the suddenly calm and curious line of questioning, but the human had slipped into it a little too perfectly in circumstances that didn't call for it. "Hmm... I see," he said, continuing the docile tone.

It wasn't certain to him when he should break this little dance of deceit he had started with the human, since he was sure it wouldn't get him anywhere. At best, they would keep weaving around the truth, almost getting close to it but not quite touching it.

He opted to continue. "I imagine it must have come as a bit of a surprise of you that your human 'mythology' has many of its roots in fact." There would have been some theatric displays of his magic at this point, but he figured it wouldn't help him and it was pointless to waste his energy here; the magic that saturated this place was too raw and untempered for him to try and risk drawing more power from. "Granted, I'm better versed in lore closer to the source and less diluted by cultural evolution, so I don't believe I could bring up any examples familiar to you..." and here he casually passed his flame from one hand to the other to rest it a little.

...just keep him pouring out his half-truths until the d'Arristos gets impatient...

"Not particularly. I've found that humanity as a whole is fairly unimaginative and tends to be derivative instead of inventive. It follows that our 'legends' are in fact based on real occurrences and beings, although grossly distorted from the truth." Del folded his legs beneath him and rested an arm on one knee, chin on his hand. This was a fascinating conversation, even though Del was aware that it wasn't really the conversation they were having. It was almost...fun, to have an opponent like this, though Del admittedly thought himself superior to the demon, no matter the magic tricks the other possessed. Clearly, Del had something greater than demonic tricks up his sleeves.

Even though he had no idea what that was.

"SHUT. UP," Arithon shouted, drawing his katana with one smooth motion, pointing it first at Delmin, then at Lysander. "Words words words, neither one of you talking straight. It's giving me a headache, the way you two dance around the POINT of all of this," he continued, voice rising and falling as he glared at both human and demon. "You. Dragon. You have him. Stop lying," Arithon growled out, moving one step closer, katana edging forward. "And you," he continued, turning to point the sword at Lysander once more. "Just...stop," Ari said wearily.

"I imagine you would enjoy seeing the undistorted truth for yourself," Lysander said with a degree of honesty that added to the paradoxical nature of the conversation. Difficult as this was turning out to be, he still enjoyed the fact that he and his opponent had something in common. "It's a pity that I didn't bring along any of my books... then again, it's not like you could read the script they're in." but the dragon probably could "The demons you dislike so much have a great deal of lore compiled on a particular dr--"

Arithon interrupted them at that point, thankfully earlier than he had expected. No matter how interesting the exchange was, it was still a welcome development to make sudden progress. The younger demon's brash nature could come in handy sometimes - Lysander made a point to remember it.

"...Yes. As my companion said, there's no point in trying to hide it, much like your identity," the mage started again. He would have to thank Arithon later somehow, but right now it was a better idea to keep himself looking as if he wasn't anticipating that sudden outburst (which made him all the more grateful for the mask, otherwise the satisfied grin on his face would have made him obvious).

"About that stone... well, nothing needs to be said that has already been observed." He was alluding to both Delmin's protectiveness of it and the familiarity he had noted earlier. "It's the emblem of a dragon our clan used to serve. Could you enlighten us to the circumstances surrounding your acquisition of it? And please don't lie."

Part of him wanted to try and remove it, but those little threads of power radiating from it seemed like they were firmly attached to the human. It presented a risk that wasn't worth taking at that time.

Del was poised to reply to Lysander, groaning to himself about the constant harping on the dragon. The conversation at hand had actually taken a turn for the interesting, but they were interrupted before it could go any further.

Ari growled a bit at his fellow demon. He wasn't stopping with all the damn words! Apparently, another d'Illionas trait was an inability to follow clearly stated directions. However, the younger demon judged that his point had been made, and sheathed his katana. "Keep it short," he snapped as the blade slid home.

"I found it, in the rift," Del said quietly, looking very tired, as if the admission or the sudden stop of the previous conversation had left him drained. "I picked it up, and put it here," he tapped the gem in his chest before continuing. "You'll forgive me for not providing a lot of detail? It's all gone rather fuzzy in my head." Del heaved a sigh, and reached a hand up to rub at his face a little. He was oddly exhausted, and when he lowered his hand, it shook visibly. "Something attacked me, and I wound up here," he finished, looking at Lysander, a spark of defiance still lit in his eyes.

Found it in the rift... well, that made sense, in any case, and followed through with the patchy accounts of the events he had heard from both Seir and Delmin. Lysander stayed quiet for a while, wanting to hear as much of human's full story as he was willing to tell before forming a response. He was attacked by something... probably irrelevant, an unfortunate coincidence; unless the man was trying to decieve again, that had happened after he had acquired the stone.

There was a short moment of thought in which the demon would have put a hand to his chin if the mask hadn't been in the way. Instead he fiddled with the bits of fabric around it, a habit he didn't feel like suppressing at this point. It most likely wouldn't hurt for Delmin to see that he was thinking.

Then, a question. "You... attached it by yourself? Why?" The unspoken remarks here were hopefully quite clear: it was more than a little unsual that, after finding himself lost in an unfamiliar plane of existence, he would just pick up a strange rock there and shove it in his chest without a good reason. A 'Why not?' in response just wouldn't cut it here.

"I didn't attach it," Del returned with a frown. "All I did was touch it to my skin briefly. It burrowed into my flesh and can we please not talk about that anymore?" he added on in a rush, looking vaguely nauseous at the memory.

Let me speak with him, Jin requested, surfacing from the depths of Delmin's soul where he had been hiding and gathering strength. A flicker of surprise and shock flashed across the human's face; he'd thought Jin had been avoiding revealing himself to the demons.

"How?" Del asked aloud.

If you simply...move aside? For a moment, only, I assure you. There was a moment of awkward mental movement, one that left Del slumping forward before straightening once more.

"I believe you wanted to speak to me?" Jin asked dryly.

At the sound of that voice, Arithon smoothly dropped to one knee and bowed before Delmin. There was no thought involved in the process - it was simply instinct, something ingrained into him. He wondered briefly if Lysander would be able to resist the same compulsion, and decided that letting the mage do the talking was probably for the best at this point.

An identical impulse coursed through Lysander, but he didn't bend down and kneel right away - there was a distinct shift in his stance to something more respectful, however, before he pushed his conjured flame into the air and joined Arithon on the floor. It wouldn't have done well for his presentation if he had succumbed to his instinct right away and ended up setting something on fire.

Granted, it would have been terribly amusing if the victim had been the young d'Arristos, but this was neither the time nor the place for such a thing.

It was difficult to make it seem like he was still in at least partial control of this exchange when he was bowing to his opponent, but the mage somehow managed it even with the amber cap on the end of his mask almost scraping against the floor. "I am correct in assuming that you are the Lord Futs Lung?" he asked, with much higher regard towards the man (or rather, the voice using the man to speak through) present in his tone than there was earlier. It was getting more obvious by the second at this point, but Lysander was not the type to spare formalities.

There was also the matter of the thoughts and feelings buzzing through his head at this point, which amounted to him not wanting to believe that their dragon, for some reason, was choosing to speak through a human.

Del reacted with some surprise at their obesience, something that manifested as a brief finger twitch before Jin calmed it. "I am indeed the Dragon King Futs Lung," he replied, eyeing the demons curiously. He had no memory of who they might be, or why they were doing this.

You have no idea who they are? Del asked incredulously. Jin murmured an affirmative, causing the man to throw mental hands in the air in exasperation. They're bowing to you, and you have no idea why.

I have lost a lot of memory, and a lot of myself, the dragon said by way of explanation. Is it really so hard to believe that the gods forget? Del barked out a laugh.

Yes, it is. Jin shrugged and eyed Lysander curiously.

"Was that all, then?" Ari twitched slightly, but paused. Was that really all they had come for? Confirmation that Futs Lung once more walked the earth...although in a greatly diminished capacity.

Was that all that they came for? It could have been, but as long as Lysander had anything to do with it that was only going to be a part of their mission. He continued, turning both earnestly reverent and somewhat diplomatic in his speech.

"I speak on behalf of the entire Xi'Yong clan when I say that it is an immeasurable pleasure to see that you have returned." The mage bowed his head slightly, and there was a dull scraping noise as his mask hit the floor. "It would be an equally immeasurable honor if you would allow us to be in your service, as we have for more years than our eldest can count."

Jin stared blankly at the demon mage. Del was off in the back of his own mind, laughing somewhat hysterically. "I appreciate the offer," Jin replied, equally as diplomatic as he edged towards an uncomfortable truth. "Unfortunately - I don't remember you, or your clan."

Ari had stifled a wholly out of place laugh at the sound of Lysander's mask scraping the ground, but any levity died at the dragon's words. The young demon's head shot up, and he stared at Delmin in shock.

Shock and disappointment shot through Lysander at Jin's words, but like the well-trained d'Ilionas he was, he was able to mostly hide it, and tilted his head to the side in thought for a second before responding again.

"If that's the case... if you would have the two of us at the very least, my Lord, then we will re-educate you on our clan while in your service," he offered.

Jin eyed the pair speculatively before nodding. "I can agree to that," he said, slipping back into the background of Delmin's psyche. Del staggered forward a bit at the sudden change, then frowned.

"Warn me when you do that," he muttered, crossing his arms and staring at Lysander almost petulantly, as if it was somehow his fault.

Arithon sighed and stood as soon as Futs Lung stopped talking. He'd bow before the dragon, but damned if he was going to do so before a human. Even if that human somehow had the dragon within him - this was going to give him a headache, he just knew it.

Lysander mirrored Arithon's motion, going so far as to to dust off of his robes before righting himself again and casually grabbing the magically-powered flame back from where he had placed it in the air.

If he could hear the warrior's thoughts, he would be wholeheartedly agreeing with him.

"We need to get out of here," Delmin muttered, flopping backwards onto the couch he'd been sleeping on for far too long.

Where would we go?

"I don't know. Do you?"

No.

"There we go then. I need to get out of here. I'm arguing with myself," the man stated, holding his hands up in front in his face and staring at them like he'd never seen them before. "Either of you two geniuses have any ideas?" he asked, dropping his arms back down and staring at Arithon and Lysander with a mixture of hope and apprehension in his eyes.

Arithon shuffled backwards, not meeting Delmin's gaze. Yes, they probably had better find a place to live other than the Pantheon, but did he really have to act like this? The younger demon cast a sideways glance at the older, and more diplomatic, mage, not offering a reply to the man on the couch.

They had all been in that part of the building for far too long. Lysander had been too busy serving Jin to take any good looks outside - or at least that's what he would like to think, except there was the matter of there simply being very little to do outside of small duties like retrieving food and sharing information about the rebirth of the gods through gems, or bits of the history of the Xi'Yong clan. And although those exchanges were very interesting (that was one thing the mage appreciated about the human, he could be quite enjoyable to talk to sometimes), it left him wishing he could do something more and be more useful to the dragon and his host.

So when Del lobbed a request in his direction, he was more than happy to oblige. "I know no more of this place than you, unfortunately," he admitted, "so perhaps we could pick a direction and walk? Even if we do not end up finding anything, it may help alleviate the restlessness a bit."

"There's lava outside," Del commented idly, eyeing the two demons speculatively. Jin let loose a small rumble of discontent at the thought, which Del quickly silenced with a mental 'just kidding'. "Well, let's go then," the man said, shoving himself back off the couch and heading for the door without checking to see if the demons were following.

And what do you hope to find out there?

"I don't know. You don't either. Let's just go look, okay?" Del muttered, loud enough to be overheard, but obviously not directed at Arithon or Lysander.

"...Fine," Arithon said in reply to Del's back, stepping quickly after him. Glancing over at Lysander, the young d'Arristos made a quick gesture by his head, the universal sign for crazy. Ari knew that he was more than likely speaking to FutsLung, but even when taking that into consideration, Del was acting oddly.

Lysander couldn't help but scoff just a tiny bit at Delmin's lava observation. Sure, it was hot and dangerous, but the demon was a mage. Molten rock was a problem that he could easily resolve if Jin or the human wished it.

The mage decided not to provide any reactions to Arithon's gesture, instead gliding along past him to follow the human outside in whatever direction he might be heading. While catching up to him he advised, both to Delmin and to the other demon in order to get him on the right track for this venture, "There may be dangers other than lava lurking about, so it would be wise to stay on guard. Not all worlds are as mundane as your own, after all."

After some minutes of aimless wandering, a section of the horizon started to take on an angular profile that had suggestions of a city or town of some sort.

"I miss the mundane," was Del's only response to Lysander's warning. Arithon, on the other hand, tensed noticeably and kept his hand firmly on the hilt of his katana, ready to draw. When the outline of the town appeared Del pointed towards it with his chin, having stuffed his hands in his pockets earlier.

"Let's head over there," the man suggested, ambling that way.

"Might be something nasty there," Ari growled out, looking back at the Pantheon with a sigh. It had been quite annoying, trapped in there, but at least it was a known quantity. It would be hard to protect his Lord if the damn human didn't cooperate.

"I trust the two of you can handle it," Del said dryly as they reached the crumbled and decaying outskirts of the town. "I hadn't thought there'd be a city so close to that," he mused, casting a glance back the still malignantly looming Pantheon. "People really are crazy."

If it hadn't recently turned out that Delmin was meant to be vessel for their Dragon King's rebirth, then Lysander would have had more than a few words to say in retort his commentary about other people's sanity. Instead, he merely gave him a dismissive shrug and observed, "It's easier to appeal to the gods when they're close by."

More wandering ensued through the decaying town until they reached parts that looked like there had been some effort put in to maintain for a while. It was almost starting to look... promising.

I do not think that it always looked as such, Jin commented, causing Del to roll his shoulders in annoyance.

"That's true," Del mused, looking about the area they had found themselves in. "Looks a little nicer here. Wonder if anyone's still around?" he asked, not really thinking there were. True, the houses looked as though someone had put work into keeping them up, but there were signs that this activity had fallen off recently.

Arithon had relaxed slightly when no one had appeared on their walk, although he was still eyeing almost everyting warily as they passed by. "Maybe somethin' scared em off," he muttered, casting furtive glances about.

"Anyway you can tell?" Del asked Lysander, kind of curious. It might be nice to see someone other than the demons, after all.

"'Something' scared them off?" Lysander parroted, looking with amusement at the swordsman. "A mystery what that could be. Perhaps it was the world as they knew it crumbling around them?" His gaze shifted between various mundane objects - a lamp post, a faded sign, a battered park bench - with vague interest as they continued with their slow pace, until Delmin directed a question at him.

"Yes, I can. Just give me a moment..." he responded, and folded his hands under his sleeves to concentrate. After a second or two his vision shifted, with the buildings and structures of the town becoming little more than faint outlines against a dark background. A few spun threads of flame danced in his peripheral vision, and there were some more in the distance, but they were all noticeably frayed and bobbled around their surroundings with some ethereal brand of uncertainty.

Another moment passed and he turned to face Delmin again. "I believe that nearly all of the people in our vicinity are dead, I'm afraid."

Ari growled something unintelligible at Lysander. "Shut up, will ya?" Del didn't bother to stifle his laughter while waiting for the other demon to do whatever it was.

"No one left alive? Pity," Del said absently, not sounding at all concerned about it. "So there's no one expecting to return to these houses, then."

What are you getting at? Jin asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, really. Just thinking out loud," Del said, making a turn down a driveway on the left to get a closer look at the house. "Wonder what kind of shape this one's in." Jin made an uncomfortable sounding noise in the back of Del's head as he picked up on what the man was planning. Hopefully one of the demons would say something, or object to it.

Ari shrugged. "Go look, then," he said, following after Del.

"Yes, there are quite a few available places to choose from," Lysander remarked, saying the very thing on Del's mind. As far as he and probably most other demons were concerned, what was the harm in simply taking something that was just going to rot away with nobody around to use it? Letting so many perfectly good houses go to waste would have been a tragedy.

As Delmin approached the first house that caught his eye, he would become aware of a light rumbling noise in the direction of the door. Approaching further would make it become increasingly louder, until it could be easily interpreted as a growl from something very angry and very large.

"That's good to know," Del called back over his shoulder, almost opening the front door before the growling registered. "....Lysander?" he asked reproachfully. Why hadn't the mage let them know there was still something here?

"I'll take care of it,"Ari said, roughly shoving Del out of the way, not caring that the man flailed and almost fell off the front porch of the house.

"Would you just stop and wait?" Del asked, making a big show of dusting himself off. "I'm not sure getting into a fight over the first house we find is a brilliant idea," he continued brightly, knowing that Arithon would likely miss the sarcasm. Ari sighed and backed off, turning around to glare at Lysander.

"Well?" he barked out.

"Well, what?" Lysander asked, abrasively calm compared to the apparent mood of the human and the swordsman.

The growling persisted on over their exchange, briefly developing into manic barking before quieting down again once Arithon had stepped away from the door. It was most likely starved half to death and quite possibly sick or injured as well, but it was easy to see that Delmin would be easier to deal with if they found a house that didn't have a big angry dog guarding it for a master that would never return.

"I must apologize for not noticing that before," he said, even giving a small bow in acknowledgment of his mistake. "Perhaps we should continue searching, and for a house that's... pest-free. Are there any other attributes you would feel more comfortable with or without, Delmin?"

"Why didn't you say somethin' was in there!?" Ari burst out, stalking over to the other demon, hand twitching towards drawing his katana.

"Living beings of any sort," Del said dryly, making his way over to the pair. "Probably any place with a lingering spirit as well," he added on thoughtfully, drumming his fingers against his thigh as he thought. The mage probably wouldn't be able to tell if the house was structurally sound. Well, that was what Arithon was for. "How about that one over there?" he asked, pointing at a house across the street. The lawn was starting to look overgrown, indicating that if anyone was still inhabiting the place, they hadn't come out in a very long time.

"It did not cross my line of vision, as I already stated," the mage responded a little irritably. "A simple mistake which will not happen again."

He took a look at the place Delmin had indicated... interesting choice, given that not only the front yard managed to have grass, but it looked like it was still growing. "I don't believe I See anything in there," he slowly observed after taking a moment to double- and triple-check, "but would you like to send Arithon in there to... clear it out, just in case I managed to overlook something again?"

Ari continued to grumble, but didn't say anything else on the subject. Truth be told, he was a little scared of the d'Illionas mage, at least, he was scared of the retribution a member of that clan could wreak.

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Del replied cheerfully, sticking his hands in his pockets and strolling across the street to stand on the sidewalk and admire the house further. Whoever had lived there previously had taken excellent care of the house, as it was only now starting to show signs of disrepair and neglect, other than the largely weed-choked lawn. Ari muttered something else under his breath, but stalked off into the house obediently. "Is there anything in there?" Del asked once the younger demon was inside. He wouldn't put it past Lysander to neglect to mention something just to get at Arithon.

Thankfully, the interior of the house was mostly harmless, with nothing much to worry about besides some cobwebs, an upturned piece of furniture here and there, and a delicate layer of dust over everything. It looked like the mage was too focused on being a practical and reliable servant to jerk Arithon's chain very much today.

Arithon stalked back out and stood outside the front door, arms crossed. "Looks good," he called out shortly, not stepping towards the waiting pair. "No corpses, either." Del rolled his eyes and started walking towards the house.

"Shall we?" he asked Lysander pleasantly. "I think we've found a good one."

This is distasteful, Jin interjected. Stealing from the dead - and let's be honest, that's what they were doing - seemed wrong somehow to the dragon. Delmin didn't seem to have a problem with it, and neither did the demons. Why did it bother him so much, then?

"You're fussy, that's why," Del remarked off-hand as he moved past Arithon, sneezing when he stirred up some dust. "I think this will do just fine."

"So, where are we going again?" Delmin asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking around curiously. They were in one of the older areas of the town nearest the Pantheon, one that had been a business district before, well, everything had happened.

I told you this before. We are going to recover a cache of mine that is nearby.

"Yes, I know. I was just wondering where this mysterious cache of yours was. We've been wandering for a while," Del replied with an absent wave of his hand. This was perhaps the third such area they'd inspected, although Arithon had commented earlier that the older the buildings were, the more likely it was that they were in the right place.

"Th'bank," Arithon said suddenly, pointing at an old brick building that proudly declared itself to be a First National Bank, established in 1893. It was, so far, the oldest such building they had come across.

"You have to be kidding me," Del said with a sigh. "Did you really deposit this in a bank?"

It may be that this site was chosen for such a place because of the cache. It was highly unlikely anyone had found the hidden treasure, but the wards and otherworldly nature of the protections might have been enough to convince someone to build a bank on the land.

"Please tell me you're 'picking something up' or whatever it is you do," the man said with another sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. This was utterly ridiculous, looking for buried treasure and relying on the senses of demons to find it.

Delmin's tendency to complain about the demons' methods was something that Lysander had gotten accustomed to at this point. In order to adapt to this, he responded to and generally conversed less with the human (unless an interesting topic of conversation came up), silently following during their outings and half-tuning out whatever he said, only taking the effort to pay the attention required to hear an important question or command from either Del or Jin Huang.

He almost missed the human's question-hidden-in-another-complaint, only noticing it because Arithon had prompted all of them to take a closer look at the decaying, but still standing, bank that he had pointed out.

The mage was able to detect a difference in the air here - threads of ambient energy that had been neatly coiled and tucked into the ground and the area around it. It had been arranged in a fashion that was not only well-organized, but almost mockingly artistic; he was able to recognize it instantly once he was able to get a good Look at it.

"Your instincts are praiseworthy today, Arithon," he said, with a small smile forming under his mask. "It's started to fray a bit in some places, but the signatures of my ancestors are here."

Arithon puffed up a bit at Lysander's praise, striding quickly towards the bank and trying to open the door. "It's locked," he muttered with some surprise.

"Of course it is," Del said with a sigh, having walked at a much more sedate pace. He eyed the frosted glass door curiously; it hadn't been broken during the general looting that had occurred as the area had been deserted. "Should be easy enough to get in," he continued, rapping a knuckle against it. It echoed strangely, sending out a bell-like tone before shattering into dust.

"Th'hell?" Ari asked, taking a step back in case something else happened. Del shook his head and looked at his hand in shock.

"I haven't the slightest idea."

Lysander coolly cast the point of his mask first at the shocked swordsman, and then at the equally startled human, more than a little amused at how they were reacting to their door disintegrating. Sometimes it could become a bit cumbersome for d'Ilionas magic to be kept as... well... a family secret. It led to a lot of stupid questions (albeit along with a lot of fairly entertaining situations).

"Did you not hear what I just said a moment ago?" His voice was all too cheerful, reflecting how much he enjoyed knowing more of what just happened than the other two did. "Earlier members of my family placed enchantments and wards on these grounds... and much like the mages who cast them, the spells bow to none other than the Golden King. It was his power - and nothing of yours - that shattered the door, Mr. Brock."

"I wasn't expecting the enchantments to be on the front doors," Del shot back with a glare. Lysander really grated on his nerves, sometimes. If Jin had died Faded before the bank had been built, why would the demons have come back and cast magic over this cache that everyone had forgotten about?

"Quit it," Arithon said with a sigh. "Let's just go inside." Hand hovering around the hilt of his katana, Ari was the first to enter, sandals crunching slightly over some broken glass from the interior.

The vault.

"The vault?" Del echoed, eyes darting around the darkened room to try and find the entrance. "They built the vault over your treasure?"

It would be the safest place. Del didn't reply, following Arithon over to what was clearly the secure door, an old looking metal door, although one that had been taken care of. Arithon was the first to try and open it, small, nearly invisible runes flaring up as he took hold of the opening mechanism. It didn't budge, no matter hoe the demon tugged on it. The longer he spent doing so, the more runes and markings lit up, until Del placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Lysander, what do these mean?" the man asked somewhat warily. Not of the mage, but of the answer and what it might mean.

"They are not all on the front doors, Mr. Brock," Lysander replied with a roll of his eyes implied in his voice; he was talking as if he were a schoolteacher and Delmin was the class clown who had just asked yet another stupid question. Is that how humans handled their own belongings, then? Putting all of their safeguards on the front door? He could only imagine how often they had their valuables stolen with such poor defense mechanisms in place.

The mage voiced his agreements with Arithon, wanting the cache to be retrieved with as few stupid questions as he could manage. He watched, quietly as usual, as they approached the door and the swordsman struggled to open it. Ah, now that was something that was never made quite like it used to be.

When Del asked him about it, he bemusedly cocked his head in a rather birdlike fashion while responding. "It means that Arithon should really stop touching that door," his syrupy tone informed, "unless he suddenly has a desire to stop being alive. I doubt even one from his family would be able to survive such a blast." His hands fished through the sleeves of his robes, undoubtedly adjusting the numerous strings of magically-charged beads and chunks of amber beneath them.

"No, what I meant was...nevermind," Del said with an exasperated sigh. Lysander hadn't understood, and Del wasn't really inclined to explain himself further. Not with a potential problem in front of them.

At the explanation, Ari released the door as if it had been burning him, eying both it and the other demon suspiciously. "Who th'hell would set a door up like that?" he asked crossly. Honestly, it was almost like the d'Illionas weren't related at all, the way they snuck about and set up stupid traps like this.

"So how do we open it?" Del asked, seemingly unperturbed by the idea of losing Arithon. Of course, he was standing rather close to it as well.

It's unlikely you'd have survived either, Jin pointed out.

"Assuming we can open it at this point," Del mused, ignoring Jin again. He attempted to examine it without placing a hand on the still sullenly glowing door. Who knew how it would react to him to him.

Lysander sighed internally at Arithon's questioning; it wasn't something he could just leave alone like that. "Since it is in place to guard a part of the treasure of Futs Lung, it was most likely 'set up' at his request." And no doubt his ancestors made sure to get the Dragon King's approval on their designs for every security implement they had placed there, as well.

The mage took several moments to examine the door, paying careful attention to their runes and their placement, closely observing where the mana was strung and wired into the metal. Unless one of them tried to interrupt his pondering, the area would be silent for a few minutes as the obstacle between them and Jin's treasure underwent his appraisal. Occasionally a finger raised to... poke at an invisible string of energy somewhere, it looked like, in a way that someone attempting to defuse a bomb would examine its wires before attempting anything with them.

"I should be able to dismantle the spells on this door," he said with what was hopefully enough confidence for the others to let him proceed. It was more complicated than most things he had encountered, but that implied a greater amount of time more than it did a greater amount of risk.

Arithon didn't bother replying, only taking the time to glare equally at Lysander and Delmin. He couldn't quite muster the resolve to glare at his Lord, but the host was enough. While the other demon worked, Ari explored what he could of the bank outside the vault; despite the fact that the exterior doors had not been broken prior to their arrival, there wasn't much left of any value. This intrigued him, and he had long since disappeared into what had been the banker's offices before Lysander spoke.

Del, on the other hand, had appropriated a comfortable chair and had dozed off, feet propped up on a desk. "Go ahead, then," Jin commanded, Del not having woken up. He found it simpler to leave the man asleep, as long as motion was not required. Speaking was all he could manage right now, and it was far easier to do while Del wasn't aware it was happening. "Will you be able to get us past everything else?"

Lysander made careful work of the wards on the door - though to the untrained eye he would have just been standing there staring at it, his arms folded neatly beneath his sleeves. The only hint that he was doing anything at all was the warning runes slowly flickering back into inactivity (looking much like an electric billboard with burnt-out letters), and the occasional ripple in the fabric in his robes as he fiddled around with his hands.

"Yes, of course," he answered the Dragon King, with a great deal of confidence. "All I would request from you and Arithon would be your patience." He had to be careful not to overlook or disregard anything in his ancestors' spellwork; there was always the risk of hidden little traps within traps to ward off overconfident or inexperienced mages.

"That I can grant you," Jin replied dryly. "Let us know when you've finished, of course," he continued, settling back in the background of Del's mind. It would be best to let the mage work without question or interruption.

The mage more than happily continued his work, though what that entailed would only have been interesting to other mages. There really was nothing flashy or fantastical about freeing the mana in the air from the sequences and patterns it had been tied down in; the disapproving glow of the runes on the door continued to flicker back into inactivity until there was one final lifting of the air as the last part of it was dismantled and left to flow freely in its natural state.

Sounding quite pleased with himself, he announced "The door is safe now, Lord. Shall I take care of the rest of the wards behind it?"

"Of course," Jin replied, sounding slightly irritated, though if it was at the demon or something else entirely was hard to tell.

Beyond the heavy vault door, which opened easily to Lysander's touch, the wealth of the bank could be seen. There were an almost unusual amount of safety deposit boxes, all against one wall near the back.

To maged Sight, the entire room was lit with magic; here a spell for illusion, there one for protection. The back wall, however, took these loose strands and wove them into a tapestry. UnSighted, there was a slight aversion to looking too closely at one section. Sighted, however, this aversion disappeared, and the faint outline of a door could be seen where the strands of magic were thickest.

Lysander wasn't sure to expect once he had opened the door, and almost huffed in disappointment to find something so mundane. When his Sight saw the threads of mana woven into the outline of a door, however, the sigh turned into a grin behind his mask and he got to work again, being ever-so-careful to not cause any damage where the foolhardy would be likely to make a mistake. It meant more tedious work for him, but it was being done for Jin Huang. That would be sure to earn him and his family some respect.

"My Lord," he announced proudly several minutes later, gliding back through the vault door, "your cache awaits you."

"Does it now," Jin Huang replied, prodding the slumbering consciousness of his host back into dominance. Lysander has found the treasure, he explained as Delmin woke up. With a stretch and yawn, the man looked at the masked mage.

"Uhm. Good job. Where's Arithon?" he asked, looking around as he dropped his legs down and stood up a little shakily. At the sound of his name, the younger demon came back out from the back offices, a strange leather mask held in one hand. "I'm not going to ask what that is," Delmin said firmly, ignoring the somewhat triumphant look on Arithon's face. "We can talk about it later. Let's just go get the treasure and get out of here," he continued, feeling vaguely uneasy as he took a few long strides into the vault, brushing lightly past Lysander with a quiet apology.

The cache was, to Delmin's mind, quite impressive, but the small sigh Jin Huang emitted made him rethink the matter. "Something wrong?"

This is one of the smaller caches. No matter. It will do as a start, the dragon said briskly, shaking off his disappointment.

"I guess grab some bags, or something to put things in so we can take it back," Delmin suggested, mentally rolling his eyes at the dragon. "But um, why don't you two pick something out? A reward," he continued at the prompting of musings Jin Huang hadn't intended to be realized.

"A - reward?" Lysander stiffened in surprise at the offer, too preoccupied by the surprise of it that he didn't notice Arithon's discovery or his outward feelings about it. "I doubt that there is anything that I would wish to have..."

A closer look into the cache, however, was quick to make him change his thoughts. Among all of the pointless, glittering trinkets he didn't care for, there was a pair of wands, marked with enchantments that he was able to recognize as an archaic form of the magic that his family used. He wasn't much of a wand-user himself, but figured they might come in handy someday...

Arithon looked understandably crestfallen at the lack of attention, tucking the mask under an arm as he perked up a bit at the mention of a reward. His eyes flashed quickly over the assorted jewels and blocks of precious metals, alighting on a pair of daggers, runed and marked with magic, obviously intended to keep them functionally sharp even after all this time. Any other enchantments would have to be discovered later, after the rest of the cache had been returned to Jin Huang's keeping. The young demon offered a small bow - not to Delmin, but to his Lord, and tucked the daggers in his waistband, juggling a bit with both katana and mask.

"Bags?" Delmin prompted, once the chosen items had been stowed away, rubbing at the back of his neck in not only annoyance, but to mask the sharp p***k of unease that had caused the fine hairs there to stand on end. "Should be some lying around, like those used for money."

You felt it too? the dragon asked, alert and wary, no longer drowsily amused at the goings-on. Delmin made no reply, but grabbed a handful of sturdy cloth bags to start stowing things in. Arithon joined him wordlessly, making sure to keep the gems from scratching one another as they slowly packed them away. It was obvious, however, that there was more here than could be easily taken away by the three of them, even if magically aided.

"Should we leave the rest?" Delmin asked, glancing at Lysander, obvious question in his eyes. "I assume you'd be able to redo whatever was keeping this hidden."

"I can undo and redo these enchantments as often as our Lord requires, Mr. Brock," Lysander responded, bowing reverently towards the gem embedded in Delmin's chest. "With improvements and upgrades, even."

Foreign unease and tension was starting to course through the mage's mind and body, but he pointedly ignored it. It was most likely a worn-out ward of some sort, its effects frayed into uselessness by the passage of time... something like that.

Delmin grunted in response, swinging a bag over his shoulder to better carry it home. He wasn't exactly comfortable with the magic that Lysander was able to use so freely, but at least the mage was competent enough to handle everything they'd needed so far. The man was less impressed with Arithon, but knew that his likes and dislikes were no longer truly relevant.

In the grand scheme of things, perhaps, Jin Huang offered, sounding less than sincere, which did little to improve Delmin's already sour mood. Arithon had likewise taken some of the cloth bags to carry, rather more than Delmin thought he could handle, but the demon carried them with ease. As they stepped back into the confines of the main vault, Delmin opened his mouth to reply to the dragon



And when it started again, the very fabric of reality had been worn thin, a shock wave of malevolent and misused power washing over All That Was. The bank building shuddered, loose brick and mortar shaking free as the wave ripped through, as close to the epicenter and source as it was. The magical wards Jin Huang's ancient servants had set popped and fizzled like fireworks, culminating in an overly elaborate and very flashy explosion as all of Lysander's delicate work on the heavy vault door went to waste, the explosion sending out it's own shock wave that did substantially more damage to the building than the original.

Jin Huang, however, was unaware of what occurred, as Delmin had staggered and lost consciousness as the first shock wave ripped through them. The dragon was stunned and lost himself momentarily, waiting for his host to regain awareness. When moments ticked by with no response, panic set in, though there was little he could do with Delmin's mind gone beyond ready retrieval.

I can't die here. Not again, he swore to himself, pouring out his hoarded power to try and do something, anything, to keep them both alive and tied together. Nothing responded, nothing of his host's body or self recalled Jin Huang's control, and so he lay there, blinded and deaf, hoping that his servants still survived.

Arithon stirred, shook his head to clear it while wondering how he had come to be in such a position. "Lysander?" he croaked out, struggling to stand but stopping once he realized his legs were trapped under some fallen chunk of masonry. "Jin Huang? ...Delmin?" the demon added after a moment, cursing lightly under his breath. If anything had happened to his Lord...

Lysander hesitated for a moment at the bags that had been provided, mentally scoffing at the idea that he would have to do some manual labor, of all things. But it would be manual labor in service to the Golden King, he figured- and not only that, but he wasn't about to let the slow-witted d'Arristos show him up in any aspect. So with a disdainful sigh made small enough to not escape his mask, he bent forward, tentatively reaching an arm towards a bag--

--the fabric swayed lazily before him as everything was torn.

The roiling burst of tamed magic turned wild and wailing again was something the mage was only vaguely aware of, overly concerned as he was with the threads of mana strung within his own body. It was just a split fragment of time, he was certain, but stretched into an Age of its own with it all snapping into piece by piece, raw and rotten.

Arithon would find the mage struggling into a kneeling position nearby, his robes partially buried in a thick mass of amber hair, the mage clutching one hand over his face. His mask had fallen off; only shards and bits of thread from it were scattered about in the new ruin.

By twisting himself slightly, Arithon could see where the mage knelt and grumbled a bit to himself. Obviously, Lysander was in no condition to help free him, or to look for Jin Huang's body. All that wriggling around, however, had given him more room to work himself free, and with a bit more exeretion, Arithon was able to escape the confining rubble. After checking himself over and determining that he had taken only minor injuries, Arithon attempted to rouse Lysander from his nearly catatonic state. When that proved to be a futile endeavor, he guided the mage outside and set a few of the unburied bags of treasure nearby. It was entirely unlikely that anyone would steal the bags, as the demon doubted anyone would want to be out after that...whatever it was. Shuffling such thoughts to the back of his mind, Arithon concentrated on more mundane matters, such as finding his Lord.

--Nothing there but grey mist, mist that solidified under assault, mist that would not give way, leaving Jin Huang trapped, trapped and unaware. The Dragon raged, raged and tore about, but nothing changed, and the Dragon raged - rage hiding a deep core of fear, fear that this host too had failed, fear that he would be truly gone, with nothing left for the Twin Crown to recover.--

Arithon found Delmin under a large section of rubble. Thankfully, things had collapsed to form a pocket of free space around him, leaving the man physically unharmed. He would not, however, wake from unconsciousness. With a rising sense of panic, the demon checked Delmin's pulse, verifying that he was indeed still alive. Unable to provoke a response from mortal or, more worrying to Arithon's mind, Jin Huang, the host was carefully dragged out from under his protective cave of debris. A quick check of the odd stone that purportedly held Futs Lung within proved to still resonate strongly with his essence. Relieved, Arithon quickly improvised a travois from other remnants of the building, tying Delmin onto it.

It was a strange procession that slowly wound its way back to the house claimed for Jin Huang. Arithon dragged the travois, laden with body and bags of treasure, while Lysander stumbled along, a rope around his waist keeping him from sitting down or wandering off.