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For the past few days since Phi had died it had been relatively quiet with the exception of the noise Draeken had made. Aria hadnt returned to the Mansion and wouldnt for a while. Phia's rapier and broken glasses still laid where she had dropped them during the fight along with taces of her dried blood as with one more thing. Around Draekens left ring finger was his wedding band, weather or not he thought he took it off didnt matter it was there now, a thin neon green thread of energy was twisted around the ring. It wasnt helping or harming him in anyway, infact it didnt seem to have any effect on him whatso ever. However if he tried to remove it or the ring it was attached to by magic or anyother means it wouldnt budge. When it showed up would be unknown but it happened within the past few days and wouldnt effect any of the plans Draeken might have.

The mansion and the lake bed were both quite. Draeken was no where to be seen. The night was still. The light from the moon and stars showed that a few more holes had been burned into the earth. One though had been traveled down recently. It was deep inside one of those holes that Draeken was currently rummaging.

Perhas two hundred feet below the lake bed there was what seemed to be a room. It was well sized, but seemed squashed because of all the earth above and around it. Draeken was perplexed by it. It looked to be the common room of an inn, complete with a bar, stools, and even drinks still preserved perfectly in their unopened bottles. How such a place could come to exist two hundred feet below the surface of the earth was a complete mystery to him. As he walked around the room he found what appeared to have once been a staircase. It was broken and half covered in dirt, likely because of a cavein, but still useable. Upwards Draeken traveled now, having to duck his head because of the partially destroyed ceiling. It was perhaps two feet lower than it likely had started. That was evidence that this building hadnt always been beneath the earth. Something put it here. Either that or something put the earth around and on top of it. Another mystery for another time though. Draeken was searching for something.

Pushing open a door on his right caused a bit of dirt and dust to fall from the ceiling and cause him to cough heavily for a minute. He had not been prepared for that. Once finished with his coughing though, he entered the room and began seraching through everything. The wardrobe, the still in place bed sheets, the closet, even under each and every floorboard. For the floorboards he used a small amount of energy to pry each one up slowly, but effortlessly.

Finding nothing, he began to search the room across the hall. This place irritated him. It was full of little trinkets, knick-knacks, and useless junk, all of which was likely very old. The air too was old and stale. It was a bit harder to breathe down here than it was on the surface. He would have to do something about that later. For now though he had grown impatient and left the room once finding nothing and quickly left the inn. He would be back later with better means of finding what he was looking for.

A man appeared in the main hall of the mansion in a flurry of feathers and dust. He was crouched low and seemed to be breathing very heavily. There was no sound of breathing though, and the dim light coming in through the high windows was barely enough to illuminate the man well enough to even see his chest heaving as if it were a struggle to breathe. Standing shakily, he took a few laborous steps towards the stairs before he had to stop, nearly falling as he did so. His movements would continue like this for maybe an hour before he was able to reach the first bedroom available and enter it. Feathers were falling from this man's wings at an alarming rate and gave the impression that the man was only barely holding himself together.

Standing straight as he entered the room, his arms extended to either side of him as dark streaks of energy began to swirl around him and the door and windows. Within seconds the door and windows no longer existed, but were nothing but gray stone. The energy around where the openings had been spread along the walls, causing a shimmering effect as they seemed to half soak into the walls. It was some sort of defense apparantly. The energy swirling around the man then began to slow down and become more of a physical thing, expanding to envelope his whole body as his arms slowly came to cross over his chest, each hand at the opposite shoulder. His wings were the next things to fold, engulfing him just as surely as the energy was going to. Before the energy completely enveloped him, he was floating in the air with his body hidden by his wings. His entire body except for his head that is. There was hardly any light now that the window was gone, but the dim light from the energy surrounding the room revealed, barely, a face that looked as if it was all but falling apart. Flaking and slightly burnt. The eyes were closed and the mouth a grim line. The energy soon engulfed the man entirely and all was silent.

(Note to readers not familiar with my multi-character posting style. This one post shall read much like a book and encompass, sort of, the actions of Rein as well as the unseen guardians of Draeken. It might even include a bit of Draeken [I call him that just because it's easier than thinking of another name that never existed in my real long storyline thing anyway.], but I am not sure because I truly don know how much I am going to post tonight. I am tired and a little sickly feeling, so I am not up to typing a bunch of short posts with two characters. Thank you and enjoy.)

*Rein darted from tree to tree along the edge of what had once been the lake in front of Draeken's mansion. The land was much different than he remembered. It actually, in an odd way, appealed to Rein, but at the same time sickened him that Draeken was the likely cause of the lands transformation.

It had taken far too long, though, for Rein to find the mansion again. He had been here before, but he had encountered wardings that had led him miles off course and one that had even trapped him in a strange alter-reality. Both had taken time to deal with, but now Rein was past them and well rested. Today he would find Draeken and put an end to the man's life once and for all. There would be no failing this time. Even if he had to use his sacrificial technique that he had developed over the last few decades.

It only took Rein a few minutes before he was opening the front doors and creeping inside. The darkness within startled him, for he had never seen a darkness quite like it. Even the moonlight, though pale as it was, seemed to be eaten by this darkness. Not even Rein's eyes which were well suited to sight in the dark were able to peer much farther than a few feet in front of him. Thoughts of turning back began to creep into his mind, but he ruthlessly stamped them down and shook his head in protest to even thinking of thinking of leaving. He was here and he would do what he had come to do.

As he slowly climbed the staircase that he had, for the most part, found by memory and sheer luck, he grimaced at the power he felt welling from the second floor. It was faded as if blocked, but still is made Rein's stomach lurch. He continued onward though and soon was feeling his way along the left wall. After only twenty feet maybe, his hand jerked from the wall as if burned. There was something hidden just on the other side of the wall and thats where the power was flowing from. Such a sickly sweet power it was. Such a bone chilling power. This was where Draeken was, no doubt about it. Just how the man had acquired so much power though was unknown to Rein and the how of it was something he was interested in, but also terrified of.

Glaring at the blackness in front of him, Rein felt a sudden sense of movement and dropped to the floor, feeling, yet not feeling, something rush above his head. There was some sort of trap here that he could not truly sense, smell, or hear. He would have to act fast. He lunged forward quickly, before the thing could come back towards him and slammed both his hands against the wall, forcing a large amount of energy out of his body through his hands. At the same time he wove a spell into the wall that if done correctly would cause the stone to explode away from himself.

The shock of the energy was felt in the wall and the floor, but the spell seemed to do nothing at first. Suddenly, however, a long crack began to wind its way outward in a spiral shape from Rein's left hand. An identical one began at his right, shortly after the first. Rein backed away, only able to hear the cracking and though it couldnt be seen, his face was filled with fright. Nothing had ever been able to stand up to that attack in the many times he had used it. Not even the most dense stones he had been able to find.*

D (sorta...I think) : There was a sense of stirring behind the wall. Something had been disturbed. A faint howling, or perhaps screeching, filled the hallway at this point, but did not come from behind the wall. That sound instead seemed to come from the unseen guardians of the man sleeping behind the wall.

The stirring became more intense though and the sound of the wall cracking further. Then silence. The howling stopped. The cracking ceased. The stirring feeling behind the wall faded to nothing. Then with a sound loud enough to shake the entire mansion, the wall burst outward a foot then was sucked back inward three feet then stopped in mid air. Crushed stone floated completely still and once again all was silent. A male voice, screaming in agony was heard then and all the bits of stone fell to the floor, the resulting thud lost within the horrendous scream. A blackness darker than before rolled out from wherever it was the screaming was coming. The entire mansion was soon lost to that darkness and not long afterward, the night sky became pure black. The stars and the moon gone. The darkness spread for at least ten square miles before stopping, suddenly giving way once more to the moon and stars.

Rein: *Rein was thrown back against the wall, all the breath knocked from his lungs. The sounds he began to hear were excrutiating at best, but the silence was even more unbearable when it came shortly after. It wasnt until this silence came that Rein realized he wasnt near the wall he had hit, but was face first against the floor a few feet away. Then the screaming hit his ears and loose masonry landed all over his entire body. His eyes rolled upwards to look at his eyelids and his hands clapped over his ears, though that did no good at all. The screaming penetrated his very mind, no, his very being. It hurt, not just his ears, but his entire body, which was now spasming violently. His lips moved, but no sound came out, or if sound did come, it was not heard over the screaming. Rein did not notice the new darkness and nor did he notice the figure that inexplicably was visible amongst that darkness.*

D: The screaming stopped and once again there was nothing but silence. The figure, somehow visible in the darkness, rolled its head upon its neck as if working out kinks. Its arms were held hard against its sides, though they couldnt be seen because of the wings folded over the body. Its eyes were closed, but its mouth gaped like a hole blacker than even the blackness covering the land and sky.

Its mouth snapped shut with no sound and the head stopped its rolling, fixing its closed eyes upon the spasming figure of Rein te Ral. There was a slow flowing of energy from this figure that snaked towards Rein, seeming to caress the man's very soul. The flowing hesitated for one instant before jerking violently into motion, sending Rein's body back against the wall and even through it, into the library beyond. There was no sound still, even as the wall had a hole blasted in it and still no sound came when Rein's body, unseen in the darkness, hit a large bookshelf, toppling the thing. The flow of energy moved again, slowly, but this time back towards the figure. Soon it was gone and upon that instant in time, the hallway would feel much larger. So much so that one would think they could fit an entire city with room to spare for an amusement park, within that hallway. There was no one there to feel that sensation though. The figure looked about it self as if it could see in this darkness. It took a step, stopped, then took another step. Every step this thing took was slow and deliberate. However, the thing decided to stop and reconsider walking. It disappeared and darkness closed in on where it had been.

Outside the mansion, all was still and dark. Until of course, the figure appeared on the far side of the lake. Though no actual light of any form emanated from the figure, it was clearly visible in the darkness, whereas nothing else was. Not even the huge white mansion just under a mile behind the figure.

This figure, or rather this man, seemed to be intently looking in only one direction. Perhaps it felt something in the distance. No, it did feel something. There were people that way. The man began to walk, each step carrying him half a mile as if the laws of distance did not apply to him. The direction it took was that of the Black Company Dojo.

*Within minutes, Aethi and Ari would both be quite a ways from the BC and heading towards Draeken's mansion. On Aethi's face now was a very grim expression. If she was right about all this Draeken wouldnt be too strong just yet. The only problem she truly saw was that he might still be too strong. She could already sense that strange shadow of an aura that Draeken was giving off. He had gotten quite close already.*

Draeken stopped where he was. It wouldnt take much longer to get to the BC, but he could feel someone approaching. Two people. One with a very familiar aura and the other...The other was hard to read, but there was still a familiarity to it.

In the darkness he stood waiting. The stars above him slowly began to look a bit faded, though no power was being exerted from Draeken to show that he was doing it. He twitched his head back a bit and there was a sense of movement from above both of his shoulders. What he had ordered the creatures, if you could call them that, to do was unknown. He stared straight ahead, though, as the two people came towards him.

Aria nodded, she noticed as well. "Yea..." She kept going quietly, her common sense told her to go back but her sheer stubborn will she inherited from her mother wouldnt let her.

*Aethi blinked as Draeken's aura was suddenly much closer. At first she was perplexed, but then she felt her stomach leap into her throat with a sickening realization. He had come to them first.

Glancing to her left she would see the man. His features were similar to the Draeken she had known, yet different. The way he looked in general, though, made her question just how powerful he might be at the time being. Swallowing once more, she came to an immidiate stop.