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Sigma, as it were, had watched with mild interest as the Desian that addressed Arkin seemingly burst up into flame. Well then. A black magician. How...quaint. A few other thoughts ran through Sigma's mind, but for know lei would keep them to luiself. As it stood, Arkin would be in some serious need of help (since even Sigma knew Mana was something precious and should not be wasted) and seeing as the Desians were armed, Sigma figured it'd only be fair if lei was too.

Hehehe. Blades. Yay.

Giving an almost invisible shrug of the shoulder, a black shroud seemed to pass over Sigma's body of which no one could see through. It lasted for a second or two, but soon after it was gone and a radically different Sigma was left behind.

Clad in the one and only suit Sigma had and ever would posess that was used for the blade work that lei was so famous for, one look at lei and it was obvious that the blade work had not be done by means of any conventional sort. In essence, Sigma had become lui own blade.

The outfit was completely black. Well, the fabric parts of it anyway. The fabric parts were made of leather, due to Sigma's personal preferance for the material. Covering the whole body, one would think that this sort of outfit would reveal certain aspects of Sigma's anatomy so as to clue in to the gender of said individual. But, some how, this was not the case. A large helmet similar to that of a knights visor covered and concealed Sigma's facial features, including the shape of head, with a non retractable visor. However, the shaping of the helmet wasn't so primitive and was actually quite sleek, with a large blade running from the brow to the nape of lei neck, just to discourage anyone from trying to land a blow from that direction.

A large, almost pancho like garment covered the chest and torso area, flowing over the back and running to the back of the knees. Again, some how since Sigma never stayed still while in any outfit other than lei cloak, the shadows as well some how seemed to always conceal those part of the body, so one could just never be sure.

Two other blades ran from Sigma's elbows, down the forearms and didn't stop until the knuckles, similar to that found on lei head in the fact that they were made of diamond and deadly sharp. Difference? These blades were much larger, just about large enough to cut through half or perhaps more, of any bi-pedal body. So similar to a butchers knife...

And lastly, two more blades of the same quality on Sigma's arms were found running from knee to toe. One last difference here was that the blades continued up past their attatchment to Sigma's knees and ended in a deadly spike. One could only shudder at what those were used for.

A mere blink of the eye later after Sigma's costume change, the assasin lept from lei place in front of the carriage with all the elegance of a swan, and for just one moment seemed to be suspended in mid air.

Then, the deadly mass of black and blades came crashing down and landed with some considerable weight on the outermost Desian, the blades on Sigma's shin forcing themselves through the armour that the half-elf wore and cutting quite effectively through the cranium. On Sigma's way down, lei had swung out the other leg and forced the other blade through the back of the Desian next to him, the cleaving through the spinal cord yet another instant death. Another Desian, seeing what had happened to already two of his comarades came rushing forth, and in responce Sigma swung both forearms parralel to eachother infront of luiself, which ended up with the Desian just barely still being attached to his legs and then falling, gut first, onto the blade upon Sigma's head.

One thing about this costume that the famed assasin wasn't so fond of was that not only was it physically exhausting (one must remember though that as an assasin, by no means was Sigma out of shape), it was also pretty inconveniant to have to extract ones head from an enemy which was on top of it.

Digging the fore arm blades into the dead corpse above it and some how levering luiself out of the two corpses below, Sigma cut fiercely so that the remaining Desian's corpse fell away from lei body in pieces. Standing up again, pausing for just a half moment to regain lei breath, Sigma jumped with an odd and dangerous looking spin and landed at Arkin's back, facing the other way and already preparing lui next series of moves, an unnerving bounce from one foot to the other and cracking of the neck keeping lei in continuous motion.

As it were, Delta wasn't aware of his surroundings in the slightest. He hadn't passed out, he hadn't lost consciousness, but nonetheless his eyes were open and wide yet not seeing, his breathing was so slow that one wondered how he could live off so little oxygen, and in fact his heart beat was just barely registerable.

Levitating just two inches off the ground, although he seemed to be so relaxed his body obviously wasn't. Each of his admittedly well formed muscles straining and flexing, a cold sweat had broken out along his brow and yet, he still seemed calm. Still seemed to be...well...out of it.

Slowly, ever so slowly, his body continued to distance itself away from the shore, and as it did it seemeed to relax. Every half inch gained, he seemed just that bit less tence, just that much more at ease.

However, as he continued to rise, his legs seemed to fall away from the cross legged position that they had been in before, until he seemed to be standing, as it were, in mid air now perhaps just that pesky half inch from the ground.

Gliding, sliding, his way to the water, Delta seemed to have an expression of surreal peace on his face, his body was lax and free, his awareness there in just enough quantity to realize what it was he was about to do.

As he continued to glide down the shoreline, in effect he was approaching the water, the water which seemed to not be water anymore, but simply matter that could be bent to his will. And today, he would bend it. For the truth was, there was no water. There was no anything, and today that truth had made it's blessed way into his thick skull.

The water was cold and awkward beneath his feet, but not wet. It was an awkward sensation, one Delta would never be able to describe. He could feel the pressure that the water felt, supporting his weight as it was, but it could hardly be termed as solid. Perhaps he could compare it to the feeling one has when one presses hard down on a bag of air, but without the feeling of the material of the bag?

His first step taken, from here on in it seemed so easy. Just to take another step, one after the other, and to watch the water ripple and still obey his will. After about 12 years, he had finally did it. He was walking away from the little town of Ozette for what he hoped to be forever, and making his way to the other side of the straight, into the Gaoracchia forest.

"I'm fine." Daisuke lied casually, unnoticeably. His ear was sore; the ghoul had jammed its finger into it in an attempt to wrench his head to the side to expose his fleshy neck. His shoulder hurt as well; the ghoul had a grip like a vice on it before it had been killed.

He moved back to his bag, picking it up. He looked over to the ferret and nearly fell over in disbelief.

Sunatskei was atop the dead ghoul's chest, the one that he had aided Daisuke in dispatching. He was up on his hind legs, standing erect and swinging his hands side to side, tail bouncing in an inverse motion, in a little victory dance he had perhaps decided to improvise, or perhaps the little rascal had been planning it for just such an occasion. He bobbed around on the ghoul's still chest, humming his own little tune and dancing like there was no tomorrow.

Daisuke replaced his nunchaku around his neck, and took out a coin, flipping it into the air.

Needless to say, Daisuke now had the ferret's attention as he snagged the coin out of the air. Sunatskei was now at Daisuke's feet and standing as he was on the ghoul's chest, minus the goofy victory dance, of course.

Daisuke grabbed the ferret by the scruff of his neck, Sunatskei only reacting by curling his feet up towards himself, and held him at eye level. "We need to get going." He told the ferret in measured tones. Sunatskei grinned, eyes beaming. "Okay!" He said, happily, as he was placed on Daisuke's shoulder.

"Yeah, it sounds like a good idea, if you're tired." Daisuke offered. "Looked like a nasty hold that ghoul had on you..." He said, hoping she wouldn't comment on the predicament he had been placed in. "So, to the outskirts of Ozette, then?"

Kistre stopped chanting when she heard Arkin saying something that she couldn't quite hear to Sigma, and opened her eyes slowly, slightly dizzy from the encantation. She hoped that she had been of help, seeing as she been so useless. In her opinion, anyway.

Stepping out of the carriage at last, creamy mocha brown hair falling over one of her shoulders in a rich tumble of silk caught a slight breeze, some stray strands threaded in it. Pink eyes that could be compared to the gem stones that she wore took in the scene, and a button nose the scent. She almost wanted to vomit.

Up by the temple, from this vantage point Kistre could only see Arkin. Or, from her perspective, a figure in a black cloak. But where had the other one gone? Surely some one wouldn't speak to themself as if in second person?

Gathering the green and silver winter coat around her body, the white fur trim lining acting something as a scarf, she shivered at the thought of what had happened here. She felt suddenly quite cold.

Walking with a light step over to the cloaked figure that was visible to her, she didn't pause as she saw the corpses of what would have been her murderers, she willed herself, more like, to not see them. She was scared that if she did, if she allowed the thought of her death to become real to her, everything would be that much more difficult.

From here, Sigma, or more, a figure in a brown cloak, was visible, off by the temple wall. Ah, so there was the second figure! Well, good thing they hadn't disappeared then. She had been almost convinced that they had.

Unconcerned by the fact that she had not been retrieved, pink eyes flickered downwards for a moment, to the blood stained floor, before trailing up the figure of the black cloaked one, to rest where Kistre assumed the eyes would be.

"Hello...may I ask who you might be?"

A friendly, if soft voice. She didn't know this cloaked figure, but seeing as it seemed they and the other were responsable for the death of the Desians, she could only assume that they would be leaning more towards the side of friend than that of foe. But, Kistre was slightly at a loss for she had been told that a group of preists would be waiting for her here. But, seeing Desians present that didn't seem to be the case...

As Arkin introduced himself and the enigma that was Sigma, Kistre gave a little nod and smile over lui way, which she recieved a slight inclinement of the hood for. Seeing Arkin's point, she smiled and then turned her head back to Arkin as she heard about this Sigma's...profession. Grateful for the fact that Sigma seemed to be on their side, it put her mind to ease from the fact that...well...she didn't know anything about lei.

Nodding appreciatively for Arkin's talkative commentary, it seemed to her that the two were like night and day from the other. One never said a word from what she could tell, and the other said plenty enough for two. One seemed to be shrouded always in shadow, the other in light. Curious, she thought.

"Well, your assumption is right. I am the Chosen, and I am most certainly delighted to meet you. I'd say the same for Sigma, except I'm not sure if I've met...err...them yet."

An awkward pause followed, in which Kistre blushed slightly and turned her gaze to the temple as well, seeing as Arkin found it so interesting.

"As for myself, my name is Kistre Veranka."

Ah, but that was just the beauty of it all. Nobody was sure of lui intentions, save for luiself, of course. Although Sigma still seemed to be supremely aloof and unconcerned with what it was the other two were discussing, the words spoken nonetheless were making their way to lei ears, whether or not they were supposed to.

Turning onto lui side, Sigma squatted down by the foot of the temple and promptly then rested on lui knees. Extracting a knife and a sliver of paper from somewhere within the volumous cloak, lei started to carve something into the ground. It was all rather breif, seeing as how soon after lei was already standing and stepping away from the engravings. Left behind in the little hole was the sliver, and with the swish of lui cloak as lei stepped away from it, it seemed to tremble, then soar into the air, ribbonesque and lithe. Then, it proceeded to smartly slap itself on to the back of Arkin's head, a message written in a remarkably eloquent hand ledgible to those standing behind the unfortunate elf.

Sigma's shoulders shook for just half a second with silent mirth at lui little prank, hoping the elf wouldn't take it too seriously. Somewhere behind the veil of shadows and fabric, lips were upturned in a smile of deep amusement.

Kistre, having seen Sigma's silent laughter, smiled and got the crazy idea that the assasin wasn't as dark as they made themselves out to be. But, it was just a crazy idea. Chuckling good naturedly, she walked over to the back of Arkin's head and read out loud the message inscribed there.

"Sigma: Momento mori."

A little puzzled, Kistre reached forth to peel the sliver of paper away from Arkin's head. At the bottom, it read in miniscule letters:

"He/she becomes lei, his/her becomes lui, for the rest just think laterally, have a nice day."

Now even more puzzled, Kistre turned the text onto it's back and was surprised to find even more text there. This is what it said:

"Terms and conditions may apply."

Having read it all outloud, Kistre wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh or if she was supposed to take this all quite seriously. Looking to Arkin in bewilderment, she held out the card to him, speachless.

In the background, while listening to the Chosen read out loud lui business card, the assasin had managed to slip away from the company of the other two, standing just within the door way of the temple. Lei seemed to be busy doing something there, but what it was one could hardly discern.

As Delta continued to traverse the water, his steps began to become a bit more sure of themselves and with that he began to become a bit more and more aware of what it was he was doing. He was finally doing it.

About half way through the body of water, Delta looked back to his little home town and smiled slightly, to think of the unique perspective of it he had of it at the moment. A perspective perhaps no one else ever had, or ever would for a very long time. Looking down, he chuckled quietly to himself and poked a toe into the water, it suddenly being so easy and habitual to be walking on water. Wriggling his toe about, he then jumped up and down on it, and though he created splashes of water, he still did not fall through. It was all so...easy.

Tracing mad whirls into the water and delighting in how it seemed to spray and even levitate him with it's waves, he contemplated that thought for just a moment. What would it be like, to ride the waves? Smiling childishly, he vowed to himself he'd try it some day.

Continuing his walk over to the other side of the straight, he didn't really notice the figure of a girl at the side of the bay of which he was headed towards. When he came to the shoreline, Delta stepped easily over onto the sand and suddenly felt that the ground beneath him was now much too heavy and hard for his feet. Wrigging his toes about some more, he shrugged it off and continued on into the forest.

Shrugging, not really knowing what it was she was supposed to make out of the business card either, it probably escaped both of them that what they were supposed to get out of it was the fact that they should simply not refer to Sigma as an it. Oh well. Lei didn't really care what they thought they had recieved the card for, as long as they realized now that there were words with which they could use to refer to lui now.

"Well, if you think we're ready then sure. Why not? Might as well get this all going sooner or later."

Kistre smiled cheerfully before looking back at the temple. It occurred to her that this would not be as easy as perhaps it should have been, but with the company of Arkin and Sigma, she thought that they could pull through no matter what.

Wait...

Where was Sigma?

~*~

Inside of the temple, just within the door way Sigma stood for a moment in silence. Gloved hands were held together in a sort of formal sort of prayer, and lui head was bent down in seemingly solemn thought. Kneeling down and bowing on both hands and knees, lei stayed there for a while, seemingly paying hommage to something. After a rather long (one would assume prayer), Sigma stood and left behind yet another piece of paper folded into the likeness of a single rose.

With that, the assasin bowed one last time and distanced luiself away from it, waiting for the other two to enter.