Welcome to Gaia! ::

"My name's Lancelot, and this here is Kristina." He said while finding a place for Kristina to sit down, a nearby chair in the living room. There he saw Imra who appeared happy as she usually does and waved to her. Boy did she get big very fast, Newarva wasn't kidding when she said she was carrying two. Then he saw the sleeping girl, who yet again was also pregnant. Perhaps she was another who was Marked by a Pandora.

"If I see another pregnant girl, it will be too soon..." He thought, Lancelot was surprised that he had not grown a complex from this. In any case, he got back to business to why he and Kristina were here.

"Like my sister said, we were hoping to find more like yourselves. Newarva told us of Imra, and asked us to come here. She'll be here shortly herself actually." He explained, there was something different about El compared to the others that were a vessel. A different, explainable aura around her. She didn't look like the longest, that's for sure, Imra took that by leaps and bounds.

He extended his right hand to her, showing El and Imra his mark. "I don't suppose you understand what this is all about, it looks like from the text books and well, yourselves that being Marked is an all girls club." Said Lancelot, Newarva seemed to have known more about his particular mark. He remembered that she stopped mid sentence about something...

"Males that are marked, they are very rare, only..."

Only what exactly? Surely that must have meant someone else must have been a Marked Male. Perhaps there was an event in history not recorded in the history books. He didn't know that the only other male marked came from his ancestor, another Lancelot of the past.

Saya was confused by the voice she was hearing, but by Newarva’s behavior, she could see that she was talking to a child within the quiet young girl. A Pandora. She could understand more of the conversation, if she took things one step at a time. But when something called a boost was mentioned, she was at a loss. Nala’s explanation helped, but she could still follow the lead of everyone else until she fully understood.

She allowed Ursula to guide her hand and nodded once everything seemed to be in order, “Yeah, I think I’m ready.” she answered.

Saya could feel the energy as it transferred from each of her peers. Already knowing what feeling to look for, she quickly added her own contribution. The energy seemed to rush rapidly where directed without the use of as much focus as last time. Perhaps it was do to the company she was in that made it easier.

When Ursula slapped her free hand a top the other and the transfer began, the feeling surged before it disappeared altogether. What was left was a feeling of exhaustion that brought her to her knees, but Newarva was at her aid. Something suddenly felt...different. The pandora energy replenished itself, and she knew she would be okay after a bit of rest. It had to be the new experience that made her feel off.

She nodded to her teacher after casting Nala a concerned look, "Yeah, I'm fine." she answered. There was a slight swooning sensation when she stood, but she balanced herself out and recovered. The stairs may not be as fun now, but she would still live.

"Come on, can't keep the others waiting, right?" Said Newarva with a smile. She helped Saya to her feet and towards the stairs. On the way, Nala looked to her for support as well.

The trip up the stairs was quite a long stretch. The elders of the group, Ursula and Newarva, kept things interesting with their conversations.

"Heh, getting tired yet Urs?"

"Of course not, I keep in shape. What about you Warvy?"

"A few flight of steps won't kill me."

Nala couldn't help but laugh at these two along the way. She would hope that these two kept going, it certainly didn't make their trek a boring one.
---------------
(I'll try not progress too far in your absence. Congrats with your classes, Leafra.)

Lily sent the sensation of comfort over Kelanthra once she was calming down on her own. "Trust in me, trust in me to keep you safe. As I trust in you to keep me safe." Said Lily, without trust, neither would be able to make it in this world.

"Next, you have to want this, want me, to be my Marked. Lastly, you have to want to break free. Can you do this for me, Kela?" She asked her Marked vessel. If Kelanthra did not want her at all, then Lily had chosen wrong. She would have to choose another. She was not a Pandora that branded an unwanted fate, like some of her other siblings may have done in the past.

Meanwhile...

(I can imagine, but once you do what you love, work becomes play.)

"Do not fear your sister's power, we can over come it. There's a chance we may able to save her." Replied Lily, she brought a bright light to Kelanthra's consciousness. In the light, the Pandora had stretched forth her hand to the Elven.

"It would be a wasted effort to try and stop her, they have grown closer to each other. My sister protects her now, all we can do is torment them and break their connection. Once the connection is severed, so will your sister." Said the Dark Pandora, anger had filled it's voice. It was a mistake on his part to allow Naria to attempt that on her own.

"I do hate my sister for this, for what she did to me. But I have you now, Naria, this time it will be different. You have done well for yourself."

Lancelot looked at his hand once she touched it, blushing some. He wondered how she managed to cause him to react to her, just from her touch alone. There others, with Newarva he had to put his hand on her chest, and with Kristina, her belly.

"No, I haven't. They told us men weren't marked, just the women. There were guys that were appointed guardians." He explained to her, he was only told half truths to things, possibly to keep things a secret. He shook his head when she asked about the maidens. "I haven't met any except Ms. Newarva, our teacher and she said she was retired. Nothing on training yet, wait training?" He blinked, no one said a thing about training.

"I have to learn more, great, and it's physical..." Muttered Lancelot, its like he couldn't get away from work.
---------------
It wasn't much longer the maidens, having reached past half way. Once they got up to the last staircase, they took one last breather. By the time they got the 4th floor, Ursula was carrying Amethyst the rest of the way.

"This looks like the door" Said Ursula, she rang the bell and waited for someone to answer it.

"I hope so, at least her door would be closest to the stairs" Huffed Nala.

(Decided to explain a lot of background story stuff here, so I just quoted everyone in case they missed this info.)

"We can't, there's no way to actively stop them from getting stronger. Just to kill the vessels in combat, or cut their connections through various means. I need to get stronger than them, and I have a way to do it. You see Naria, each of us Pandora were born with a Pandora Box and a Pandora Key.

Naturally the key was supposed to lock the box, created by the selfish ancients that caused us Pandora to exist. We were simply the powers harnessed by the one named Anesidora. Jealously, desire and greed caused the other ancients to steal her powers, powers they themselves could not control.

If they could not have these powers, than neither shall Anesidora. The ancients greed knew no bounds. They created boxes and keys to store these powers and exiled them to Gaea. They were unaware of the life that inhabits both the boxes and the world of Gaea.

Gaea is your imperfect world, populated by the undesirable ancients they too exiled from Sanctuary and are now your long dead ancestors. Curious as they were, found and unlocked my box. It was there they opened the boxes of my siblings and asked them to stop me."

He gave her a frontal kick from within out of frustration from that lost. It was no secret to either of them that Ful'sou had lost that battle against his siblings. After all, it had ultimately led to his imprisonment to Pela.

"I want these keys.The keys alone have their power if they were once at at time able to lock her power, but with all of them, I can have unlimited power. I will be able to separate the sky and unlock the first world of the Ancients, Sanctuary. Once I do, I will collide Sanctuary with Gaea and from the remains and it's survivors shall I create my new world of Elysuim.

I have none but my key, it is with Rolas. I latched it and my power to his heart. He found it many centuries ago when he was searching for power. I could sense he was jealous of his sister becoming Marked and capitalized on the the opportunity."

(So yeah, from there is back story, the rest is Leafra's character Naria related.)

Once he was done mono-logging his plans to Naria, he briefly took control of her body. He poked and prodded his vessel's distended stomach and judged how much room Naria had left in her womb for him. After that, he returned control of her body back to Naria.

"I see this will be inevitable, Naria. Even we must connect as Pandora and Marked. I praise you for allowing me to do with your body as I solely desire, your body simply won't allow that to be without permanent harm before I can regain all of my strength again. I would give you two more weeks at this before then and it would take far too much time for Rolas to find another that would be as suitable for me as a vessel."

Slowly, he shrunk to a more comfortable size for her. Even though it meant he would have to regain his strength much slower, it would be much safer for her in the long run, especially when he would need her for the keys.