Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was no time for anything else. He was going to deal with this now. He got to his feet, dropping Cressa the last few inches to the ground, and swept over her towards the first figure to reach them.

Rapier met rapier. Screams echoed around them as the weapons appeared out of nowhere. A single clash, and then the enemy's blade went spinning across the floor. He screamed, his white-gloved hand exploding in a geyser of blood as Jessie went the extra mile and severed the tendons just above the wrist. A crippling disarm - not accepted in fair duels, but this was not a duel. There were no rules but one, and no one did "kill or be killed" better than the drow.

With a kick in the stomach, the maimed first warrior was removed. Another came upon him immediately with an overhead swing, and he dropped to one knee - blocking with right, gutting with the left. The eviscerated man crumpled, but there were two behind him now. While they were still thinking about attacking, he whirled around (counterclockwise, to avoid their weapons) and took them both down. They fell with twin gashes along their throats and chests. The second one had caught on and raised his free arm to try and block, but he hadn't anticipated how quick Jessie could be, or how close he could suddenly come.

Cressa and Corie crawled to the side of the buildings to make more room for the fight. Around them, the street was rapidly emptying except for the steady stream of opponents. Cressa watched, eyes narrowed, in case any of them chose to come after her... but they all seemed to be concentrating their attacks on Jessie. It was as if she didn't even exist.

"" said Corie.

"" Cressa replied. A few metres away, a new assailant was coming at him from the original direction. Jessie treated him to a double whammy, stabbing him in the stomach, before turning around and plunging his second sword down into the cavity by his neck. ""

With his second sword embedded in the latest foe, he drew a dagger. Another one was behind him, and he could feel that this one had a different tactic. He was being rushed. Stepping easily to the side, the more inventive foe surged past, and earned a blade in his back for his trouble.

The grunts were quickly piling up on top of each other, but that seemed to be the last of them. Looking around in the direction the last one had come, he caught the eyes of another two who were in the process of heading for the battle. They suddenly decided that continuing in their chosen course was not the best option - recoiled, turned, retreated. He could've let them run, but instead he was drawing his gun even as they balked. They hadn't made it away two steps before they fell face down, dead.

He turned the other way down the two-way sidewalk, correctly assuming that there would be more. This one managed to escape. As he'd begun running sooner, he was already ducking behind a corner when Jessie pulled the trigger for the third time. The bullet skimmed past his head and buried itself into the brick wall of a shop beyond him.

"" cried Cressa, getting to her feet. Jessie wasn't quite finished yet. He'd turned his attention to the first man, whom he'd only injured, and was striding over to the middle of the street, where he was feverishly trying to drag himself away.

"You," said Jessie, bringing his foot down in the small of the man's back and holding it there, the gun at ready in his hand, "Speak or die. Who are you and what is it you want from us?"

The first assailant spluttered at the impact, but then immediately fell silent. Jessie could hear his ragged breathing, see the blood he'd trailed shining in the last of the day's light.

"I choose to die," he answered hoarsely, earning himself the fourth and final resounding bullet of the sortie.

"You chose well," Jessie commended. He stepped off the corpse.

"Bit of a pointless choice if you ask me," said Cressa, tapping up behind them. She crouched down beside the dead man. ""

She pulled back the hood and did a double take. ""

Jessie, who'd been collecting his weapons from the other corpses, glanced back at her. ""

She pulled back the rest of the black cloak to reveal a gleaming white-and-gold uniform below the dark-skinned, white-haired head of the dead man. ""

Jessie looked at her in surprise, and yanked back the coverings from two of the other dead men. Dark elves! Now, that was a surprise. Humans at war with the dark elves, he could have understood. Why would these people be attacking their own kind?

There was something very strange indeed going on here. There must have been forces at play they didn't know about yet...

"" said Cressa, folding her arms as she stood back up. She poked at the corpse, first with the toe, then with the heel of her shoe. "humans. Just what are they teaching the warriors in this realm? Knitting?>"

"" he replied, "were humans, they attacked so mindlessly. Dear me...>"

"" chimed Corie, "lot more of the same.>"

Sure enough, as she was speaking, a barrier of dark, cloaked shapes was forming across the street in the direction they'd come. A few of them in the center were crouching down behind machine guns.

The two drow calmly wended their way back together at the center of the street while this was happening. There was no panic anymore. They knew what they were facing. Cressa even went so far as to lean casually against her mate as he stood next to her.

"Drop any weapons you have and we will not fire!" someone shouted to them.

"" Cressa smirked. She turned her head towards Jessie. ""

~~~~~~~~~



Make a decision, Jessie...

a. Run.

b. Talk to them.

c. Keep fighting.



~~~~~~~~~

The flag went on waving as the two drow marched down the street towards it.

"If they start firing at us again, I declare this a lost cause," said one of the other male commanders, his voice flat and pessimistic. Cressa's face appeared above them at that instant.

"Oh, we aren't going to fight you anymore," she said cheerfully, "We accept your surrender. Now, do you feel like talking? You know, what you should have done instead of randomly attacking us on the street?"

The elves' hooded heads all turned to look at one another for a moment. They seemed to be coming to some unspoken mutual consensus.

"Ah, yes," the elf named Clune began graciously, gliding up the steps to the street level. Cressa could see now that down the shaft lay a great, gilded tunnel lined with old-fashioned lamps and exquisite wood panelling. Jessie took a look over her shoulder too, before the last elf entered the surface world and the cover slammed shut behind them. "Sorry about that. I hope our rashness didn't cause any undue offense?"

"No," said Cressa genially, the street behind her littered with blood, gore and the dead, "None at all. We're all brethren here, aren't we?"

Clune hesitated quite some time before answering.

"Yes... of course!"

Jessie's face was something like thunder behind his friend. His eye travelled along the four hooded figures, expression closed and unreadable.

"Remove your coverings," he demanded. Cressa looked round at him furiously.

"Jessie!" she spat, ""

"aren't our friends,>" he replied ominously.

"" she smiled, her eyes flashing with mischief, ""

"So you are Jessie Hawk," said Clune. He may have been smiling beneath his hood. "...I do apologise. We know who you are, but you have no idea who or what you're dealing with. Let us introduce ourselves."

Without a word, each of the elves undid and dropped their cloaks in perfect unison. The movement was too graceful to be called robotic, but... there was still something bizarrely mindless about the way they all moved together. The drow couldn't help but blink.

"You don't look much like the dark elves we are accustomed with," said Cressa.

It was an understatement - the Gaian dark elves looked nothing like the drow, nor, indeed, like each other. Where drow are concerned, there are very few options. The majority of time, you're dealing with black and white, with little variance; a shade lighter here, a tad darker there. To begin with, none of the dark elves' skin came anywhere near as dark as Jessie's, which is really saying something, as Jessie's skin is also a noticeable couple of shades lighter than Cressa's. He's about as light as drow get, and the only grey-skinned elf present - the woman - couldn't touch him. In fact, they were pale... ethereally so. Two of the men were light blue. The third - Clune, the speaker addressing them - was lavender.

Clune's thin lips stretched into a small smile, but his glassy, lilac eyes remained frozen and cold. "We know."

Cressa's unusual green eyes skipped over him and scrutinised the woman first of all. She had a rounder face than most elves, and a larger chest. She stood out from the men for several reasons besides her colouring, her gender and her eerie, bright yellow eyes. She was very small in stature, and, inexplicably, not wearing the white uniform sported by every single one of the others, living and dead.

She, meanwhile, was looking past Cressa, at Jessie. Her big, owl-like eyes were fixed on him with interest.

"It's a pleasure to meet you at last," she said quietly. Her voice was high-pitched, and veritably childish. "I am Orchid."

Jessie raised his eyebrow at her, totally unwelcoming. "Hm."

She stepped forward and reached out her right hand towards him nonetheless. He looked at it skeptically, and kept his own arms folded.

Orchid actually smiled. "That's quite alright. I understand."

She stepped back again, and lowered her head in a short bow. The men seemed disturbed by this. One of the blue-skinned ones even drew in his breath. Jessie's eye was drawn to him as such. He had a stiff, highly-strung quality to his features, as if he were truly chiselled out of stone. Platinum-blond and blue-eyed, with a series of small, silver studs running up his right ear, his hair was short and swept stylishly over the top of his head in a smooth curve like the crest of a wave. Jessie felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach with a gigantic, metal battering ram. He looked just like Tsabyl! Colder, and more arrogant, but the resemblance was truly uncanny.

While Jessie was gawping at the pale, blue shade of his dead best friend, Clune was uncomfortably hurrying the introductions on. "Yes... this is Orchid," he repeated, nodding at the little-girl-woman, "To my right is Imarad..."

The other blue-skinned man, who had long, black hair which looked just as soft as Jessie's, inclined his head solemnly. "To my left is Etif."

Model-like Etif only seemed to acknowledge his name with a tightening of his jaw. By this point, he had caught Jessie's eye, and was regarding him strangely as the drow stared back. His mouth may have been slightly agape. It felt like a hundred earwigs were running around in his intestines.

"And I am Clune," he concluded. Orchid, Clune, Etif and Imarad. The names sounded only vaguely elvish at all.

They were strange elves. Modern elves.

"Where's the fifth one that was with you?" asked Cressa. Her voice had become almost as sharp as Jessie's.

The dark elves seemed even further unnerved. "Ah..." Clune whispered, "Sona. Sona went back to... report."

Cressa's tone became stickily sweet again. "Report on what, may I ask?"

"Excuse me," said Etif. He didn't sound like he cared if she minded or not. His voice was cold and haughty, just like the rest of him. "I don't believe we caught your name."

"I don't believe I offered it," Cressa smiled.

A long silence passed.

"Well?" said Clune, picking up where Etif had left off, "Will we be... so honoured as to receive it?"

"Of course!" she answered happily, "What a silly question! I am the Lady Ballezrae de Que'llar Jukuth. Pleased to meet you, cousins!"

She reached out and took Clune's hand warmly. His face crinkled, as if she were sullying his pristine glove with slime. Jessie didn't blink at the false name. It was the intelligent thing to do. Not only was it fake, but it was a name they'd never be able to recall, let alone pronounce or spell, in the future. Clever, clever Cressa.

"You are one of the Altered Ones," said Orchid.

"Altered?" laughed Cressa. A wicked smile on her face, she reached up and cupped her tremendous bosoms. "Oh no, darling. I'm all real."

She leaned forward and winked at the silent Imarad, who, to Jessie's surprise and Cressa's unending amusement, turned a very visible shade of pink.

Orchid just continued to smile at her. "I would be very pleased if you would allow me to study your body more closely, Lady del Jukuth."

Study?

Cressa raised her eyebrow, then laughed. "Haha, sorry, but I'm straight as a bent arrow."

"What about him?" said Etif, meeting Jessie's eye again as if he were a gigantic, oozing slug, "I was not aware that transvestites were accepted members of your culture."

"I'm not!" Jessie blurted, his heart hammering as the pale, blue eyes bored into him. "Not a transvestite. This is, uh... a one-night thing."

"And neither of us are accepted members of our culture," Cressa finished for him. "And now, if you aren't going to tell us anything about what all of this was about in the first place, I think we'll take our leave."

"No," barked Etif, glaring at her, "You are not to leave. Not until the don has seen you."

Cressa looked at Jessie, expecting him to be the one to protest. He said nothing.

"" she hissed.

"" he whispered.

"I take it you're going to come along willingly?" said Clune, watching them closely as they consulted.

~~~~~~~~~



Make a decision, Jessie...

a. Accept their offer and accompany them.

b. Talk further.

c. Refuse their offer.



~~~~~~~~~

The sirens blazed in the distance, but Cressa and Jessie were not to be intimidated by the potential 'wrath' of the GPD. As it didn't seem they were going to get any further answers on motives before going to meet the don, they conferred quietly with one another mainly about the potential trustworthiness of the dark elves.

Eventually, Jessie turned to Orchid. "Can we count on your word as a daughter of your honourable family that no harm shall come to us if we agree to be escorted by you?"

Orchid gave him one long, slow, serious nod. "Yes, most certainly."

The two drow looked back to one another. ""

"" said Cressa. She smiled. ""

"In that case," Jessie said politely to the group of elves, "I believe it would be prudent to accompany you to meet with your leader. We gratefully accept your invitation."

He punctuated this with a short bow, which Cressa mimicked. Imarad knelt down beside the manhole and lifted up the door to their underground world. Jessie and Cressa made the descent flanked on every side by the elves. Orchid led the way.

Jessie actually felt irrationally disappointed when the door fell shut behind them. Unconsciously, he associated going down with darkness, and darkness, of course, with relief from the constant burning sensation around his eye. The underground passage was brightly lit with the stylish old lamps they'd glimpsed earlier. It was Cressa who was first to figure out what this meant, though.

"" she whispered. He looked at her oddly even though it was a obviously a fact.

Dark elves and darkness went together like, well, dark elves and darkness. These were proving to be a very strange breed of dark elves indeed. He'd also to his displeasure ended up walking next to Etif, and from time to time practically recoiled out of his skin as their bodies brushed together in the narrow-ish hall. Etif thankfully reacted a similar way, and actually managed to bash himself against the wall twice. It wasn't all that small, but like any hallway it only really had room for two or three people walking side by side, and they had four. Jessie preferred walking squished right up against Cressa to walking with his arm brushing constantly against Etif, and so that was the plan he went for.

Still, he couldn't help but glance up at him now and then... just to get another look... to see one more time... one more...

Jessie knew that this wasn't Tsabyl, and the cold, arrogant man repulsed him. He just... wanted to look, as if, in a stupid way, he were really buying himself time with his long-lost lover. Erm, friend. Best friend.

They walked for what felt like a very long time, but of course this didn't bother the drow. Over that time, Cressa got bored and began flirting with her guardian, Imarad, who never uttered a word in return but grew obviously more and more wound up as the journey went on. Then she grew bored with that, and tried her hand at torturing Jessie.

"gorgeous couple,>" she prodded. Jessie shot her a look so horrifyingly, viciously dark he actually managed to shut her down for good, which was nothing short of a miracle.

After quite some further time, they rounded a corner and suddenly came up against a large, wooden set of double doors. They hadn't seen anyone else up until that point, though several times they'd heard the ghostly, familiar sound of a harpsichord drifting through the halls.

"" Cressa smiled, tilting her head, ""

While Cressa was concerned with finding out where the music was coming from, craning her neck around the corners and even pleading Imarad to take her on walkabout, Jessie had begun to think that they were being led around in circles because of its reoccurence from time to time - which was clever enough on the part of the dark elves, but a little foreboding on the question of what was going to happen to them. Then again, if the elves intended them to get lost and cornered like rats down here, they had quite another thing coming.

"Be polite and courteous when you speak to the don," Clune hissed from behind them. It was ironic. So far, Jessie had yet to see what these people really knew of 'politeness' and 'courtesy.'

"We should remove their weapons," said Etif, a hint of nastiness underlying.

"This is a peaceful meeting, is it not?" Cressa asked, raising her eyebrows pointedly, "We should not need our weapons, and you should not need them either. Not if your motives are as honourable as you say."

"Leave them," said Orchid. She rapped loudly on the door, and it immediately opened. Another pale, blue hand appeared, and a pair of orange eyes glared out at them. "Tell my uncle I've brought Jessie Hawk and his friend to meet with him."

"Certainly, Orchid..." said a voice, "Please wait here."

The door closed again.

"" Cressa mimicked, sticking out her tongue insolently at the back of Orchid's head, ""

"What's that about pineapples?" Orchid asked. The drow raised their eyebrows at one another.

"We're sorry to disappoint you, my lady, but there isn't even a word for pineapples in our language," said Jessie.

The air around Orchid seemed to drop several degrees. "I see..."

Barely another minute passed before the door opened again. "Don Kuro will meet with you now," said a new, pompous voice. This was obviously just for ceremony's sake, as Orchid was already pushing past the guard and striding across the gigantic hall.

"Uncle, Auntie!" she was crying, her voice a high-pitched, childish whine, "The elf has been lying to me all along! She's not taught me anything at all! They told me I'm speaking nonsense!"

"Did they, now?" said a similarly childish voice. This one, however, was much more authoritative than Orchid had managed to be even at her most firm. "Well, what do you expect me to do? The Others are under your administration, just like you wanted, Orchid. If she has misbehaved, you must deal with her yourself."

Orchid was silent for several seconds, apparently sulking underneath her uncle's admonition. Then, she sniffed loudly, her shoulders slumped.

"...I will," she muttered, "I'll deal with her right after this meeting."

She moved to the side, skulking off to the side of the room and out of sight from the doorway. Both drow felt Clune prodding them forwards. Within a few short moments, they'd be coming face to face with the head honcho of the Gaian dark elves... and hopefully getting some answers out of the bargain.

~~~~~~~~~

"...I can't believe I'm hearing this," said Jessie, "You people really are insane. What the hell is the MATTER with everyone?! I'm no teacher!"

"That's very strange," the don replied cheerfully, "It certainly contradicts the reports I've heard about just how much of a teacher you really are."

"Well, you must have heard wrong," he snapped.

"Last we heard, you got a job teaching recruits into the Benevolent Order," he said. Jessie tossed his long hair and scowled. He didn't want to be talking about any of this with don Luca. He didn't want to be talking to him at all. "We weren't supposed to know, of course, but we know everything. It shouldn't be too different, really. In fact, it should be easier. I don't want you to teach everyone," he said, gesturing around the hall. It must have been more for his own benefit, since Jessie still couldn't see. "Just a few of my best, my brightest young ones. Turn them into the machines they could, and should be."

"If you think I could get anywhere teaching men as stubborn as yours have proven to be..." he began to argue. The don cut him off.

"Not them," he emphasised, pointing one little arm to the back of the hall. It was still ultimately pointless, as Jessie was immune to visual aids at that moment. "Not Clune, Etif, Faris... not them. They're too old. Need to start them young, don't you, Captain?"

"I'm not starting anything, because I'm not going to teach."

The don ignored him entirely. "Let's take a recent example. If what Sona has told me is correct, around twenty five of my warriors are now lying eviscerated on the surface of the street. An entire squadron wiped out in under five minutes. I've heard too many tales of your expertise to not find my interest stirred."

A second assistant stepped forward, holding out a different set of papers. These were much more regular than the blank scroll from before. Normal printing paper, covered in computerised writing. Jessie heard the shuffle of paper and misinterpreted. "Don't tell me you're going to read me off the list of my proven crimes, too?" he barked. How unbelievable this encounter was becoming. "Let's see if I can remember them myself... Eight counts first degree murder, ten counts aiding murder, seventeen accessory..."

"Good heavens, no," laughed the don. He brandished the papers at Jessie, still uselessly. "These are casualty reports that show the Benevolent Order as having the lowest amount of injuries and deaths in history - compared to the forces of the Sentinel, who have the highest. A tiny force, but exceptionally trained."

He handed the pile back to his assistant. He'd glanced over the papers, proving that those half moon spectacles from earlier really were just for show. "On that topic, I was thinking more about the facts than the charges they eventually made up. A mere serial killer can be caught, always. The facts around you are more closely related to that little warning at the bottom of your profile - have you seen it?" he asked conversationally, smiling, "'Do not approach under any circumstances,' I believe is the gist of it."

"I need you to tell me what I have to do to get a warning like that attached to one of my men. Because, quite frankly, it's never happened."

"Ha!" Cressa barked suddenly, dancing forward. She'd been watching the exchange with eagle-eyed interest, but now wrapped her arm around Jessie's shoulder and leaned against him very casually. "Well, quite frankly, your donship, that's because they need a lot of work. I mean, with all due respect, we've seen more formidable mould. Some of that stuff back home'll take your leg off, you know, given half the chance."

"Is that so?" the don replied. He sounded genuinely concerned, and hung his head. "Ahh, how shameful. I am shamed. I am ashamed. Being outdone by a plant really is something else."

Cressa pulled away from Jessie and stepped towards the don. Her lips were puckered in a small smile.

"Five million gold a month, free room, free board - personal chef, personal maid, and I stay with him in an empress-sized chamber."

Jessie rolled his eye, turning blindly towards the door as she finished her confident reel of demands. "Cressa, you're not going to-"

"Deal."

A stunned silence rippled through the room.

"Hmm," Cressa said, a calculating smile on her face, "Let's say we wanted to up that to eight million..."

"Deal, deal, deal. Money is no object," the don grinned. Then, without warning, he winked up at Jessie. "You're worth every penny, handsome."

Jessie, who happened to be looking blindly towards the left wall, didn't catch the wink, but he certainly caught the other part. "<...Did the weird little dark elf just flirt with me?>" he said incredulously, turning in Cressa's general direction. She didn't answer him. She was too busy grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"SQUEE!" she cried, clapping her heads together and bouncing into the air, ""

Jessie cut off her excited rant. "The Order?" he said wearily, "The Overseer?"

"The whatnow?"

Even though he couldn't see, Jessie could still roll his eye extravagantly. ""

"" she sang. Jessie cut her off angrily.

"<No racial prejudice? Have we been listening to the same conversations?!>"

""

"<...What the heck is a Cathulu and what do you want it for?>"

Cressa huffed at him in the kind of know-it-all tone a teenager takes with her oh-so-uncool parents. "Jessie! You're so old fashioned! Don't you ever check the Marketplace?!>"

"The whatnow?" he replied sarcastically. The don, who'd been watching their discussion with a smile on his face, decided the time was ripe to cut in again.

"Well, my good looking friend, and my good looking friend's almost equally as good looking friend... may I hear your thoughts on my offer?"

~~~~~~~~~


Make a decision, Jessie...

a. Pretend to consider his offer.

b. Refuse him flat out.



~~~~~~~~~

"" he barked, ""

"" Cressa laughed, reaching down and taking his hands. He allowed her to pull him to his feet only slightly grudgingly. ""

That said, she proceeded to drag him through the halls by the arm, steering him easily through the maze. A couple of times, they passed groups of dark elves running in various directions, and they had to make a couple of clever bodyswerves to avoid them.

"" Cressa whooped, ""

Eventually, they ground to a complete halt.

""

"" Jessie replied. Some of the wonders of enchanted eyesight happened to be the ability to flick back on like a lightswitch as easily as it could short and thrust the drow, quite literally, into a world of darkness. ""

"" she agreed cheerfully. ""

She looked back at her friend, grinning.

"" Corie intejected.

Jessie raised his eyebrow back at his friend. ""

""

A massive bolt of force that made Jessie cringe with its backlash hurled itself into the metal door, putting a severe dent into its middle. Cressa didn't look impressed.

""

She concentrated her energy more carefully this time. There was less backlash, and the door actually began to crumple. The part which joined the wall suddenly came away, pushed backwards into the hallway beyond by about a foot. It was at an awkward angle, and there wasn't enough space for either of the drow to shimmy through.

""

"" Jessie answered flatly, ""

"" she sang, giving the door one more almighty smash. "interesting.>"

"" said Corie, "interesting?>"

"" Cressa replied, ""

They ducked through the new opening, holding hands again to maintain invisibility, and trotted off though the new sets of corridors. To say these were different was an understatement. It was like they'd stepped into a whole new world that didn't belong to the Kuros. On the side of the door they'd come from, there was a regal, rococo style to everything, from the panels to the flooring to the lights and the elaborate architecture in the don's hall. The secure metal door had stuck out like a sore thumb, but it blended in perfectly with the environment this side of it. The hallways were sterile and white - not a very comfortable decor choice for Jessie - with bright fluorescent lighting overhead. The place conjured images of plastic and polystyrene - modern, man-made elements - hospitals, operating theatres and laboratories. Hard angles and grating brightness jumped in your face wherever you looked.

It wasn't very pleasant, and as if to confirm that fact Cressa came to a sudden halt and jerked her head to her right, a look of horror on her face. She stepped forward and touched the cold, white wall, running her fingers down it.

"" she said.

"<...What kind of things?>" Jessie inquired. She shook her head, hard.

""

She changed her tune just a few minutes later, stopping jock again in the middle of the hall.

"" she moaned. Jessie shot her a look that illustrated the bottomless pit of frustration that his awful day had eaten into his soul. No amount of singing, dancing, crying or hugging was going to alleviate his treacherous mood now.

""

"" she whined, ""

""

She got the last laugh, though, leading him around a corner directly to an atypical set of Male and Female public restroom signs. He threw her another withering look, and she grinned at him.

"" she said coyly, pushing the door to the women's restroom open, ""

Grumbling, he did as she said, left to his own thoughts and devices once again. He took the opportunity to change out of the high heels and back into his boots, and Cressa, unlike the female stereotype, did not spend forever in the bathoom. He was lacing up the last few inches of his second boot when she reappeared.

She obviously wasn't best pleased, and tutted extravagantly at his lack of fashion consciousness. "that dress, with those boots.>"

"" he snarled, hopping to his feet and barrelling off down the hallway - the only way they could go that wasn't the way they'd come.

"" Cressa called, chasing after him. Nobody was nearby, so she didn't bother to grab onto his cloak.

Jessie snapped back at her, not slowing. "need to get out of here.>"

""

They were passing an intersection at that point, and all of a sudden, clear as darkness, a voice rang out through the hall.

"Hey! HEY! " it said - a woman. The first two cries attracted the drow's attention, and they peered down the hall with curiosity, but as the voice changed tack - or rather, tongue - they stared down the long, white corridor in shock. ""

"<...My senses are pulling me that way,>" Cressa whispered.

"" Jessie replied, as the voice's pleading reached feverish pitch.

""

Cressa looked at him, and he shrugged. ""

"" she asked. The voice choked, and began to break. The woman had started to sob.

""

~~~~~~~~~


Make a decision, Jessie...

a. Help the woman.

b. Assume it is a trick.



~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, Luathrae sat sipping at a mug of hot tea beside their newly-built campfire, swathed in one of Cressa's robes. Her old, grubby grey shirt was feeding the flames, and as she took another sip Jessie threw a leg of her equally drab trousers on top as well. He was back in his own robes as well, and had passed the high heels that had fit him so well on to the new member of their group, who was sitting with them curled up underneath her haunches.

"" she said, brushing a lock of sleek hair behind her long ear, ""

Jessie just shrugged, totally unconcerned. ""

""

"" he replied, laying his cloak out beside him. It'd been a long day with a lot of unfortunate bloodshed, and so with his weaponry back in place under his robes it was time to re-sort the regular inventory in his cloak. He'd do Cressa's too if he had time, seeing as it was probably equally if not more messed up than his own. ""

Luathrae seemed surprised by this. ""

"" he paused, ""

"" she agreed politely. Jessie looked at her thin face, and immediately felt bad. His day had been nothing like the hell she'd been enduring for months, possibly years. He had no right to sit across the fire in a sulk from a woman who'd endured so much and had yet to complain, and he told her so.

""

She laughed. ""

""

Her face genuinely lit up with amusement. ""

""

"" she replied, her expression falling again. She gripped the mug in her hands ever more tightly. ""

"" Jessie said, frustrated. ""

She blinked her red eyes - the only obvious remaining feature of her descendency - at him. "<...You don't know?>"

""

A long silence passed.

""

"" he exasperated, ""

"are,>" she whispered, lips tightened into a long, unhappy line, ""

He stared at her darkly, not believing a word of it. She sighed. ""

"" he said brusquely, ""

"" she nodded.

"" a tinkling voice drifted in on the wind. Jessie looked round and Luathrae looked up, and sure enough there was Cressa, striding towards them through the dark armed with bags and bags of shopping and grinning like a seamonkey if seamonkeys could grin. ""

"" he said stiffly, as she bent down and gave him a kiss on top of the head. Jessie grimaced and waved her away. ""

"goodies?>" she sang, plonking down next to him with the shopping on the ground and giving him a big, warm hug from the side. ""

His expression was most certainly not the cuddliest thing on Gaia. Luathrae giggled at the pair of them. ""

"" Jessie grumbled, ""

"" Cressa suggested, with a slight pause. ""

"" he said, wriggling and pulling until she finally released him. How did she even know these things, anyway...?

Rather than approach that, though, he re-diverted the subject back to the point it has originally been at. ""

Her smile twitched. ""

"<...You're joking.>"

"Erm..."

"" he raged.

She gave him a guilty smile, shrugging her shoulders expressively. He glared at her, and then flopped over onto his back, abandoning his work abruptly. ""

"" Cressa informed Luathrae quietly, ""

""

"" Jessie chipped in, one arm covering over his eye. Cressa raised her arm dramatically and brought her extended finger down into the center of his tummy. "said don't poke me.>"

She poked him again, and again, her second hand joining in, and then suddenly poked at the side of his ribcage. He cried out and flung himself onto his side to escape her. ""

"" she cackled, reaching over and doing it again. Luathrae was laughing her head off as Jessie crunched himself up into a tiny little ball.

""

"am sorry I didn't tell you,>" Cressa said, bending over her friend to speak right into his ear, ""

"" he scolded. Rather than say anything back, Cressa cheerfully leaned down a little further and very sloppily licked his ear. "EEEEUGHHH! "

"" she agreed, falling back and lying down next to him as he furiously wiped the unpleasant slime of her spit off the full length of his ear. She stayed still for a few moments until he'd finished, and then cuddled up next to him, curling round him in a tight spoon.

"" he said icily.

"" Cressa snickered.

He couldn't think of a threat that was quite good enough, and so just gave up, allowing her to happily snuggle even closer. Luathrae watched their little exchange with a smile on her face, and then decided it might be time to try and rescue him.

""

"" she cried, sitting up and reaching for her bags. ""

"" Corie muttered from someplace or another. ""

""

"" Corie pitched in again.

"" said Luathrae, ""

"" Cressa agreed. She raised an eyebrow. ""

"" she continued, ""

Cressa tilted her head, and Jessie, heaving a sigh, sat up. ""

She gave a small, sheepish smile. ""

"" said Cressa.

"anything until I left my home. It was only after I reached the surface that I began to learn. Therefore, I know the elven, rather than the drowic way of doing things,>" she said, sounding a little ashamed under the gazes of the hardened warrior and the lady sorceress.

""

""

"" Jessie replied, intrigued. Cressa looked at him sharply. ""

Her look of sheepishness deepened. ""

Jessie smiled at her pleasantly for the first time since the conversation had begun. ""

She hesitated. ""

The two other drow look at her, agog, and she smiled at them tiredly. ""

"" Jessie replied, shaking his head. ""

"" Cressa pouted. ""

""

"Hmph," the sorceress replied, looking at Luathrae with a newfound dislike in her eyes, ""

"" Luathrae insisted, giving a small, reflexive bow. ""

"" Jessie suggested, ""

"" she replied.

"that young?>" Cressa said, not quite believing it. Initiations usually occured around the age of fourteen, at about the same time male children were having their first real taste of what it meant to be a slave in their society.

"" she said, hesitating, ""

~~~~~~~~~




Make a decision, Jessie...

a. Bring Luathrae along.

b. Send her to the Temple.



~~~~~~~~~

"" Jessie raged, long hair flying out behind him as he stalked through the rows of tents. "Cressa! CRESSA!"

"" Luathrae soothed, barely able to keep up but catching whenever he stopped to look around. Tired, she reached out and grabbed at his arm before he could surge off again. ""

He looked around at her furiously, but immediately felt bad for acting yet again on his temper. A nap hadn't cooled him off, it seems, which meant he must've been making a thoroughly excellent impression on their brand new peer. ""

"" she calmly answered. He looked at her with more than a fair share of skepticism.

""

Luathrae smiled at him. ""

""

"" was her ominous answer. It was one of those things that Jessie couldn't find a reply to, but thankfully, at that moment, Cressa appeared behind him, stony-faced.

"" she sneered at Luathrae, "that would be.>"

""

"" she said breezily, addressing Jessie, ""

"" Jessie replied blankly. s**t. There was always going to be that one important thing that got left behind. Was the map going to be it?

It seemed so as he began to rifle through his Magical Concealing Robe of Wonders, fumbling around for an item he knew in his heart wasn't there.

Luathrae looked worried as his search continued fruitlessly. ""

"" Jessie replied firmly, looking up at her, "I could draw one for your use in scrying, Cressa.>"

Cressa, who'd been gazing at Luathrae coldly, suddenly beamed at her mate. "wonderful, lover!>" she simpered, clapping her hands together at her chest, "
"" he replied, hollow, ""

Her expression fell back into stony lines. "" she snapped. For all of her unwillingness to see Luathrae getting close to Jessie, she was equally quick to abandon them when offended, and she flounced off as flouncily as she could while levitating. She stood – or floated – at the end of the row of tents, as far away from them as she could get without disappearing again.

Apparently, she was also unconcerned with how badly she treated her supposed love interest... probably because she spent most of her life unintentionally offending him anyway.

Jessie, with a sigh, pulled a piece of paper and a pen from unknown whereabouts, and headed without a word into a large communications tent nearby, which he knew housed tables and chairs. Luathrae, after glancing sadly at Cressa, followed him, and watched over his shoulder as he began to make the necessary lines on the paper.

After a few minutes, however, she could see he was struggling. The sides of the paper were filling up, but the middle was practically blank. ""

"" he mumbled. She drew closer.

"" she offered politely, right hand hovering over his own. Her fingers brushed the end of the pen, and he allowed her to take it, shifting sideways out of his seat to make way for her. ""

She settled down and began to sketch in her own contributions to the map. Jessie, now the one watching with interest behind her, took out another pen and made additions to his own. Slowly, it turned from a plain bit of paper with some smoothly-drawn squiggles on it into what was a rather artistic map, with touches and embellishments on both of their parts, and when they each noticed what the other one was doing they looked at each other and smiled.

"" she remarked, ""

Jessie thanked her, and began to return the compliment. At that moment, however, Cressa appeared in the doorway as if summoned, with the gait of a thunderous harpy. "" she barked, striding into the tent and barging very bodily in front of Jessie. She glanced down at the work they'd produced together, and snatched it out from under Luathrae's hands. ""

She plonked herself down into the emptied chair, pulling from her robe a clear crystal which dangled on a golden chain. She began to scry, waving the crystal above the map and concentrating firmly on the energy signature they sought.

Cressa was thoroughly off form if she had the intention of splitting them apart. Then again, her usual method of getting rid of the competition was literally to GET RID OF the competition, and so it wasn't really appropriate under the circumstances.

Luathrae scooted over to Jessie, who was frowning. ""

""

It wasn't so much a compliment as a fact, but either way it caused him to turn his head away.

The sound of rock on wood broke through the silence.

"" Cressa proclaimed, bouncing to her feet and rolling up the map. ""

She complied, and once they were out on the wastes again, walking metres ahead of Jessie, Cressa was hissing at her, her teeth barely parting to let the sound escape. ""

"" Luathrae replied calmly, as always.

""

"" she said, stopping and turning towards her, ""

Cressa glared at her, her eyes flicking up and down, as if sizing the smaller woman up. Luathrae barely came up to her chest, but she met Cressa's eyes steadily as she continued, unintimidated. "”

Cressa listened to her solemnly, her eyes gradually darkening as she realised she was about to be defeated. Luathrae grew brighter, by contrast, and by the time she got round to the all-important question, the miniscule quirk of her lips indicated that she knew that she had won the battle... and Cressa was not in a position to argue with her victory.

“<... Don't you agree?>"

~~~~~~~~~

Results:

Sometimes being passive isn't the best option. By acting aggressively and cutting down the entire capture force, the dark elves learned that these were two people not to be messed with. Therefore they treated them more politely... or at least tried to hold their tongues.

~~~~~

Rejecting the elves' offer would have led directly to their capture and imprisonment. Basically, rather than walking into the hands of the don, their fate would have fallen instead to Orchid. Jessie would have been subjected to the Endurance Chambers... Cressa to dissection.

~~~~~

If Jessie had pretended to consider his offer - seemingly a much more peaceful option than just refusing and leaving - the conversation would have eventually taken a very insulting turn...

~~~~~

...Whilst the dialogue would have been incredibly funny, and Cressa really put her skills as a performer to work, it was NOT a laughing matter to the elves. The don, seemingly so laid back, would have snapped and ordered their immediate execution. The feud would have extended long into Chapter Two, with the elves proving formidable and persistent enemies of the Order.

~~~~~

By helping Luathrae, we've gained another interesting new NPC in addition to Joe.

~~~~~

If the left passage had been chosen, it would have led to a very entertaining scene in a nightclub. The drow, showing off their dancing skills, would have further befriended the three NPCs from the second interlude, including Xanthe, a cousin of Zuri the demi-succubus.

~~~~~

Our protagonists would have followed the girls, who perform the circuit on Durem as an edgy, sexy girlband trio "The Trinaselles," on their nightly tour around the city, picking up new clothes and new friends along the way. However, the evening would have ended badly, with Jessie drunk and miserable and molested by strangers in the last club. If he thought his day was bad as it was, thanks to you guys it just missed getting worse! Good job!

~~~~~

And bringing Luathrae along, of course, means we get a little helping hand for the dangers to be faced in the next Chapter, and Jessie gains the kind of friend and support he needs - possibly better than Cressa, to her dismay...?

Congratulations! You have successfully navigated Kindred Spirits, and gained access to the fourth, final and most dangerous scenario in the game - The Cursed Temple.

In this adventure, death and injury await at every turn. Tread carefully, however, and you may find a very special treasure at the end of it all...