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[♫∽ მ ჩ ⁞ ძ ∽♫]

№ Ѷ -{Let's finish this up quickly, I wanna sleep.}- № Ѷ

[Castle Oblivion :: Kitchen]

"Good morning Aiko," Aria responded before lifting an eyebrow and glancing through her bangs at Masenko. "You have arms and hands, therefore you are quite capable of getting your own hot sauce," the nobody replied with a certain note of disdain in her voice. Unfortunately for Haruko, Aria was not as kind as Aiko and altogether ignored the entrance of the Swift Nightshade. She didn't want to deal with the human so early into the day.

Aria kept silent as curled her delicate fingers around her cup, sipping at the tea before speaking up again, "thank you for the tea Vereor, it is delicious as always."

[∫ ʋ ʓ ʋ ʁ ᾲ ɳ]
{You look like you fell down a tree and hit every possible branch on the way down.}

[Traverse Town :: Inn :: Red Room]

The heiress stirred from her sleep, blinking sleepily before bolting straight up. It was still dark in the room although the lights from town faintly streamed through giving enough to play on the shadows. The lack of light made her feel at home; Eiengetsu was always coated in the night with only the full moon to serve as their natural lighting. Suzu settled back into the pillows with a sigh, careful not to wake the moogle beside her.

"Ne, Kuu," Suzu whispered, leaning over the side of the bed where her brother had settled to sleep. "Kuu, do you think the others are awake?"

[ ȤęҟνƴƦ ]

[Enchanted Dominion]

Zekvyr was awake long before Vereor's message reached him. Unlike the previous morning, however, the drow was not among the first to arrive in the kitchen; he wasn't even in the castle.

It was curious. Zekvyr heard it, even here, in the quiet and still of the pre-dawn day, on a world far from Castle Oblivion. The sound of Vereor's voice cut through the quiet sobs of the woman before him. He stood not five feet away from her, next to a statue, and she hadn't noticed him- would not notice him. (It was amazing how little these light loving creatures actually looked.) She lay her head on her arms and continued sobbing, repeating the words, "Our Aurora," over and over. Zekvyr left the room.

It quickly became apparent that he was in a castle. He had never actually visited this world before, and had opened a portal to it at random. There was, in his mind, a vague idea of where he wanted to be, but a solid basis for his search was sadly absent. It would take some time to find what he was looking for...

Other than the woman, very few people were awake at this time. Mostly servants. He quit the castle, and started along a dark area of the nearby forest, keeping to shadows and following no set path. There was a strong pull in this direction, a taint of darkness that deepened the closer he came. And thorns.

Finally, he faced another castle. He found it less accommodating than the last. To start with, it was ugly. The sculptures had no appreciation of beauty, that was readily apparent, but fear, ah, fear they were familiar with. Below him was the cliff he had climbed, before him the castle. He was exposed, for all that was worth. Most eyes would view him as nothing more than a shadow.

But in such a place as this, only other shadows would be looking at him...

He approached the gates.

Kellan let out a silent yawn as his pen scratched against the inn's little notebook he was using as an info log. He had just woken up, having slept so deeply that night that he was quite pleased, his hair and eyes taking on a sky blue in color to show it. Of course, that quickly shifted into an irritated yellowish-orange as he realized he still had nothing but a name.

Haruko...a teen that led a rebellion...and who somehow ceased to exist, it seems. Where in the world could she be?

His hair seemed to flow seemlessly into a shade of the deep purple of exasperation as he stood, pocketed his pen and notepad, and grabbed his coat. He could hear voices of people talking, and figured he could try to ask them for information about Haruko.

And maybe if anything happened the night before. He was in such a deep sleep that night that he was sure he might've missed something, the way things happened in this town.

[ ȤęҟνƴƦ ]

[Maleficent's Castle : Courtyard]

For a moment, Zekvyr considered finding a less conspicuous entrance point, a decayed hole in the wall, or an area he could scale, perhaps. Generally, it wasn't advisable to just waltz through the front gate of a strange castle. There was no one around. It was either a castle abandoned, a castle built on arrogance, or a castle with eyes he could not see.

He entered through the gates, which gave way easily enough. There were corpses in the courtyard, a sight that inspired neither fear nor a need to hurry. Zombies and skeletons wandered around, paying him no attention- for the moment. Methodically, Zekvyr found a rock, about the size of a person's head, which he soon discovered was a person's head, or rather the skull. He casually tossed it aside and found an actual rock, which he placed it in between the gates. They stayed slightly ajar, unable to close.

Satisfied, Zekvyr turned his attention to the horde of undead. The feel of darkness was stronger beyond them, somewhere deeper in the castle. He needed to get past. The terrain offered little help. He couldn't avoid the creatures before him; if he wanted to get through, he'd have to go through them.

Frowning, Zekvyr approached. One step, two, he evened his stance before them, paused a moment, and then was simply... not there. There was a sound of steal slicing through flesh, a horrible tearing sound, that lasted only a moment. The most telling sign that something had happened was the suddenly lowered volume of the wails and cries in the courtyard. Zombie bodies, sliced cleanly in half, slid off of each other and hit the ground in a circle around the drow. His sword was visible for a moment, held steady after the attack, before he quickly sheathed it.

He found purchase on the stairs beyond, and continued forward without a backward glance.

[Nymira]

{Life, death, it does not matter. All that matters is that they are mine.}

[Enchanted Dominion: Maleficent's Castle]

Nymira's heels stopped clicking as she stopped her walking, face twisting slightly with a venomous anger.

She could feel her magic over the zombies being severed as they were cut through. This, of course, infuriated a small part of her. Those were HER minions. How DARE someone destroy them?!

"Destroy the shadow," she said as she continued walking, the clicking seeming more angry and dangerous than before.

[Maleficent's Castle: Courtyard]

If Zekvyr paid attention, he'd realize that all the noise of the courtyard stopped, the silence deafening as wind whistled through holes in the walls and then corpses. All the zombies stared at the drow, eyes blank and mouths slack, before they all shrieked at once and charged, running and dragging themselves toward the 'shadow' with the intent to destroy it like they were commanded.

[☼яΞ√Ξζịђ☼]
["..."]

[Castle Oblivion: Revelin's Room -> Kitchen]

The mysterious male arose from his bed once again sitting up and gazing upon his hands. He once again questioned his own existence but slowly he moved on with his day adorning his coat and grabbing his mask upon a table. It was the same mask everyday but he just could not go anywhere without it. He put on his mask and then preceded to open a portal to the kitchen where tea was being served. There were many more people than yesterday morning, but he paid them no attention. While walking to his seat he nodded towards Vereor to show his respect before taking his seat and grabbing hold of his cup.