Welcome to Gaia! ::

The portal, blocked off and feared for centuries, is now the only access to Ter'Lenlar, and is very highly guarded and surrounded by a castle. Nothing can go through the portal without being seen, and nothing hostile can get through.

Raven arrived, slowly with shadows gathering around her to make her partly invisible and mostly wall paper, after Lassan. She shut the large oak door with a ceremoniously slow pace, after she had shut the door with a satisfying silent snap of power she turned to see Lassan standing over a body that was slap in the middle of the age old portal.

The wood of her staff creaked as she clutched it in shock and held it tightly to her chest as if it was a teady bear that would save her from the boogie man. She ducked her head behind her staff as if she was sure Lassan was here to take her out in the silence of the portal. When the attack didn't come she peeked over.

"I-i-is t-t-t-this..."

She couldn't finish her sentence she was so terrified, and stuttering so much even if she could speak it would be unintelligible. Thankfully her pleading eyes told the question of 'is this what you wanted me to see?' rather clearly as she backed up into the wall, still holding her staff fearfully close to her. She seemed terrified.

Raven didn't respond to Lassan's throaty laugh, making him sound like some sort of demon. Rather she seemed to huddle closer to the shadows, nearly disappearing inside them as the unintentional spell of hiding took it's hold. She had to force her fear of the dead, of Lassan, away before the shadows let her go and allowed for people to see her again.

All she wanted to do was get this done and over with as soon as possible. So without saying a word to Lassan she walked over to the portal first. after touching the outer ring of the circle she found the strength to be overflowing, she had to wonder if he didn't shut the door properly... Or perhaps someone was pushing from the other side. She was used to being on the giving end of power rather than the receiving end, so it was quite possible for this man to have died in transit. Or to have died before hand. Or someone to have stupidly opened the door and made a rather bad backlash on the poor guy. Either way she would have to get some stones to re-direct the extra energy if they wanted to use this thing safely anytime soon.

So against all squeamish tendencies little Raven had she cautiously made her way over to the body. Shadows seeming to cling to her cloak as the fear of Lassan and the dead creeped up on her. She didn't bother waisting concentration to calm herself down as she carefully bent down over the dead body. her breathing was now heavy as if she was scared, and she averted her eyes as she forced one hand free from clutching her staff to place it over where the corpse's heart would be.

She felt the sensation of much power, and great fear. A fealing of abandonment. A few other sensations as well that Raven would rather not experience for herself, but thanks to the power of an Arch-mage she got to feal it anyway. As if she was living it herself. The last few moments of this poor guy's life... really sucked.

"Th-the soldier... d-d-didn't die.... on t-t-the way back... He was... caught... b-b-b-by, something. T-t-they p-p-probab-b-bly s-s-sent him b-b-back as a, w-w-w-wa-rning.... T-th-the po-ortal is'nt s-safe. N-n-not unt-t-ill I can re-redir-r-rect the p-p-power."

She explained, shell shocked by some of the feelings she got from the corpse's last few moments of life. Not to mention the one guy who prided himself on fear and pompous-jurk-off power was standing right over her didn't help her stuttering problem. He was lucky he got English rather than some garbled Latin or something.

Amnity seemed to glide into the room, just her lieutenant following her as they entered. "Lucian....You better not bring back anything otherworldly back. Whatever or whoever killed that man could evidentially kill you too." She glanced back at the portal, scanning it thoroughly, then looked over to Raven who seemed to now quiver in fear. All and all, she felt bad, wishing she could do something to calm her friend's nerves down just a bit. Her fear is going to hinder her from doing her job correctly.

Amnity raised her hands to show that she was unarmed and backed off. She has seen Inferno like this before and was foolish enough to try and console him. "Just don't get yourself killed Lucy, it's disheartening to have another soldier pass away."

Raven seemed to somehow slide towards Amnity as she arrived in the room, shadows still clustering about her with the fear she was trying so hard to stave off. She didn't have to abide by military conduct so she wasn't too worried about saving face. And when Lassan asked about him dieing in transit she couldn't help but speak up and correct him, with a little less stuttering since she didn't like him not accepting what she had told him.

"He d-didn't die in t-transit!... He w-was k-killed! I d-d-don't know b-b-by what, b-b-but I k-k-know h-how"

She said, gathering courage as she spoke. Her mantra 'knowledge is power' kept running through her head, and since this was her field she was the one with all the power. That put her slightly more at ease as she walked up to Lassan and grabbed his hand, his was so much bigger than hers she only managed to grab a bit of it, but she didn't need to hold onto much.

She forced magic down her arm and through his hand, raw, unpatterned magic, with no intent of will or casting. The result would make Lassan's arm feal like it was on fire, as the magics screwed with everything living in his arm. She stopped it after a few seconds, but to Lassan she was sure it felt much longer. Raven let out a breath as she let go of his hand, and also the power, sagging a little as she used the magic. She didn't look up at Lassan but stared at her feet and mumbled in a mousy voice:

"That's how he died... That's why the body is intact too... I think he went out with his friends or something, and they left him once he was caught by something."

She said, backing away as she mumbled to the floor, she was able to speak without stuttering because the exertion of magic left her tired, like she had just sprinted a couple hundred yards. When her demonstration was done she went around the room, stopping at key points to pull out some small crystals from the pouch at her side to draw power from the portal into them. She was doing her job and making the portal safe again, hopefully Lassan wouldn't ask any more questions because she was busy.

Lassan grunted slightly when he felt the burning pain, but it was nothing compared to some of his poisons, all of which he had tested and gained immunities to.

There was one in particular, that had those exact effects.

Lassan smiled and stood up, brushing off the dust on him. "There we are then, all it was was a rival killing his soldier with poison. Nothing to worry about. Lets go everyone."

Without a second word, he stepped through the portal, vanishing in a flash of light.

Raven hadn't quite finished with making the portal human safe, so it was quite possible Lassan felt like he was being pulled appart in every direction as he went through. Thankfuly in a hurried worry she managed to finish making it human safe before Lucian did something stupid and followed Lassan through. Raven wasn't even sure Lassan would be alive at the other end! So in a worry she threw the crystals back into her pouch, all of them now thrumming with power and rushed into the portal. Something of a "hey wait for me!" look on her face