[J] Illumin :: Light

[Sosiqui]

Interlude: The Night Before

Illumin's chambers were quiet... so quiet that it was strange. Usually when he was here, there were always noises of some kind. The Aoidei moving about in their chambers, or other gods and hosts about their business. Perhaps it was only that he was concentrating on things with such force, but... it seemed more silent than it had any right to be. The only noise was the soft brush of mothwings against the windowpanes - and the soft hum of pure light.

Again and again Illumin spun the concentrated light into being between his palms, rolling it against his skin. It vibrated, purred like a kitten, laughed in his grip. A wild thing, light this powerful. Powerful enough to slice like a blade. He had vague memories of using it as a weapon in the days before the Fading.

Someday soon, I will do so again, and the traitors will fall before the bite of Light Wild... but not tomorrow.

Tomorrow I must wield it against the Mother.

His hands trembled and the light escaped, splintering down into only normal intensity... still powerful, still warm, but only enough to burn, not to cut.

"Damnit!" The curse rang out, and the sound startled him. "I cannot fail... I must do this properly, for her sake."

But every time he closed his eyes, he could see her blood flowering from violated flesh, and faltered. He did not, did not want to do it - but do not do it would be to fail his Lord and refuse the path that had been set before him. And that - that was treachery.

Creation guide me, wherever he is, buried under Destruction's thrall... we will do this. We must. I cannot live under this oppressive power forever. And she... she needs Him too...

Illumin sighed. Light to guide and open the way. There will be light.

And after? Then what?

That, he could not answer.  

[Sosiqui]

Quest - Part Nine: Departure

Sosiqui

Illumin paced.

He had, surprisingly, slept well, but now that he was awake his nervousness returned in force. What if we're wrong? What if I cut incorrectly? What if we're trapped? What if this is all foolish? What if, what if, what if?

Illumin pivoted and paced the other direction until he was next to a table with an incense burner on it. He fumbled in the drawer for a match, then lit the stick, hoping the soft scent would calm his nerves. A duffel sat by his bed, holding those few practical things Light owned - incongruously, the bag was pink-trimmed and bore the name 'Memi' on the tag. It had been all he could find.

It would serve. As a reminder, if nothing else.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt had returned home to the news that his daughter had gone off on a trek two days ago, and had not been heard from since. No one knew anything, other than Forsooth and Quaker were also missing, which meant at the very least that she was not alone. Knowing Caolan that meant she was talking to someone or seeking out something he had forbidden her too, and Ea was desperately trying to come up with a goal other than Destruction that would apply to. He found his aiode packing for him as his fingers hardened into talons of their own accord, and he tried to think of an excuse to give Illumin and Kishara why he had to break his promise and search for his child. He would know if she were injured or dead, wouldn't he? In the end he gave a few instructions to Orin and Jerry, shouldered his pack full of water, dried meat, skins and medical supplies, and took to the skies to go do his duty. A promise was a promise.

He would lock his daughter in a stairless tower when they both returned home.

Sosiqui

Illumin had been watching the sky now, actually opening the curtains for once and facing the bleak outside world. He let out a long breath when he caught sight of approaching green - Eamnnon was coming.

They were actually going to do this.

Creation grant that if I accidentally kill the Mother a second time, Lord Harmodius is able to create another jewel... He shook his head, sharply, and let the curtain fall over the window once more. He couldn't think that way. It wouldn't help anything. He should be considering their destinations, the Ashlands... but he just couldn't get past opening the door.

Speaking of which, he padded over to his own doorway and peered out into the hall, waiting for the Hunt... or Gaia... or both.

Perri Indiya

The green god appeared a few moments later in the doorway as if summoned - which, really, he had been. His eyes were as sharp as his hands, and his wings looked as much like those of a raptor as leaves on branches could. He was trying very hard not to snarl. "Do not have children, Light. They're too powerful."

Sosiqui

Illumin was startled out of his worries by Eamnnon's predatory appearance - and if any god could take on that aspect, it was the Hunt. "I wasn't planning on procreating any time soon, unless you think it likely that a match is waiting for me in the Ashlands," he said, trying awkwardly to soothe his obviously ruffled friend.

Perri Indiya

"Destruction! She's gone to meet the bloody end of worlds!" He growled, practically pacing and too absorbed in his own fury to hear Illumin's response. "I swear, if that girl makes it back alive I'll kill her."

If he'd been at home, there would have been fist-shaped dents in the wall and his hands would have been a mash of flesh and crushed bone. But he shouldn't damage someone else's housing. "Sorry. I... <******** class="clear">

[Sosiqui]

Quest - Part Ten: The Land Beyond the Gods I

Sosiqui

The Greywaine stood calmly under millions of stars, as it had for centuries, the only sound the soft hush of creeping dust. Soft as talc, the glittering powder covered the land several feet deep, and moved inexorably towards the Edge and the great long tumble into the void. The distant hiss of that fall was ever present, this close.

Suddenly, something moved. It was visible first only as an additional movement in the passing dust - then as a great fountain as the land itself heaved and tore, sending a spray of powder up to catch the starlight in a dramatic cloud. The land itself had been breached-

Illumin was concious one moment of moving through the gateway they had carved in Kishara's flesh, and then - dust, choking him as he tried to catch his breath. He floundered for footing and found it, struggling upwards as the fine powder clung to his sweaty skin and bent wings. "What - where..." he managed, coughing and spitting until as much of the dust as he could manage was out of his mouth. Even when standing, the dust layer reached up to his knees.

When he had his breath again, he turned, and his eyes widened. Stars above, so many of them... so familiar, even though they marched in patterns he had never seen. The touch of the ground under his feet held the same odd familiarity. Kishara... Lucius... so the book was right, and literal... they are the ground and sky of this place, even as their backs are turned to it...

There was something else that was missing, he realized. Gone was the oppressive feeling of Destruction's aura, pressing in and strangling everything. This... Ashlands... it really was outside of every influence he had ever known.

He was here.

And he had very little idea of what to do now.

Perri Indiya

Eamnonn burst through the powder in a burst of speed, skidding awkwardly when he attempted to stop his movement forward in mid-leap and succeeded only in nearly reburying himself. Maybe rushing head-first into places he'd never been wasn't the best idea in the world. Letting the muscles think for him did keep his brain from trying to reconsider his actions, though.

Once halted, he pushed himself up to stand his full height, and then shook off the fine dust coating his skin. He nearly knocked himself over. "Woah. Is there less gravity or oxygen here? I feel... off kilter."

Sosiqui

"It's... exactly as the box said." Illumin squirmed awkwardly free of the duffel bag he had strapped to his back, wincing as bruises from his dive into the gateway made themselves known. He quickly bent and removed the puzzle-box, his hands moving easily now to expand it out into the tablet. "See - 'we have made a kingdom of their own, outside the bounds of light and dark. It is the Ashlands. It is left to Gaia, Universe and their loves, to keep eye of. Only their aspects are connected therein, for they are Primordial as Us, and all that Is remains within them.' There are no other influences here but theirs. I can feel her in the ground, and him in the sky..."

He quickly looked over the rest of the tablet, and took a deep breath, re-centering himself after the high emotion and panic of making their way here. "The Grigori. Aristogeiton. Yes. We have to find him... or find someone. This 'Samyaza', or one of the others named here..." His fingers lightly touched the list of odd names scribbled alongside the main text.

The he glanced around the strange surroundings, and made a face. "Let us pray nothing we seek has been buried in this dust."

Perri Indiya

"What, you don't want to paw through the world's biggest box of kitty litter to find what we need?" He asked, explaining inwardly to his sense of balance that he had every intention of walking forward, so it damn well better figure out a way to center itself before he did so. Will power was a wonderful thing.

The Hunt flexed his wings, wondering idly why they felt more... plantlike here than they did normally. "There are at least paths here, right? Slogging through all this aimless does not strike me as a fun time."

Sosiqui

"I would rather fly, personally," Illumin said, making a face. "Let me see what there is to see..."

He spread his wings, gathering his light around them - it felt brighter, somehow, and the shadows it threw were more intense, sharper, than they'd ever seemed. But as he leapt into the air, the starlight that should have caught and sustained his flight beyond a few flaps refused to do so, and he tumbled down with a flailing of wings and another spray of dust as he landed rather ungracefully.

"... there's no ambient Light here... not what I use to fly... damn it!" Illumin swore as he brushed dust off of himself again. "But there is a path, or a line through the dust anyway... this way." He pointed. "And something in the distance... I couldn't tell what it was. A structure, maybe? But mostly flat, and dust, until it all falls away."

Perri Indiya

["Wait, it might not-" Ea flinched as Light tumbled to the ground, sympathetic if not terribly surprised. In the storybooks, grand quests to places beyond the normal world never let the travelers do it the easy way. Hardship being character-building or better for the plotting, or some such business.

"That ways sounds like a good direction then." He said with a rueful smile as trudged over and knocked some newly accumulated dirt from his companion's shoulder. "Better a place with something than nothing."

Sosiqui

"Wait..." Illumin paused. "We should leave some kind of a signal, so we can find this place again when we're ready to leave. We might need it." And hope that going back through doesn't hurt Kishara again.

Perri Indiya

"Hmmm..." He pulled his backpack off, digging around in it and pulling out a flashlight before slinging it back between his wings. "Would this work?"

Sosiqui

"If you think it will sustain its light long enough..." Illumin took the flashlight and switched it on, then practically purred as the beam washed over him. He turned it off again with regret. "I could definitely find it again, if it was on - there's nothing else generating light here, besides myself." The feeling was decidedly creepy. The aura of Destruction's influence is almost - almost - better than this.

Perri Indiya

"Leave it on then - those are fresh batteries so they'll last for a good eight or nine hours." If it took longer than that, well... they were screwed. "Should we try to leave a trail back too, just in case?"

Sosiqui

"Yes... I think we should do as much as we can." Illumin reached down and felt the lip of the wound they'd made in the earth don't think about the other side and lightly placed the flashlight, wedging it such that it would not be swept away by the inexorable movement of dust. "I will strengthen it."

He straightened, then spun light between his hands once again - not the cutting wild light this time, but a powerful glow. He fed it down into the flashlight, and felt the bulb shatter - but there was Light imbued into it now, and it needed no filament nor power source, much like the lanterns in his chambers.

"There. It will burn for several days, now." The glow was not bright, but he could sense it nevertheless, small as it was; it shone to his senses as bright as a nova in the absence of any interference. He subconsciously strengthened the glow around his own body, surrounding himself in his element as best he could.

It made him feel better.

Perri Indiya

"Not that I thought to bring bread crumbs..." Ea murmured to himself, thinking about the contents of his bag. There was nothing horribly useful for leaving a train, as none of it was numerous enough... ha! Flaring his wings and reaching over a shoulder at the same time, he yanked a leaf free and held it out to his companion. Slowly, an exact copy replace the missing foliage.

"Shall we drop these? I can feel them here in a way I can't at back home, so they'd be easy to find again."

Sosiqui

Illumin nodded. "If one of us is... incapacitated for some reason, the other will have a path to follow."

He sighed, and turned to face the direction he'd seen the 'road'. "This place is so strange. Beautiful, in a way, but very, very strange. How could any mortals survive here? How could anyone want to be here, enough that they would leave the true worlds behind? What did they see in this place... or did they care for the gods that little?"

The last question made him squirm, inwardly. What emotion could influence a whole people to abandon the true worlds for... this?

Perri Indiya

He shrugged, pulling off a handful of leaves from himself to scatter behind them. "I'm not the one to ask, as I can't leave myself. Maybe... maybe they felt betrayed? Left or hurt by us somehow? Jerry says that's why some flock to my temple now: the Christian god promised to love and care for them, but he isn't in this bad time as far as they can tell. So some of his believers are leaving him for me."

Ea didn't see why such beliefs needed to be either/or for most humans, but apparently this had to do with the other god's teachings on exclusivity. Sounded like a painful game for mortals to have to play. "Or maybe they just wanted to be free."

Sosiqui

"Free?" Illumin gave Ea a quizzical look as they began to move through the dust, heading for the 'road' with any luck. "Perhaps so... the tablet..." He glanced at it again, quickly. "'It is their right to wish no govern'... but is that freedom? Is this-" and he gestured at the Ashlands as a whole- "freedom? I cannot see it... and why, why would our Lord go so far as to craft for them such a place as this? What were the Grigori to receive such attention, to be worthy of our Lord forming this place solely for them...? Why did they merit such? I cannot think of any other single group granted such a... gift? Curse?"

He shivered then. Outside the bounds of light and dark. And outside the bounds of Light's understanding. "Just what are we going to meet?"

The tablet folded down into the box again, and he moved to put it back into the duffel.

Perri Indiya

"People he admired?" the Hunt guessed, tossing leaves over his shoulder and harvesting a few more as they walked. "It takes one very brave to cast of all gods, I think. We're a useful crutch: easily blamed for the bad and simply gifters of the good. To truly, truly live without us is to take total responsibility for life as well as total credit. A hard thing, but noble in a way."

He gave light an uncertain grin. "I would not see Harmodius destroyed nor leave him completely to claim my own freedom, even though I'm helping you fight him in a way in an effort to see my daughters freer someday. I suspect no other group has ever really asked for this. It is a difficult thing to live surely and absolutely alone. We'll be meeting an impressive people."

Sosiqui

"But to encourage mortals to live free of the gods... is to kill the gods," Illumin said, uncomfortable. "Impressive though it may be - perhaps it is something such as this that led to the Fading." Or this, itself. For the others, at least. I know very well who to blame for my own fall.

Then the other thing Ea had said caught up to him. Illumin latched onto the new topic with relief, and swept away the uncomfortably existential thoughts... for now, at least. "Fight our Lord? I am not fighting him," Illumin said, firmly. "I am merely seeking what he requires. That is all."

Perri Indiya

"What half of him requires. And for your own ends." The Hunt dropped another leaf, sure Alex would have been terribly amused to see him purposely reenacting autumn. "At least I am, not that that is going to stop me. It's sort of cheating, what we're doing, isn't it? The way humans do when they take one story from one of their god-books but not another. Choosing Creation as right and Destruction as wrong because it suits us."

He frowned then, rolling his eyes at himself. "Jeez, listen to me. The last time I waxed philosophic like this I was drunk."

Sosiqui

"Creation formed me in the Beginning and brought me to my host - I owe him my allegiance. Let Darkness champion Destruction, if such a thing is needed," Illumin replied, then sighed.

"Sorry. This place sets me on edge- hey!" Without warning the dust fell away, and Illumin stumbled down onto the road. It appeared to be paved with bone, which was disconcerting, but it wasn't dusty - the single, but large, point in its favor. It wound away through the dust - south, a long way away towards the Edge and the void beyond. But north, about twenty miles away as Illumin guessed, a feature was visible on the horizon.

"What is that? A wall?"

Perri Indiya

Ea bounced a little on the road, amused by the feel of the surface. "Strange. Hmmm?"

He lifted his head, squinting where Light indicated. "More than one wall, I think. Probably a building of some sort, as random free standing walls are rarely a decorating choice. Shall we?"

Sosiqui

"Indeed. There doesn't appear to be anything beyond towards the Edge except more and more dust..." Illumin shook his head, and bent to brush at his legs, which were cloaked in residue from their slog. "I've had quite enough of dust." What he really wanted was a bath, but could a place outside Kaelin's influence even have water for bathing?

People who chose to live outside the gods and who may not have bathed for millennia. Excellent.

Perri Indiya

"Dust baths count as baths if you do them right." The Hunt teased, walking funny to exacerbate the sticky feeling from the path. "Maybe they left because we were too prissy?"

Sosiqui

Illumin made a face. "Somehow, I doubt it."

...

The road rolled on before them, and the structure grew closer as they walked. Illumin wasn't sure how long it took, if there even was such a thing as Time in this place... but as they moved, it became clear that it was a wall, and not a very tall one at that, made of a material he couldn't recognize at a distance.

At last, after what seemed like forever, Illumin stopped and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ea. I need to rest. I'm not as hardy as you are."

He was hungry, too, he realized, in a way he'd rarely been before. The sensation was more akin to what he'd felt from Sosiqui when she was still in control, before their morph... when he hadn't been able to feed most of his energy needs from ambient light alone. It was so... so physical.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt laughed and walked along with him, itching to run for some reason. Must be the big open space - he preferred smaller, discreet spaces and had a tendency to race through the larger ones. Instead of galloping off he focused his gaze on the rather non-impressive structure ahead and tried to puzzle out what it was. Barbeque pit? Vacation villa? Something in the back of his head wanted to say altar, but considering the place they were in that thought was just silly.

When Light asked to stop, he nodded distractedly. Where had that last thought come from. "Yeah, sure. You need water or food or anything?"

Sosiqui

"I packed some food..." Illumin grimaced as he eyed the rations he'd brought, mostly this and that from the kitchen. He had packed according to his normal level of hunger, and what he had would make maybe three meals for him in this place. Not enough for a long period of time... and wouldn't that be an ignominious demise? Light, starved away in this forsaken place.

He pulled out an energy bar and unwrapped it. The thing tasted like barely-flavored cardboard and was dense and chewy, but it was food. Technically.

Perri Indiya

Eamnonn grinned to himself, digging through his pack and handing over one of his water bottles. With his other hand he pulled out a hunk dried meat, tearing off a strip and chewing it until it was soft enough to swallow. "You look beat. Want to rest for a bit? I promise to rip anyone who tries to come after us to shreds."

Sosiqui

"Thanks," Illumin said with a sigh, and washed down the last of the bar, trying to be as sparing of the water as possible. "If you don't mind? I don't think I've ever walked this far. As soon as I could, I was flying for long-distance travel..."

He really wasn't suited to this, and it sounded perilously close to whining, and he hated that - but who was going to do this, if not himself and Ea? He couldn't let Kishara's sacrifice be in vain just because his feet hurt.

Perri Indiya

He reached into his bag again and produced a tightly woven blanket done in dark greens. Eben was a pain in the a** some days, but the man knew his textiles. "Not at all. Here."

He zipped up the pack and handed that over to Light as well, leaving himself unencumbered and the treasures he was protecting all in one place. He smiled warmly at his companion, part bravado, part pride, and part a secret pleasure at the knowledge that aristocracy meant both refinement and a little weakness. "Being a dangerous mass of claws and muscles is what I do best."

Sosiqui

"Thank you," Illumin said, again, and smiled gratefully at the other god. "An hour, perhaps, or your best guess? I can watch afterwards if you'd like to rest too."

He pondered what to do with the blanket, then decided on putting it between himself and the road. The bone wasn't particularly uncomfortable, but it was odd enough to be offputting. Once it was to his liking, he curled up and yawned. "Good, uh... night, I guess. Not that this place seems to have such a thing."

Illumin closed his eyes. He wasn't sure he'd be able to fall asleep, but he was quickly proven wrong. The long walk and the strain of their journey ensured that.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt's mouth curved in a fleeting smile, and then he turned to gaze outward for trouble as the expression slid away. It was strange here... he felt sharper and dimmer at the same time. More Hunt and less Ea, in an odd and disorienting sort of way. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Growling lightly, he shook his head and forced himself to think of other things. One of the side effects of this was a shorter temper.

Gods, what were they doing here? Hunting down a people who had given up everything - including sanity, most likely - to escape the gods. No one, no mortal certainly, could live in this endless gray for long and still have a useful brain. Well, he couldn't, anyway. Maybe that was the point of the Ashlands: a realm that was so devoid of normal it could break and repel gods. That would at least make they're relocating here have some sense. While Ea had been quick to voice an understanding view of the fled to his companions, it was only an abstract view of what they had done. He had learned from Perri to analyze as best he could things he didn't really understand, in that I'm-an-academic-and-so-know-everything tone of hers. He did not truly understand, as he was for one a god and two not the sort of deity that could truly overthrow his lord. Even for all this work, if Harmodius turned to him and directly said 'Hunt, stop this and go kill yourself.', he had a sick suspicion he would gladly do just that. He'd been joking with and teasing Illumin for the past hour to gloss over the empty feeling in his stomach that came from being so apart from Destruction. It burned his throat and made his eyes go a little to wide. He would hate himself for it, but if this separation was held over his head he would quickly do anything Harmodius requested to avoid it. Such was the nature of the derived gods, he supposed.

The flip side, of course, was that he desperately felt himself straining to protect the lord that called such loyalty from his bones. Which was how he forced himself past the selfishness of this endeavor: the journey he was taking for his and his family's sake. Somehow, he had convinced his raw, inner self that this was a way of protecting Harmodius from... something. What it was didn't matter to the core of him. The protection mattered. How he had managed this persuasion he did not know, nor why he realized this only now. It was this place, surely. So much and so little to distract him from his thoughts.

For once in his life, the Hunt desperately hoped there was a group of mortals stronger than he. And that such people here were everything he'd opined to Illumin about before. If they weren't, well, this was a pointless and nerve wracking exercise.

Sosiqui

Illumin roused and was disoriented for a moment - the sensation was so strange. His sleep had been dreamless, strangely deep; was even Revei's realm inaccessible in this land? Somehow, the thought that the Grigori might not dream made them seem more alien than even the land they lived in.

He sat up slowly and brushed the last of the clinging dust from his arms. "Thanks... do you want a turn? I can watch," he asked Ea, stifling a yawn at the end. A night's sleep would be nice, but they had no time for that.

Perri Indiya

Lost in thought, Eamnonn took a moment to answer Light's query. "What? Oh, hey, you're awake. Uh, sure. A nap is probably in order."

Zoning out while playing guard dog? That was definitely not a good thing. He gave one last glare to the landscape and lowered himself to the ground, curling up and lapsing into sleep rather quickly. Being able to drop off at a moment's notice was a useful little trick for particularly difficult hunts. He hadn't used it in awhile.

Sosiqui

Illumin nodded, then raised one eyebrow in surprised at how swiftly the Hunt fell asleep. He sat down awkwardly and traced one finger through the dust next to the path in spiraling motions, watching the small plume that rose from each movement.

Such a strange land this was. He still didn't understand how anyone could bear it, let alone willingly choose or desire such a thing. The landscape was beautiful in an eerie way, but the utter absence of all influences save the vague thrum of Gaia and Universe was completely unsettling.

What manner of mortals are they? Defiant? Proud? Not too defiant, or else my Lord would hardly indulge them, let alone send his beloved to guide them... perhaps Aristogeiton was of this people? That was an even stranger thought, that one of the race that spurned the gods would come to be the lover of the Twin Crown.

Illumin shook his head and took a pinch of dust up in his hands, watching the flecks as he let it drizzle to earth, weaving a soft interplay of light from his fingers between the grains. It was hypnotic, reassuring. At least I can produce my own influence. No forests or creatures will bound to Hunt's call... He wondered if it was difficult for Eamnonn.

Hunt. What were they hunting? Aristogeiton, but surely they would not find him here... Panacea had gone searching for him too, and Illumin was positive he wouldn't find her here. A clue, perhaps, another marker on the path. Long, too long. Was there even an end to it? Perhaps he was lost to the Pantheon and the Twin Crown forever.

But he couldn't think about that, about the world succumbing to the cancer of Destruction. This place was, at least, preferable to that unhappy end.

 

[Sosiqui]

Quest - Part Ten: The Land Beyond the Gods II

Perri Indiya

The Hunt yawned and stretched, taking his time to get every crick out of his body. Ugh. While he wouldn't have chosen such terrain for resting on in the real world, and would have been far more comfortable there than here. In this place, everything was too off for true rest.

"What next?" He asked his companion, slowly standing.

Sosiqui

Illumin blinked, snapped out of his reverie by Eamnonn's sudden movement, and let the last bit of dust fall from his hands. "Next..." He stood up and surveyed the land ahead. Nothing had changed since they stopped, nothing at all. "To the wall ahead, I would guess. Maybe it's actually a structure. Are you up to meeting the denizens of this realm?"

Perri Indiya

"If they're as freaky as this place? Yeah, probably." Eamnnon shouldered his pack and began the trudge forward. "If they're worse... well, I'll try not to go shrieking mad into the night."

Sosiqui

Illumin thought of the names on the tablet. "Samyaza, Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Asael, Batraal, Anane, Turel, Azazyel. Were there more? Or is this whole realm home only to ten beings?" He looked up at the strange sky, then back down to where the walls waited. "We shall see, I suppose. Let us hunt them, as best we can."

Perri Indiya

He grinned, a hand on the large knife at his belt. "Music to my ears."

Sosiqui

....

Two hours later, Illumin and Eamnnon arrived at the wall. Up close, it appeared to be made from a single piece of stone, massive quartz, and Illumin walked up to it and put one palm on it in wonder.

"An amazing edifice..." A few raps confirmed it was solid. "If the people of the Ashlands built this, I must say I am im... press..."

His voice trailed off as he caught sight of a dark form inside the quartz. What is it...?

Something was trapped in there. Something... alive? Once alive? Never alive? Whatever it was, it had a wholly disquieting expression, a sense about it that twisted Illumin's stomach and made him sweat.

"Ea... do you see, within the wall..." he managed. There were other dark areas on the edges of his vision in the quartz; more of them?

Perri Indiya

Ea followed Illumin, steps slowing as they neared the wall. Something wasn't right. While his companion went forward he hung back, knife suddenly drawn in one hand and claws taut on the other. His eyes saw the granite as still as, well, stone, but odd shadows creaked in it just out of sight. There was a faint buzzing in his head, his hunter's senses confused and worried. He concentrated on not backing up.

"Things shouldn't be trapped in walls." he managed, closing his eyes to block out some of the worrying stimuli.

Sosiqui

"Forgotten," Illumin managed, then turned away with an effort. "I... don't think seeing those would be good for anyone." There was a slow, creeping horror about whatever-they-were, a pervading aura of being trapped, ignored, doomed... something that paced along the edge of madness. Probably well over the edge, for mortal minds.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt shudder to think how those shadows had become trapped in stone, or what they had been before that. Hopefully it was a fate that he never had and never would share.

"Let's keep going while we still have the will for it. Over the wall, perhaps? It's short enough to scale."

Sosiqui

Illumin twitched, his wings rustling against each other. "... Yes, of course," he said, after a moment. He really, really didn't like the idea of climbing up onto the quartz, looking down and seeing the trapped shadows between his feet... but they'd come much, much too far to let that be an obstacle.

And it wasn't, not really. Just... highly, highly unpleasant. There was something in the shadows that was somehow more horrifying than even the sight of Kishara cut open. Not by much, though.

Perri Indiya

He forced himself to sheath his knife, practically having to grab his wrist and guide the action with his free hand. Emptied of it's weapon his claws snapped forward on his right hand so fast it hurt. Having one's body have a mind of its own was so much fun!

Ea practically ran to the wall after his reluctant legs gave in, grasping the top of the wall after a jump and dragging himself up the granite. Auggghhhhh, the touch of the stone was terrible. Bad skin, stay in place. Once he got his feet under himself in a crouch, the green god turned and offered a hand up to Light.

"The faster you go, the sooner it's over." He said, doing his best to keep a grimace off his face.

Sosiqui

Illumin grimaced, then nodded and grabbed Ea's hand to be lifted up. He twitched at the touch of the stone on his skin - it hadn't bothered him when he'd touched it the first time, but now that he knew what was in there... eugh!

Perri Indiya

Eamnonn braced himself and pulled, doing as much as he could to lift the other god up to the top. A wider wall would have made this much easier, but a good barrier maker tried to make it hard for those who would breach its defenses. Really, the trapping of people-like things in the stone was more than defense enough.

Sosiqui

Illumin's wings flapped reflexively (and uselessly) as he managed to make it to the top, scrambling to his feet as quickly as he could. He didn't really look at the landscape ahead as he dashed across the top of the wall, so anxious to get past the things below that he only just checked to make sure there was a good landing place on the other side.

Ground. Apparently solid. Good. And not a sharp drop-off, either. "It looks safe - let's get off of this... thing."

Perri Indiya

The Hunt didn't have to hear that suggestion twice. He was off the wall in a moment, landing not completely steadily on the rather barren ground, but off the disconcerting structure nonetheless. He stayed crouched, just in case something decided to attack them. So far, so good.

"We seem to be alone. Shall we continue?"

Sosiqui

"Yes, let's," Illumin agreed, scrambling down off of the wall as quickly as possible. It occurred to him that to get back they'd have to go over it again, but... best not to think about that now.

Now that the wall was behind him (and oh, how he had to suppress the horrible thought of one of those creatures bursting out towards them!) he felt able to look around at the lands ahead, to feel something other than creeping revulsion. To Illumin's surprise, they stood no longer in endless dust. Pure white grass grew in sparse clumps around them, and the land rolled away in bounding hillocks. Odd structures dotted the landscape, here and there.

"Well, those don't look like any buildings I've ever seen before, but... it's something." He hoped fervently that the structures didn't have surprises in the walls as well.

Perri Indiya

"We don't need to go in those things, do we?" Ea asked, indicating the oddly twisted buildings with his chin. "They look like buildings even Salvador Dali would have been weirded out by."

He found himself sniffing the air, trying to detect something, anything that would give them a direction to head out in with a goal to reach. As it was it seemed like they were going to have to just walk and hope they smacked into something not too hard or pointy. Joy.

Sosiqui

"Well, they are structures, and we are looking for someone, so... it might be a good idea to at least investigate? People are generally found in dwellings, odd though they might be." Illumin shrugged. At this point, anything that wasn't trapped screaming in solid rock was a blessing to his eyes.

What are we doing here? he found himself wondering, again. "At least it looks somewhat more normal here. And there's grass that's not dead... I haven't seen that outside of your own forest in ages, it seems."

Perri Indiya

"Really?" He started out in a somewhat straight line, hoping Illumin wouldn't realize he'd picked it to avoid as many buildings as possible. Sure, they just looked like blobs from here, but they were bad blobs. Okay, that wasn't very descriptive, but that was the most cerebral way to describe his aversion to them. Mostly it was a gut level "Auuuugh!" thing. "No grass anywhere else? Geeze. Grass is very hard to kill, especially the unfortunate crab variety. Surely it has to grow somewhere?"

Babbling about mundane things made him feel marginally better.

Sosiqui

"Destruction has a way of doing that to just about anything," Illumin said, dryly. "Look... there's the road." From up here he could see that the road was arrowing straight, despite all the bumps and lumps in the land it had to follow on the way... heading still onward towards a central point. The white grass got more and more numerous, it seemed, the further along it got. Here and there he could barely see other roads atop other, far away hillocks. "They're all going to the same place...? And not to the structures, either..."

He glanced over at Ea. "It looks like everything, roads and grass alike, is converging on the center."

Perri Indiya

"Both useful and ominous and the same time." He grumbled, officially grumpy. He blamed the constant level of adrenaline.

"We can still look in a building or two if you like, but when all roads lead to Rome it's generally because that's where everyone wants to be."

Sosiqui

Illumin thought for a moment, then shrugged. "We can always check if one happens to be near the road, or if we find nothing at the road's end. This whole place is a giant circle, it seems - maybe in the center we'll find what we're looking for."

Illumin fervently hoped that what they were looking for didn't want to put them in a rock wall, too. The thought made his wings twitch against each other. "In a place like this... with structures like that, and a wall with... those... in it... do you think they can possibly be sane?" Prickles ran up his spine, not for the first time since entering this literally godforsaken place.

Perri Indiya

"God, I hope not." Eamnonn said, shaking his head as he stepped on to the road. "Anything sane in that state since the beginning of time is a special kind sane, one rather indistinguishable from insanity as it's just come out the other end."

That really hadn't made much sense. He just shrugged and looked as knowledgeable as he could. "You know?"

Sosiqui

Illumin thought about this for a moment, then nodded with another twitch of his wings. The glow around him increased slightly, compensating for strangeness with the soft familiar light. "I think I may have tasted something similar in my previous incarnation, near the end. It was... not pleasant."

He took a deep breath. "I had wondered before why our Lord would go to such lengths to give these people what they wanted. But now... no, now I don't think it was a gift or even an act of kindness at all. To give them exactly and precisely what they wanted..." He looked around.

Too cruel.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt nodded, squinting at the horizon. "One of those cliches no one really listens to." Certainly not mortals, anyway.

The walked on and on for hours, the road stretching out endlessly much as the one through the dust had. The grass began to grate on his nerves with its imitation of his home, and he imagined ripping it up for fun. They continued forward until a gathering of stones finally materialized at the end of their long path, stones that were old and uniform instead of bulbous and worrying like the buildings they had passed. They seemed small and simple from here, but Ea was sure they'd end up maddening and complex like the rest of the place. He almost didn't want to face them.

"Do you see that?"

Sosiqui

"Convergence." Illumin's mouth was suddenly dry. The sheer difference from the strange structures to the series of monoliths was unsettling. "It looks like a stone circle. Stonehenge, my host's memories name it... only larger... and more of them, perhaps." He took a step down the road ahead of Ea, then paused, squinting at the formation.

"Are there figures in the archways, or am I-" No, let's not say 'going insane.' "-seeing things?"

Perri Indiya

"No your eyes are working. Unfortunately." He followed Illumin's lead, more than happy not to be the one out in front when they entered the rings of stone. He debated whether statues or flesh people would be better. He really couldn't decide.

Sosiqui

"Arms outstretched..." Illumin straightened up and brushed his hair back, just in case, and they moved on.

But the closer they got, the more apparent it became that the figures waiting for them were not alive - or, if they were, it was in a way as bizzare as the rest of the Ashlands. "I think they're statues. Do you smell anything? Life, blood, anything like that?" Illumin whispered as he paused twenty feet from the first stone ring.

He could see more stone beyond, more and more, closing concentric circles. The other roads were converging as well; he could see four of them easily now, following the cardinal and secondary points.

Perri Indiya

He hadn't been picking up anything before, but he closed his eyes and focused all of his senses forward just in case. "Nothing. They're as much stone as the things trapped in the wall were."

Opening his eyes, he glared at the figures, looking for chisel marks or any other indication that they were man-made. The only marks on them were some very faint indications of erosion, which came from existence in any sort of atmosphere. Why couldn't they just have a seam from a mold or something? "I'm pretty sure they weren't carved, though."

Sosiqui

"No... doesn't seem like it. Maybe they were alive once... or now..." But each one seemed to be nailed to a crossbar behind it, and that didn't seem pleasant at all. Then again, the people of this land had asked to be here. Maybe they were masochists.

"Wait, there's writing... up on the forehead..." It took Illumin a moment to steel himself, but he reached up and lightly touched the letters. They were cut in as though by a claw, obviously not originally part of the work. "I do not know the tongue." The statue looked even worse close-up, as flickers of Illumin's light made the shadows shift and change rapidly.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt shrugged. "I've never been a linguist." He was doing his best not to look at them particularly carefully. "Maybe they're golems?"

He squinted at his companion, realizing just how glowy he had become. "You know, when most creatures are worried about attack, they try to become less conspicuous, not more."

Sosiqui

"And if we'd seen anything likely to attack us, I might be concerned - we're gods in a godless realm, Ea. If anything wanted to harm us, I'm sure they could sense us miles off just because of what we are, light or no light." Illumin tried hard to be reasonable and not snap. The idea of him dampening his glow was just not something he was willing to consider. It was comforting, and he was damn well going to keep it up unless a very good reason was provided.

He shook his head. "This place is wearing on me; apologies. I need this light right now. If we have to, I'll drop it, but I'd like to keep things as they are until then."

Perri Indiya

Ea frowned, but said nothing. Light was being logical, but hanging out with a shiny beacon still made him feel like a sitting duck. And was it really so shocking he saw the world in terms of hunter and hunted? Really?

"Yeah, I'm bitchy too. Want to walk around and hope this place doesn't get more traumatic, or what?"

Sosiqui

"At least these statues don't make my mind want to crawl out of my skull and go hide somewhere," Illumin said, with a sigh. "That's... something, at least. Perhaps we can walk around, see if there's anything or anyone here... and then rest, regroup, and see what our options are." He glanced at the second stone ring. There was one beyond that as well, and beyond that...

Perri Indiya

"Sounds good, although I really don't think I'll be getting any rest around these things." The Hunt nodded, wandering off a little ways and then rounding back, weaving through the rings as they walked. He kept his hands clasped behind his back to keep his claws from stretching out so far it hurt.

"Do you think the Stonehenge in England is a reflection of this place?"

Sosiqui

"I don't know... I've never seen it. My host did, I think. I recognize the name." Small talk helped, a little. But deep in Illumin's mind was a terrible thought. Maybe it was all for nothing. Maybe they'd come all this way, grievously wounded the Mother, only to come to a realm devoid of all life except for that white grass.

Perhaps the people of the Ashlands were no more. Perhaps they'd gotten what they wanted and died for it, if there was death in this place. Suicide off the vast edge, maybe.

Unpleasant. New direction. "How many rings are there? I wonder if there's a significance. Numbers. What did the tablet say?" He rummaged in his bag for the scrap.

Perri Indiya

"Twelve, so far." He called over his shoulder, still weaving. "Thirteen, four... aghfth."

There were fourteen stone circles, the inner most being made of way too many creepy, crucified stone people for Ea's tastes. He cleared his throat and finished his sentence. "Fourteen. Fourteen stone rings. Ah, ah, ah."

Ew, ew, ew!

Sosiqui

Illumin raised one eyebrow at Eamnnon before following him out into the center of the middle stone circle. So here it was. The point of convergence. He could see the eight roads splitting away, spokes from the center of a wheel.

And what was here? Statues. More statues. Ten of them, to be precise. Ten statues and nothing more.

He sank to his knees, light flaring close around him. "Ea... there's nothing here..."

What of the nothing, the zero that I see in the back of his eyes? aught, cipher, nadir, naught, nullity, oblivion. The words from the number-scrap rang in his mind.

Perri Indiya

Ea dropped his pack and rushed to Illumin's side, putting an arm around the other god's shoulders and speaking in a soothing tones as he knew how. "Hey, hey, don't give up now! Just because someone isn't here right now doesn't mean they won't come later - maybe they had to go run some errands or something."

He smiled encouragingly, grasping at straws. If Light fell apart now, he wasn't quite sure if he could get them both back home. "You rest. I'll keep watch and we'll make more plans once we're both a little calmer."

Sosiqui

The Hunt was right. Pull yourself together, Light! "You're right - I'm sorry, it seems all too easy here to be prey to despair and other such things. Rest. Yes."

He shook his head and put his bag down on the ground, tugging the blanket out of it. It made a small nest on the bone for him, and he curled up. Once he was down he realized how exhausted he truly was - he had nowhere near the stamina of the Hunt, and had really been operating on the last dregs of energy for several hours - and sleep overcame him almost instantly, his own light enfolding over him like a second blanket and brightening to throw the shadows on all the statues into sharp relief.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt released his companion and sat back, watching his light glint off of the bones surrounding them. He amused himself by idly trying to figure out what beast might have worn the femurs under their skin, and trying to see letters in the symbols on the assorted statues' foreheads. It was as close to rest as he could come in this place, and was at least giving his muscles some time to stretch out and lie still. He had no idea what they were going to do.

 

[Sosiqui]

Quest - Part Ten: The Land Beyond the Gods III

Ivynian

It was well into Light's rest, well into Hunt's musings. Soft at first, a sound barely audible and on the edges of consciousness so that it was already as loud as a whisper by they time they were aware of it.

The laugh was dry, the breaking of reeds in thin wind or sand blown against stone. But the sound of its syllables was staccato. It was a sound forced through a voice that had been silent for a long time.

"How stirs the gods in Godless Lands,
come hither to our lightless strands,
and bring with them their dog of hunt
to aid in this most strange affront?"

Sosiqui

An odd sound intruded on Illumin's sleep at last, and he sat up slowly. For a moment he was unaware of his surroundings, but after a few blinks he remembered. The Ashlands, yes...

A voice. The sound was a voice. A chill ran up Illumin's spine. Had they found what they were looking for at last? "Ea..." The words threw their situation sharply into light. They were intruders, bringing what these people had so adamantly shunned. "Light greets you," he said, carefully, still not entirely sure where the voice was coming from. "We do not seek to bring affront; we are looking for news of a lost soul, and one trail led to this place."

Perri Indiya

Oh dear god, it was speaking in rhyme. The Hunt turned around quickly and put himself mostly in front of Illumin once the... thing started speaking loud enough for him to catch it, wings spread and claws out to make him both more intimidating and better prepared. These preparations would probably be useless here against this thing should something happen, but it was what he knew. He left the talking to Light, he of the subtlety and other useful communication skills.

Ivynian

It was one of the statues, though the figure pinned there in stone did not move to issue the sounds. They simply came, hollow.

"Souls long lost we have in plenty,
a name would help to search the many.
The Neverborne dwell here in paradise,
you'll have to be much more concise."

Sosiqui

Illumin glanced at Ea, then nodded slowly at the statue. "We seek Aristogeiton, lover of our Lord the Twin Crown. He came here with Mang when these lands were set apart, according to our records."

Perri Indiya

Eamnonn concentrated on keeping his freak outs internal, convinced he was losing it when the statue's next stanza made him want to laugh. What, were they talking to the receptionist?

Ivynian

There was a lengthy pause after the god spoke, and a feeling....just a feeling, that maybe whispers were being traded on some channel that they were ignorant of. As if ears had opened up on every grain of sand and blade of curse grass on that damned plane.

"That."


"Is an old name."

Sosiqui

"It is," Illumin agreed, his wings fluttering slightly at the strange silence-that-was-not. "If you know anything of his fate after coming to this place - that is the only thing we came here to find. No books held the answer, and only a child's tale knew the means of entering this place, so we came to petition you, as best we could." Illumin actually bowed his head - not anywhere near groveling, nor obeisance, but certainly more respect than he'd ever paid to a statue before. "We do not seek to intrude on the life the Grigori chose for themselves." If you could call it life.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt mirrored his companion, glad he didn't have any fur to stand on end from the sudden inanimate scrutiny. Could this be over now?

Ivynian

“I do not think you understand
The reason we came to this land.
You could petition us for years,
but it would fall upon deaf ears. “

The statue seemed to shimmer, as the voice spoke, and a thing stretched out its limbs like a shadow reaching out of real flesh. It floated down, willowy and lovely in some parts, strange in others. Twisted.

”But.
Perhaps….perhaps we can be reasoned with.
I would seek your sunlit lands,
Take me across with your own hands.
If this payment seem you fair,
Then trinket I can with you share.
A piece of him of whom you seek,
from when he dwelt here and grew weak.”

Sosiqui

Illumin swallowed at the sight of the being - beautiful and twisted, all at once. "You want to return to the world you left behind? After all this time?

... Why?" There was genuine curiosity in Illumin's voice. He glanced over at Ea. "But for a piece of Aristogeiton... something we so sorely need - yes. I would take you there."

A piece... a fragment only? What has become of your lover, Lord?

Ivynian

The 'hands', spindles and wires of strange carapace, flesh, or sinew, cupped in front of the Grigori's chest. A decanter appeared there, cupped in the spider-leg fingers.

“Proof is in seeing,
a decanter of blood to buy my release,
take me hence
and I'll gift you the piece. “

The Awareness around felt like it was stirring, angry, as if all the other watching statues jaws would drop open in silent screams of protest.

Sosiqui

Blood... Illumin's wings rustled as he felt the tension in the air deepen to anger. Something here was not at all happy, and his eyes flicked to the other statues quickly. They were not moving, not actually speaking, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the emotions were rolling in waves from the stone.

No. From the Grigori.

"Ea..." He turned towards the Hunt; this was not something he could promise or consummate all on his own, without his companion's input.

Perri Indiya

Eamnonn growled, the emotion rolling off the stone feeding his own discomfort. "I don't like this. But." He needed to step up and play guardian now.

He slid is knife from its sheath and across his forearm in one fluid moment, crimson spilling over dark green as he worked to keep the wound from healing itself. "Let me do the bloodletting, Illumin. I'll heal from it faster than you will."

Ivynian

Her arms extended, the sinews trundling the digits forth sickly, to dip the decanter beneath the offering.

She was plainly curious from the set of her lips, a half quirked turn like a smile that seemed just too curled at the edges to be anything else. Too little to be happiness, not vague enough to be the Mona Lisa. Once the decanter was full it vanished, particle by particle, as if its existance was pulled apart into dust just the same as the ground past the wall.

The statue she had stepped forth from slumped, its rigidity and solidity becoming wet. The crucified figure there sloughed off and squelched onto the ground in a heap of rotted....something. The inscription marked on her forehead, and on the pile on the ground, burned away like flash paper.

"I am free. We should away."

She held out her 'hand' to them.

Sosiqui

Illumin twitched at the sudden rot and slump - did everything involved with the Ashlands have to be so... so primal, so... entropic, so... well, icky? - but nodded and held out a hand towards the odd sinewy 'arms' of the Grigori.

Then he paused, before he'd quite touched her. "And the piece promised?" he asked, quietly.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt let his arm heal, the red slash creeping closed and disappearing into his flesh. He sniffed the air curiously, wondering what exactly the goop was. Unsurprisingly, it did not smell like normal flesh-

He was just trying not to think of that thing feeding off of him. Or that he would soon be carrying it.

Ivynian

She opened her mouth in response, but instead of noise or voice, there was cradled on her tongue some glowing thing. It looked to be made of metal, shaped in harsh angles and wrought of something like metal. It was difficult to see, and she closed her mouth again.

Perhaps it was a key?

“We go, we go, we must away,
else never out shall find our way,
waiting for a yonder sign,
and stuck here til the end of time. “

Sosiqui

Illumin wasn't entirely sure whether to trust the Grigori or not... but they had come here for something that she seemed to have, and he hadn't any idea what to do or where to go otherwise. I hope this isn't completely foolish... or worse. "As you say, then," he said aloud, turning to face the direction they had come. "Do we depart the same way we came in?"

Then he glanced back at Ea. "What do I need to do to help?"

Perri Indiya

"Carry my pack?" He asked, pulling out a deer skin before handing it over. He tied two corners together to make a sling and then laid it on the ground. Turning to the Grigori he grabbed the thing by its sides and placed it in the sling without a word. It took a few moments to lift up his burden in its carrier and get it settled on his back, but eventually he was ready to go.

"Just keep your hands to yourself, okay?" He hissed at the thing over his shoulder before turning back to Illumin. "Ready when you are, and we know where we're going."

Ivynian

“How did you come? We were shown not the way;
the paths between our worlds were sundered.
We came here when but command was uttered. "

"Aristogeiton, Mang and mother,
Son and brother,
only these and never more
came to here, our sand-poured shores."


She considered Eamnonn and his shouldered burden.
“That meat will not move, nor grab your hand
Leave it to the pouring sands.
It is but symbol and but flesh,
A useless binding and a mess."

Sosiqui

"Very well - we will return the way we came. It will be several hours' journey to reach where we entered; it was beyond the... wall." Damn it, they were going to have to cross that horrible prison again.

And then... ugh, he hoped not too much time had passed outside the Ashlands, that Kishara hadn't had time to heal. Maybe for her it would be instantaneous; gone one moment, back the next. "You are free of that body? What of the key?"

Ivynian

“What are bodies but useless meat?
A thing of shackles for souls conceit.
Pay it no mind and off we go
The piece to you I will bestow
When safely on the other side
where this sick realm cannot divide
in unwhole, unreal quick decay
what once was brilliant into grey.

I keep it hidden in mine own,
and hopeless hopes come, that I may atone. "

"It was key of his, I know not to what doors it went. Nothing here. "


She frowned,
“Hours are danger, there must be greater haste.
They will come after me in this waste."

Sosiqui

"They?" Illumin repeated, and he had a sudden horrifying thought of the things in the wall uncurling, clawing at their prison, cracking free - ugh! His wings rustled against each other in a shiver of revulsion.

Well, they'd just have to deal with that if it happened, as nasty as it was. "The gateway we formed lies beyond the wall - if we dropped everything that wasn't absolutely vital and ran flat-out," he began, uneasily. That would be much easier for Ea... "Perhaps you should go first, with our... guest, Ea." Illumin shook his head. "You can run faster than I can, and protect yourself more effectively, too." He glanced back at the Grigori. "Is something likely to attack me if I do not immediately accompany you?"

Quote:

“We must fly.
Quickly now or we will die."

"Drop and run, fly or carry,
we must go now and no longer tarry." Her agitation was plain, her claws worked themselves only inches from Illumin. She pulled them back to herself, steeling herself.






“More immediately then you would think, Lord Liuhath.....Samyaza, you will not abandon our coven so easily." A second shade shifted out from within one inner circle of crosses, the painful letters still carven on its brow. “The gods are not welcome here. You break tryst with us, invading our lands and stealing what is ours. We consider these acts of aggression. You do not seem as great as you were, Light...Hunt. When we touch you, we shall see how long your fabric will last."

 

[Sosiqui]

Quest - Part Ten: The Land Beyond the Gods IV

Sosiqui

Illumin whirled at the second voice, and a cold shiver worked its way up his spine. Damn...

But the new Grigori's words changed that coldness into a low flicker of anger. It was true that the gods had come here, entered their sanctuary, but the rest... was an insult that could not be borne. "We do not seek to do you or your people any harm," Illumin replied, keeping his voice calm and level. "After we leave this place, we shall not return. The freedom of your people will remain; we seek no rule, no conquest. We came in peace only to seek Aristogeiton, who is, has been, and shall ever be the Twin Crown's as his consort - he who was sent to you for a short time only by the One who permitted you this free land. You have no claim over him," he finished, his voice firm; the light around him grew a bit brighter. "We retrieve only what belongs to our Lord, and accept the bargain freely offered for such," he added, glancing back at the first Grigori.

Samyaza. The very first tablet had spoken of her. Their leader, Samyaza, we do not trust. We feel she will betray us somehow.

How reassuring... yet, if this Samyaza was their leader, why the opposition?

They might have to slice their way out of the Ashlands. Right here. Right now. Kishara...

Perri Indiya

s**t. "Ignore him. Go!" The Hunt pushed Illumin lightly, encouraging the other god to proceed him. "We'll deal with the wall when we get there."

He itched to race, hairs up on the back of his neck. He felt like... prey.

Ivynian

“It wishes righteous words with us."

.
.

"Fancies himself wise."

.
.

“Come Light, burn-ing brighter, such courage in your determined eyes."

.

"There's no fright, only Might of the Light!"whispers chimed among the not-audible ripples of laughter.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

She started forward, out from the circle on one of the paths, half turned back in hesitation to wait for them.
“Don't let him touch you!"

Sosiqui

Illumin's eyes narrowed at the jibes, the feeling of cold amusement - no, mockery! His urge was to blaze at them, burn with Light and Truth and make them see that they were wrong, were fools to so belittle him-

And if you do this, you will die. The thought was almost external; if Illumin hadn't very well known better, he would have thought it was from his host. But it was enough to give him the pause he needed to actually think.

Run-!

This was no time to be grand and noble. It grated at him, but if he fell here... perhaps the Wall, forever - no! The very idea made him almost physically ill, as did the idea of a jewel's own walls encasing him again, a gem lost under the shifting sands, for who would come to seek it here... drifting until the long fall off the Edge of the Ashlands into... what?

RUN!

Illumin turned and ran as fast as he could, flecks of light trailing from the edges of his wings as they flared behind him.

Perri Indiya

Long green legs moved as fast as they could, the Hunt racing in pursuit of survival instead of blood and meat. His burden was heavy, but fear of the things behind them made him surge forward as if it wasn't there.

Ivynian

The second Grigori was fast, the bizarre form gliding soundless above sands and space cleanly as levitated magnets. Claw-spindle fingers outstretched in shimmering dark sinews at Hunt's back, disrupting the fibers of leaves and 'wood' that formed the wing they touched. The Unbelief rippled along the contact and the spindles passed down like passing unreal through water. But the pain was there.

The unmaking was real. Raw and strange, a physical contact of Unbelief, a draining thing that broke into the weave that made Hunt's wing Be. The trail where the hand had passed through began to wash out grey and rot to sand the same as the slogging wastes.

Sosiqui

Illumin felt the thing strike Eamnonn, felt the surge of wrongness - more wrong than Destruction's aura had ever felt, more pervasive. The raw stuff of the Fading itself. "EA!" he shouted, too terrified of the thing behind him to stop running. To pause would be foolish, and he willed the Hunt to keep moving, to heal the damage... and yet, he felt instinctively that it would not be that simple. His stomach twisted with true fear.

If they died here at the hands of this thing, would there even be enough to make a gem again?

Perri Indiya

Eamnonn stumbled, body shocked by the sudden lack of weight on his left side. The pain came quickly afterwards, ripping a cry from his lips and numbing his arm. Fangs digging into his lips he dug feet and hands into the ground, forcing himself on through will and terror. There was no time, no breath to spare for shouts or sorrows. The familiar stretch of new growth did not rise to distract him from his goal, but that was a worry for a different time. Winter had come to a part of the Hunt.

Ivynian

"They shall not fly."

Having crippled one wing of the Hunt, the Grigori turned its attention to Light, reaching out again to rake its half-there hand through the fabric of a passing, sparking banner of color.

Sosiqui

Illumin saw the reaching hand too late; tried to dodge to one side. For a moment he thought he'd succeeded, but then a searing pain nearly tripped him altogether as the upper part of one wing crumpled around the raking tears the Grigori's attack had made. Only sheer adrenaline kept him actually moving, and in forcing himself to not scream, he bit his tongue bloody. He could feel the malaise tainting him now, like a poison.

There were tears unbidden in his eyes; as he stumbled, Illumin spun an orb of light between his hands and cast it into the air, sending it behind him to flash and burst at the Grigori, seeking to blind the creature as he had once stunned Lucius that time - so long ago it seemed, now.

So easy that had been, compared to this.

Perri Indiya

The green god shifted his burden, racing up to Illumin with a burst of speed and dragging something out of his pack. Light glinted off a well-used but wickedly sharp extra hunting knife Ea had tucked away just in case there was trouble. The damned thing behind them certainly qualified.

He did not relish getting close enough to their pursuer to drive the blade in, but it was the way hunt was supposed to go. If you weren't sprayed with blood and ichor by your kill, what was the point? He kept moving forward, letting his eyes stay forward while his other senses tracked his prey. Turning suddenly on his heel, Eamnonn swung the blade are around and in, letting his momentum put his weight behind what was hopefully a crippling blow.

As soon as he could convince his wired muscles to obey him again, The Hunt continued his flight towards the wall.

Ivynian

There was satisfaction on the smooth, cold face. Subtle, but there in the bare indented upturn of the very corners of it’s lips. The edges of the tears in Light’s wing also began to wash out grey, falling in particulate dust as he stumbled and still tried to keep pace. The Grigori closed his eyes as the true light flared forth, not fighting it.
“But in pain must sing the choir / for the Light be burning brighter. Left alone for countless lives / when suddenly it burns out eyes."

“What good is that, Light? We do not need to see…we can feel you, Beacon. We can feel you all."
It did not try to dodge the blow from Hunt’s knife, did not fear it. It was a banal, unsuited. The blade passed through the half-present sinew, cutting none.

“Older magic then that, Hunt. Where are your claws? Where are your spears and holy barbs? Where are any of the majestic arms that brought to bear against us in forgotten war?"

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“Ramuel, you will let us pass!"
Samyaza turned her own claws on the Grigori, the blow also landing as he remained still in the light. The wire cuts into the flesh of his chest were not gruesome, they did not ash as his marks against the gods. They were normal wounds, trickling slow, berry-black blood. She kept moving forward with the momentum of the run, no intention of stopping to examine the results.

Sosiqui

What good is it? It bought us time, you b*****d. Illumin gritted his teeth and tried not to think about the soft tumble of sand that brushed his pumping legs every so often as his still-searing wing drizzled and drooled Being in a trail behind them. He thought about spitting out the blood that filled his mouth, but chose instead to swallow it hard, remembering Samyaza's own desire for god-blood.

Here, we are not gods. No wonder no-one comes here. No wonder... Mang, Aristogeiton. Brave. Or fools, perhaps.

He could barely wait to see the Wall now; there was something worse than what was entombed within it, and he could feel it chewing on his mangled wing. Would it stop? Or would it continue, gnawing his wing entirely and then setting teeth of Unbelief into his very flesh when it reached his back? Perhaps when there was a moment, he could take Ea's knife and slice the poisoned wing off, entirely. Perhaps it would heal in time. Perhaps not. It was better than the alternative.

Run.

He continued.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt thought of his wolves - the dark, elemental piece of him that would ravage whatever it fell upon. He did not know if he could bring that part of himself up here, or if he was able it was a wise action to take, but he did not like fleeing. Being hunted managed to grate on him just slightly more than this place of no gods - it was like being undone. Made to be what he was not.

Fine, no blade. Eamnonn turned, claws slashing his own skin to let blood and old, dark hunts flow. "I don't remember hunting you, but I remember this."

Shadow and eyes the color of old blood rushed towards Ramuel.

Ivynian

Godsaugur, here.....

Ramuel paused, chasing them no longer as the shadows came.
“As it should be. Devour what you can."


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“Your ....things....they worked!"
Samyaza looked ahead at the reaching sands and twisted buildings. The grasses whipped before them in winds unfelt before.

“Long since last I passed this way, not since the Embassy was cast away."

Sosiqui

Illumin dared to glance back as the Hunt's shadowbeasts ran past him, and saw Remuel slow, stop. Still, he dared not spare any breath for Ea or Samyaza. Who knew how long the shadows would halt the chase? How long until they were hunted again?

His muscles were burning, but they couldn't stop. Dared not stop. He did, however, give Eamnonn and the Grigori a quick, hopeful nod. Where was that blasted wall?!

Perri Indiya

"Parts of me." He said quickly, turning again to race after Illumin once more. His longs and muscles burned, overtaxed and not recovering as quickly as they should. Ea blamed the touch that had cost him part of his wing, and shoved the pain the back of his mind. As long as all the tendons and sinew stayed attached, he could push himself through any physical discomfort. Probably.

"Can this be over now?" he gasped at his companion, drawing abreast of the other god.

Sosiqui

Illumin glanced down at the ground. "If I cut through here - Kishara, do you think-" Oh, the thought was tempting. So tempting.

But what would happen on the other side?

Ivynian

Behind them, what touched the flesh of the Grigori, sunk teeth or claw into it, ashed and ceased to be, drunk by the ground and bones and grass. Drunk from shadow and dark to hollow grey.
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“Kishara? This name is not known to me. "
The grigori's spindles toyed thoughtfully against her own neck, drawing out thin strands of web-light. If it was light. “This is another reborn? Are they injured by passage by Ashed form? I did not know merely passing made injury. "

Sosiqui

They had their distraction - but it would not last. The hounds were falling.

We have to go now. He skidded to a stop, took a deep, shuddering breath, and began to spin light between his hands.

"Samyaza... yes, it will cause injury to Gaia. Please... I do not know what your claws would do to her, if it's anything like... ngh." He winced as his own injured wing pulsed painfully, though thankfully the erosion of the wound seemed to have stopped. 'It may do something we cannot cure. Unless it is our last recourse..."

We have to go now.

He focused his power on the ground before them and sent it leaping forth to sear into the fabric of the Ashlands. Into Kishara. "Ea, help me! Help me dig!" Please work, please please please-

Perri Indiya

The Hunt bent and dug, tearing into the ground as quickly and cleanly as he could. He hoped this left no jagged scars or permanent injury on his friend. "Sorry Kish."

 

[Sosiqui]

Quest - Part Ten: The Land Beyond the Gods V

Sosiqui

Adrenaline and light and heat in his hands, sweat stinging and the dust of his own wings coating the back of his thighs - and suddenly, without warning, their prayers were answered.

The ground opened up around Illumin's light and Eamnnon's claws, swallowing like a mouth. For a moment Illumin was sure they were lost, but then a familiar aura enveloped Illumin, and he landed on something hard.

Floor.

Never before had Illumin been so wildly happy to feel Destruction's influence on his skin.

Ivynian

She waited patiently until the aura's clashed, the other world and the Ashlands. Familiar feels and strengths ebbing through around their skin as they pressed through the opening. It was like being birthed. She wondered through what orifice they would be traveling.

And her turn came, Eamnonn's feet vanishing through the deep. The sands were starting to fill the whole, so she stooped, lowering from her hover, and thrust her spindle-hands out, pulling the opening apart a little again and pushed up and through.

“He is strong again."

The very air was tainted with Him.

Here was a floor, a room a door. Here were bodies, plants and places. People and spirits and Powers reborn.

Lady_Ourania

Gaia had been distracted for the greater portion of her day, staring blankly into the ever-moving network of vines that rustled fitfully along walls and served as a sad substitute for company. Life was in residence all around her, caught in the scuffle of animal sounds, the ricochet of claws and wings and scales while perfume from proudly vibrant flora filled her head in a soothing bath of reassurance. But even with the numerous distractions, the goddess sensed something of ominous stature on the rise, a tentative, ambiguous knowledge which planted squirming anticipation in the anxiety-fertile soil of her belly. She had dismissed her cohort earlier on, requesting a rare day of peace to better settle into recent events which still required some consideration, her pensive attitude clearly on display as she kept one hand cupped over her chin and mouth while the other performed a nervous tap dance on the splintered edge of her worktable. But time that had been set aside to examine the past was being distracted by the present, the tightness in her chest coupled with the leaden refusal of her thoughts to follow any other path allowing for little else.

There was no method to accurately pinpoint what was causing her disturbance, only a pervasive unease that stuck to the roof of her mouth and overstayed its welcome. Even standing silently and gearing everything toward observation, she still could not distinguish the specifics of the event until it was all but upon her, a penny-sized welt on her forearm no cause for alarm save for when it pulsed to her heartbeat and demanded green-eyed focus. Kishara dropped her hand and swiped her fingertips lightly over the swelling, canting her head slightly in puzzlement as she attempted to work out the sudden appearance of irritated flesh. Had she bumped into something? Perhaps she had dropped hot wax from a lit candle and brushed it off, in the habit of accepting small hurts unthinkingly. It was nothing.

But such a benign misconception was quickly lost as the spot shuddered and expanded, leaving the moth-winged woman to watch in dawning horror as it systematically engulfed her entire arm in crimson-splotched affliction. She stepped back with a hushed cry, her hip bumping into a stray chair as she attempted to stop the spread by helplessly seizing her elbow, the gesture far too late as the pain licked upward to tease with a smoldering tongue at her shoulder's socket. There was something scratching beneath her skin, threatening to tear out as she felt the connection she had opened so long ago being pressured back into an active state. The burning, clawing relationship of the pain clicked with her awareness, and she took a strained breath between her teeth before focusing on easing the portal more fully open.

Sinews stretched unnaturally, skin breaking with a wet noise that might have made her gag had her teeth not been soldered against one another from the tight clench of her jaw. Illumin came first, bright-hot and shining, fresh from some forbidden land as he hit the floor and clung to it like a drowning man coming upon a raft in a stewing sea. Then Eamnonn, tumbling out in an explosion of green and wilted leaves, headfirst and feral in the abrupt confines of her room. It was the last escapee that caused her to gasp as she exited, wiry fingers parting back folds of tissue while something that had the look and feel of sand spilled out onto the hardwood ground. The final body through, the shimmering gateway along her arm faded into a vision more resembling some meaty massacre, and she dropped down to a crouch to curl protectively around the trembling limb. Shivering, sick, and not yet composed enough to feel glad that both gods had returned, she watched them with pinched, bleary-eyed features. They were injured, a scent like decay filling her nose as she took in the crumpled state of wings and sweating bodies, trying to force the edge of her thoughts sharp once again. The words of the being she did not recognize brought her around slightly, and she stared at it, uncomprehending and trying to decide what it was Light and Hunt had willfully brought into her house.

Perri Indiya

Home! The world felt right again, if dark and depressed. There was air! And light! And plants! And a hell of a lot of pain! He found strangely that he'd missed this deep down to the marrow of his bones pain.

"Is everyone still in one piece?"

Sosiqui

Illumin was on his hands and knees, panting, trying to catch his breath, his wings fanning back and forth. The one that had crumpled under the Grigori's strike still hurt like the blazes, but the erosion had blessedly stopped. "I... we're... back..."

After a moment, he remembered what the passage must have done, and sat up with a sharply indrawn breath. "Kishara!" He stumbled as he got to his feet, then stared uncomprehendingly at the mess they'd made of her flesh. "Lady... I'm so... so sorry... we were being... chased, attacked.. lives in danger," Illumin croaked, suddenly aware of how dry his throat was. Whether it was from leftover fear or the sight of the aftermath of their passage, he could not say. "So... sorry..."

The muscles in his legs felt as though they were on fire.

Ivynian

There was a red-haired girl that stank of Influence, limped in on herself like a wounded bird. Indeed. And Light and Hunt hearkened to the small one, less brilliant then them. Why did she glow lesser, to be so important? Samyaza’s eyes narrowed briefly, questions for later.

”Lady this, the bleeds upon the floor,
that gated through her shattered arm
I thank your pain to be our door
Kishara, Gaia, be that suffers harm?”

She did not wait for an answer initially, but looked down at the men wallowing at the base of the room, and stretched open her mouth. Wide, wider…the skin pulled at the jaw until blue crystal birthed obscenely from the orifice and dropped- a new decanter.

It sloshed with another liquid, and dangled from its stopper was the thing like a key. The key was large, easily the size of sewing shears. “What’s promised-paid.”

Lady_Ourania

So much talking in what had been a quiet space not five minutes before, too many voices rising up and causing the plants to wave restlessly, sensing their mistress' disorientation and pain. The green-gold bracer of vines unraveled from her wrist to crawl upward in a legless march and wrap around the worst of the wounds, tightly sealing them from view while endorphins clattered forward to alleviate some of the feeling's intensity. It had all been so sudden, so unexpected, and her brain was still struggling to pull ahead of her body's running start. What was this? She gazed through her bangs at the two who had returned as three, the tightness in her belly shuddering as though grateful it had escaped from being utilized as the gateway this time around. Better crippled than eviscerated, perhaps.

"Peace, Illumin." She rasped out after she had convinced her lips to part, rising a little unsteadily from her stooped posture while keeping her free hand over the throbbing layer of green, half afraid her abused flesh would seep through the bindings. "It... it is not so terrible as before." Though she had been prepared then, and there had been fewer, more precise implements used in prying her open. She could still feel Hunt's claws under her skin, a ghostly echo of terror before she had recognized what was happening and complied.

Neither of gods she had sent into the unknown appeared to have made it back unscathed, and she stared pointedly at their injuries, absorbing and accepting them as her responsibility before turning her attention back to the malformed shape of the woman. The emaciated female looked to be in no way a part of the Aristogeiton both men had sought, and that they had plucked another from a forbidden space... what consequences would that bring? The use of her true two names caused the goddess' wings to furl out in surprise; certain she had never made this creature's acquaintance, though the question at the end of the poetic rhythm to the words did not escape her attention. She stayed silent, not yet knowledgeable enough to be unfriendly, still struggling to adjust as she watched the being's mouth heave something decisively solid. Any reaction she might have had to the sight was suspended at the brightening thing's words. Promised?

"You know of me then, but I have no name to call you by." She began carefully, confirming what the woman must have already suspected. The goddess took a step forward, still at a distance but close enough to inspect the proffered vessel. A decanter and a key, the latter of enormous proportion. "What is this payment, and for what was it exchanged?" She did not quite dare to glance at Hunt and Light as she asked, afraid for them and decisions made in what she guessed from Illumin's words had been an embattled moment.

Perri Indiya

Despite the throbbing pain Eamnonn pushed himself to his feet, taking a place at Gaia's side. He put himself slightly forward of the goddess, ready to stand between her and their guest if the rapidly fleshing statue-thing tried to give them trouble.

"What will you do now?" He asked Samyaza quietly, wanting her and her lingering sense of the Ashlands away from their injured party before seeing to Kish's wounds.

Sosiqui

"Ah..." Illumin got up, slowly. He still hurt, ached powerfully, but simply being out of the Ashlands was making him feel better. Samyaza, though... she seemed different here. Powerfully out of place.

Yet she had done what she promised. "Thank you, Samyaza." He held out one hand for the decanter and key, then glanced back at Kishara. "This is... a piece of Aristogeiton," he answered her, quietly. "Exchanged for bringing her here; she is Samyaza, of the Grigori." He turned his gaze back to Samyaza. "Hunt's question is also mine...?" Part of him wanted to offer her a place to stay, but another part was completely repulsed by the idea. Honor versus sheer instinct. He set the conflict aside, mentally, until he knew more of the Grigori's intentions.

Ivynian

"That vessel was made ransom in our keeping."

She stretched back her jaw, and it locked again into fairer, more normal shape. She worked her 'hands', straining visibly to manage further, and plainly, "It was safeguard against his dissemination, a piece of him holy and ...whole, wholly him. If the sands rotted and weened him towards Nothing, the key would unlock the decanter and that blood restore him. "

Samyaza's lips pulled into amusement. "Allies, but moments before, do fade to old suspicions and doubt is seems,
and stand before-between I and your queen.
But Crown of Empress I see not upon the brow of this dame,
and so our station's quite the same.
I will not harm her, I have no need --
it's Emperor I hope to seek.
And charge him change my loyal station,
Remove from me my aberration
Rest, 'Samyaza', and earn new Name.
Uplifted from my nation’s shame."

Lady_Ourania

Her mind was caught up in an ungentle cadence of discomfort, her wounds combating with slithering dread for supremacy while she listened and watched, trying to determine which sentiment was the better choice in their current situation. Pale lips formed an anxious line when Eamnonn took up a defensive posture at her side, warning the redhead without words to lapse into a quieter, less accessible target, to accept her limitations in the dynamic their group shared. The creature did not look overtly dangerous, though the sharpness of her limbs attracted Kishara's green gaze, causing her to draw parallels between wire and arms while she waited patiently to hear all that was exchanged. Samyaza, then. They both spoke it, knew it, although Illumin gave her context as well. One of the Grigori, the beings left to the Ashlands, if she was to believe the children's book that called to only emptiness in her own recollections.

Aristogeiton... The vessel was certainly nothing earthly, but she had hardly expected to hear such a connection, her knees unlocking and trembling until she had to reach out a hand to catch herself on a nearby bed of vines, her palm leaving a bloody smear where it had forfeited keeping her pulped arm company. He had been there, or at least a part of him had, some infinitesimal piece that could very well be the key to discovering how to resurrect him. Not a fool's errand. Not time and precious blood wasted on something she hadn't thought to question closely enough before sending the two gods on their way. Relief washed over her, threatening to send her sprawling on the floor before Samyaza spoke and she was forced to stiffen slightly, the slap of the words plain even if they were completely true. Empress, although often addressed to her, was not her title to claim.

"The Emperor..." She had not yet seen Him, not yet agreed to a meeting though the need burned holes inside of her. Kishara set her jaw in thought, momentarily ignoring the state of her arm though she could feel the slow build of something hot and wet pushing through restraining leaves. If she led this woman to Him, would that add to the supposed betrayal she had already flung at His feet?

Perri Indiya

When Kishara stumbled Ea moved to catch her, coming late but putting an arm under hers to offer what little strength he had left anyway. Once she looked stable he turned back to the Grigori, glancing at Illumin. Was their journey still not over?

Sosiqui

Illumin nodded, slowly. "He dwells here, though I... I myself have not seen Lord Harmodius - Destruction-"

He still had a hard time applying the name 'Harmodius' to the 'Emperor' downstairs, but he did not flinch from it in revulsion as he had before. Illumin nodded once again. "Samyaza, if you go to him, you should not go alone. I will come with you, and explain myself... explain the damage to the Empress, and explain why you are here. I owe you that honor for your kindness and your aid."

Ivynian

“As though diminished sights should seek
To guard those longer about of walking
But feel you welcome to be meek
Whilst I and master be talking. “

“I do not fear Destruction, though it is In him.”

The Grigori seemed at once disinterested in the three of them. Her searching eyes found the shape of the door, puzzling it over. “They are like that here, I had forgotten. “

”I seek no lodging, need no hands or food or wine
Travesties all of extravagant times
I seek immediate a Name. “

”You are welcome to come or go to find his blames or shames. “

She floated slowly away, to the door, the pace calculated. Slow enough to not be distressing, to allow any decisions.
Never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention.

“ Our amenable deal is concluded, you with that strange prize and I with mine. “

Lady_Ourania

A green arm that was flesh and blood instead of corded vegetation touched her, and the redhead gladly gripped the offered support, wishing she had some variety of comfort to provide in return. Shaken as she was, Gaia could only offer a soft word of vague thanks in Hunt's direction, her focus shifting to Illumin as the violet-haired god volunteered himself for a task that should have been beyond his current state. Both of them were exhausted, tired well past reasonable limits after an experience she had merely been subjected to the tail end of - and yet here they were, all but holding her upright, electing to stand before a deity they did not hold any strong affection for and present an explanation that could be met with undesirable results.

Again, she was referred to as Empress; again the Grigori's detached observations of their bedraggled and weakened conditions stung, all of it harassing some fraction of pride she hadn't known she possessed. The goddess shook her head, taking a sharp breath and shoving the raging hurt in her arm from her thoughts before speaking. "I will accompany you. If someone must... speak and accept the repercussions, it will be myself." Her voice was firm despite the recent spill she'd nearly taken, gently pulling away from Eamnnon's helpful stance to show she could stand on her own, though her stunned body refused to stop shaking. "You should both rest." She added quietly, her fingers curling lightly around her brutalized bicep, ignoring the cold sweat still forming on every ounce of flesh not already aflame. They had come to her with a plot, but she had been the one to open a doorway otherwise lost to memory, to give them an opportunity which had sat unhappily with Destruction. It was her responsibility, and she would not shirk it, nor let them bow beneath the crushing weight of blame.

The doorway seemed strangely distant as she took a tentative step, following the slip of barely-fleshed being's path and feeling the whispering walls of green watching warily with eyeless concern. The Mother doubted that she would be an instrumental piece in whatever event was to take place, but she would at least be present and held accountable for past errors.

Perri Indiya

Ea let her go reluctantly, but he was too tired to argue with this sudden strength Gaia showed. He ought to have offered to accompany her, to stand at her side as he had before, but he was running on fumes as it was. If he went before Destruction now and did something to displease him, he might not come out alive. He tried to explain away this selfish need to drag himself home by thinking of his daughter and all those that depended on him. It almost worked, too.

"Lady, let me at least see you to the Throne room before I return home." He said after a moment of thought, stepping up to Kishara and offering his arm to her. "I have responsibilities there I have let lapse, else I would not leave you, even if you don't really need me."

He smiled at her, worried for her and somewhat disgusted at himself, but making his choice nonetheless.

Sosiqui

"Kishara..." Illumin began, but a wave of exhaustion overtook him and made him wobble on his feet. Even for the divine, there were limits, and such a pursuit beyond the sphere of All That Be...

They had been beyond the limits from the beginning.

"As you say, Empress," he said, quietly, then raised his voice. "Samyaza. Thank you for your aid. If you find... your Name... then I would like to know it, if you would tell me once you have it."

He felt that there was still a debt owed, niggling at him like the edges of his wounded wing, but he was in no state to address it now. Kishara was right, even injured as she was. And she outranked him.

Ivynian

" ‘ If someone must... speak and accept the repercussions, it will be myself.’ “ The grigori echoed, as though this in itself seemed half thought out. She looked over the twines of her shoulder where the skin bore, torn-edge like handmade paper.
“All be with wound. The Crown will eat or not.
If he wonders of the lot, I do not hesitate to think
that he can find you each soon.”

”You should wrap your arm, my dear, it really isn’t pretty.”

Lady_Ourania

The door was her primary goal for now: once she made it there, then she would consider the imminent trouble with stairs and an arm that would probably do more to doom her than catch her if she slipped in a fatigued state. Eamnonn's gallant gesture snapped such determined focus in half, green eyes turning to glance at his extended arm before trailing listlessly upward to his face. "Hunt..." Her voice was cast low so that only he would hear the tone, clearly asking him to reconsider such a choice. If he was not thinking of his family, then she was doing it enough for the both of them, the image of a worried Caolan at her bedside rising to the forefront of her mind. Eamnonn did not realize what he risked, what precious girls he threatened to forfeit spending time with again for another round of playing her protector. His smile made her hushed language drift into something yet quieter, and she took the offered crutch without another word, her condition giving her little room for argument. Illumin too seemed prepared to trudge onward, even though she'd seen a stubborn set overtake his jaw when it had first been suggested she accompany them. They were going then - all of them this time, at least as far as they could - to find a name and to weather whatever else was flung their way rather than wait for it to come.

There was no fighting the grimace when her words were repeated to the measure of the other female's voice, the expression plastered on even as she tried to will it away with the flush she could feel starting along the back of her neck and twining upward. "I thank you for your concern," She replied as primly as she could manage, subtly tightening her hold on the green god so that her spine would straighten and give her a bearing as regal as everyone seemed to suspect she needed. "The vines will serve for now. We will... we will go."

She was not thinking clearly; thinking clearly in the past had done nothing but disappoint her with too many flaws, too much hesitation. Her thoughts were like lightning bugs caught in a thunderstorm, chaotic and enmeshed. No more hiding, no more waiting, no more sitting back and hoping everything would be well with time. Had it not been time that had created this gap in the first place? All the pain, the helpless triviality upon being rebirthed and caught in feeble flesh, the forgetfulness... had it not been faith of a kind that had ultimately murdered them all?

Perri Indiya

The led the Empress to the throne room: through the door, down the hall and down the stairs til they reached them empty hall. It seemed to take forever at the slow pace everyone could manage, only the Grigori up for more fleet travel. The stairs were particularly hard, and were it not for a death grip on the banister that probably left wounds in the wood, he would have been lost. How he was every going to make it home on foot he had no idea.

It hurt his heart to take Kishara's have from his arm and brush a kiss over her knuckles in farewell, but he was minutes from falling flat on his face and that made him useless to her if not a detriment. "Here you are, escorted safe and sound. I'll see you later, okay? I've got to get home and see what's left of my temple after leaving it to Caolan."

Nodding to Samyaza and giving Illumin's shoulder a squeeze, Eamnonn left them, staggering out of the building and beginning the long, slow walk to the forest.

Sosiqui

It seemed foolish to trip down the stairs when his chambers were right down the hall, but even in his exhausted state Illumin couldn't let himself do any less than Eamnnon... even if the other deity had several natural stamina advantages. So he came, following the others, holding the precious key cradled in his hands. He had no idea what it was, nor how to use it, but at least they had it. Tangible proof that their journey and Kishara's injury had not been in vain.

Nothing had changed downstairs; all was still ash and twisted grandeur, and Illumin's wings shivered against each other with both exhaustion and dislike. Yet the aura of Destruction's self seemed nowhere near as oppressive to him now as it once had. Not after having felt the empty alternative.

He stumbled a bit under Ea's friendly shoulder-squeeze, and murmured his thanks vaguely at the departing god, then nodded to Kishara and Samyaza. "I fear I am also far less than useful... perhaps it would be good to collapse at Destruction's feet but I'm certain I would not be able to stand again." He sighed, self-depreciatingly. "Fare well, Empress, Samyaza."

Illumin bowed shakily to them both, then mounted the stairs. To his great surprise, there were two figures waiting for him at the top of the stairs, silent and solemn - his Aoide. Eliam and Eibhilin said nothing, merely came beside him to support him with worry in their eyes. Eliam made as if to take the key from him, but Illumin refused to relinquish it.

So they stumbled down the hall until the door with the sun-in-glory presented itself, and after that there was not much to speak of other than the blessed cool softness of Illumin's own bed, and, at last, sleep.

 

[Sosiqui]

Safe Within the Shadow...?

The Aoidei helped him up to his bed, silently flanking him, radiating worry and questions, but saying nothing. They were waiting for him to say something, he realized. His throat was dry, and he swallowed; a moment later, there was a glass of water held out before him. He took it eagerly, and drained it. "Thank you," he managed. What he wanted to do was lay down and sleep at once, but they had waited for him - they deserved a moment of his time before he rested.

"Welcome back, Radiance," Eliam said, quietly.

"Believe you me, no one is as glad to be back as I am... except perhaps Eamnonn." He still held the decanter and key, cool against his side. The precious artifact they had gone so far and done so much to obtain. He lifted it reverently, truly looking at it for the first time. Blue crystal, stoppered, with another liquid inside, and the key hanging from that. He shook it gently, and heard the liquid slosh around inside.

"What is it?" Eibhilin asked, extending her long fingers to take the empty glass from him.

"Priceless," Illumin murmured, furrowing his brow. "It is a piece of Aristogeiton." He did not understand how that could work, how a mortal could be broken into pieces, and how one of those pieces could come to look like this odd relic, as utterly unlike a human being as he could imagine - but here it was, proof positive. "Ea and I brought it back."

"We felt you go," Eibhilin whispered, after a moment. "It was like..." She paused. "Like they killed you again."

A shudder ran up Illumin's spine. "But I came back."

"Yes." Both Aoidei smiled and bowed. "Months and months gone, but praise to the Twin Crown, you have returned," Eliam added.

Illumin stared. "Months and months?! But it seemed merely hours!" True, their journey and the subsequent pursuit had seemed long and it had been difficult to keep track of time - if any Time could be said to exist in the Ashlands - but still, months? "What time is it now?"

"Late spring, for what it is worth under Destruction's rule," Eibhilin said. "Oh..." She brightened, and glanced at Eliam, who nodded, once. "Radiance, I have news of Panacea!"

Illumin's heart skipped a beat. "Pana?! Where is she?"

"I have not seen her, Radiance," Eibhilin said, quickly, offering an apologetic half-bow before drifting around behind Illumin, reaching out to carefully examine his wound; Illumin hissed with the pain, but tried to ignore it and focus on her words instead. "But a servant of Tien Lung's came to me, saying that one of that King's own followers had spoken with Panacea in a far away place, across the vast spaces of the universe. She still seeks Aristogeiton."

"Pana..." Illumin smiled. "That is good news. Is there more?"

"Sadly, no - but it is more than we have had for some time."

"True. I will have to give my thanks to this... Tien Lung, hm." Another Dragon King, then. "How fares the Pantheon?" He had missed so much...

"Well, as far as I know." It was Eliam who spoke this time, bowing in turn. "I have seen the flight of Dragon Kings, and there is an odd.. shield, of sorts, around some of this town now. The protection of the Worldshield, it is said, that same Tien Lung who sent us news."

"I spoke with a host newly made, thrall to Winter's goddess," Eibhilin added. "Destruction's reign continues, though..." Her glance slid to the decanter Illumin held. "And this will...?" Her voice trailed off, but the question was plain despite not being spoken.

Illumin sighed, then flinched as the Aoide applied some kind of balm to his wing. "I don't know. It is but a part," he admitted, letting the relic rest on his lap. "We may need to travel again, and search more for the other pieces."

"I spoke with Lady Music in your absence as well, Radiance," Eliam said. "She spoke of Underworld, who journeys on this same quest."

"Does he?" That was another surprise. How many gods were seeking their Lord's errant lover? He didn't feel like thinking about it, not now. The pain of his wing was beginning to ease.

"May we not aid you?" Eibhilin asked, anxiously.

The god smiled. "Perhaps. I am glad you did not come to the Ashlands, though. There were perils there that you may not have survived, and... I need you. Both of you."

The Aoidei bowed. "As we you," they replied, in unison.

"It's good to be home," Illumin said, with a yawn. "Even if this place does lie under Destruction's shadow... at least here, there is Light." Light indeed, pouring down on him from the lanterns, renewing him with every moment. Eibhilin was done with her ministrations, and he curled on his side, keeping the injured wing upright. A few breaths, and there was sleep at last.  

[Sosiqui]

Consequences

The dust stretched on forever, tugged at his legs when he tried to move, seeming more liquid than solid... behind him, the half-made thing gibbered and swiped, tearing strips from his wings, his back, and there was no solace, no rescue, nothing but endless dust and pain and-

Illumin convulsed and awoke with a gasp, his heart pounding. The dream shredded to bits at once, but somehow the feeling of emptiness that had radiated through the Ashlands was still there, still crawling somewhere-

Building-

And then it hit, a sizzle of terrifying power far more intense than when Lucius had wounded Creation so long ago, a wind carrying dust and death and a horribly familiar scent along with it. Above him, the lanterns shuddered and went out, the light orbs he himself had placed fizzling into nothingness, plunging the room into night. Illumin bit his tongue, hard, trying not to scream.

His heart was stopped, frozen to ice.

He knew-

Samyaza!!

As the Aoidei collapsed bonelessly to the ground and the wound in his wing flared as if it had just been laid bare anew, Illumin clung grimly to his bed and knew.

She has done something- He turned his head and retched, shaking, as the Wave crested around him and then rushed outward, leaving him breathless and silent with terror.

She has done something terrible-

The fear stirred him to action, and he jumped out of bed, trembling all over. He knocked over a table, sending the glass and pitcher crashing to break on the floor. "Eliam! Eibhilin!"

He was terrified that they wouldn't get up, wouldn't move; but after a moment, both Aoidei got slowly to their feet, looking dazed. "Radiance-"

"We must leave this place-" She had done something, she had done something, what if she was coming for him next-

By my hand-

The Aoidei flung themselves into a flurry of movement, not understanding but following his orders for now. Weeping with fear and guilt, Illumin flung open the window and darted out into the night sky, Eliam coming up at once to support him on his injured side, fleeing out into a world changed and devastated anew.  

[Sosiqui]

Ashes, Ashes...

Perri Indiya

There was blood and gore everywhere, as if a red flood had soaked through the forest. His servants, the children, Kaelin, and his main acolytes were accounted for, ragged but living. The rest... some lived. Some did not. They all bled.

The forest bled. The ground cracked. Trees were thrown about as if in a storm. The hill his temple was built into had partially caved in, and what people could be spared from tending to others were working madly to shore it up. The Hunt stared at all this destruction and shook. With rage. How dare such a thing happen to his forest, his temple, his child. Caolan was bandaged, her grimy face streaked with tears borne from pain and fright. She was in charge of triage, literally deciding who lived and who died by ending the lives of the mortals too far gone to survive. An eerie light glowed in her eyes, one that showed she knew an end was near. And perhaps that she blamed him.

Ea snarled to Orin that he was in charge while his master went for answers, and the wolfman was for once too shell shocked to do anything but bow and let him go. The green god tore up a huge fallen tree, leaving great gouges in the wood that bled a dark amber sap. He leapt forward with murder on his mind, becoming a great, silent blur of speed that cut through the forest faster than any beast had any right to. He filled his nose with the scents on the wind, his mind quickly organizing them and finding the trail he was looking for. Light. He was near the Pantheon.

It had to have taken him longer than the moment it felt like to traverse that wide expanse, but in no time he pulled up short in front of a building, locating its doors before smashing through them and wheeling up the stairs wildly. He loped in on all fours, a scent trail so strong it was practically visible leading him to Illumin's side. He ignored everything he passed and slammed the portal to the roof open, striding in on two legs once more and towering over his fellow adventurer.

"What the <********> is going on?" He bellowed, looking for something to kill.

Sosiqui

Illumin had fled the Pantheon when he felt it hit - a wave of ash in the mouth, of the mealy faded edges of the wing-wound flaring to searing white-hot pain again in an instant, of every pillar of the world shaken beyond the core. Like the needles and boil in the blood in the instant when Lucius had wounded Creation...

Only far worse, and tasting of her. That Grigori.

Their leader, Samyaza, we do not trust. We feel she will betray us somehow.

But the Beacon had been too far for still-exhausted Light; he had slept far too little, and the consequences of his actions come far too soon. He had gone to ground atop an abandoned building, aching to be further gone but unable to do anything more.

The Aoidei scattered mutely as Hunt came through the door, and Illumin jumped, startled - then drooped, his wings sagging behind him. His face was ashen. "'What of the nothing, the zero that I see in the back of his eyes? aught, cipher, nadir, naught, nullity, oblivion,'" he quoted, his voice hollow even as Eamnnon's was full of wrath.

What had they done?!

Perri Indiya

"It's that thing we brought through the gate, isn't it? My forest is a sea of death, Illumin, and I didn't do it. My daughter is sucking out souls so that the mangled can have peace." The Hunt grabbed the other god by the shoulders, pulling him upright through will and talons. "We are fixing this. Now."

Sosiqui

Illumin yelped at the sudden rough treatment and pulled away sharply, thin red lines left on his shoulders from Hunt's claw. Eibhilin immediately shoved herself between the two gods, bristling at Eamnonn.

"No - stand down, damn it, stand down," Illumin ordered; after a long moment, the Aoide bowed stiffly and slid to the side, though she gave Hunt suspicious looks. Light's wings were trembling, brushing against each other with a constant hushing sound.

"That thing, yes, that... I don't know what has happened, only that more grievous wound than even traitorous Universe inflicted has been done to the Crown - and by my... my error..."

The box told us. It said in plain language not to trust - not to-

He tried to get a hold of himself, but it was so hard. So many thoughts and fears swimming through his mind, brand of the Sinned, walls of the gem, endless hush of Ashland sands, gates of oblivion all.

"Ea," he whispered. "Help me to be angry."

Perri Indiya

It had warned them, hadn't it? And they had both disliked and distrusted the grigori too. Despite that they had run home to lick their wounds like dogs, and god only knew what would become of it. What had become of Kishara...

He snarled at the small servant when he stood in front of him, too blind with worry, hate, and rage to regret harming his friend so carelessly. He barely managed not to go after the aiode...

His head snapped back to Illumin at the other god's request, smile curving into a red slash across his face. "Gladly."

He put both hands on Light's chest and shoved, following him down to the floor and straddling him so he couldn't escape. Fingers buried in his lavender hair to twist his head back and bare his neck, which the Hunt pressed his knife to, drawing a thin line of red. "This is your fault, all of it. How could you be so stupid as to let this happen? To trust that Grigori. Think of what she's done, what she's torn apart. Our Lord. Our Lady. Our lives. There will soon be no more light forever, because of you."

He pressed his mouth to the other god's ear as he spoke. "I could eat your little pets too, if that would help."

Sosiqui

Faster than he could think, Illumin was on the floor, Hunt's bulk over him, claws tangled in his hair and blade at his throat, snarling those same words that had been gnawing snips off of his sanity ever since the wave hit.

But the cold edge of the blade against his skin kept his focus from diving inward again, from wandering lost in self-inflicted darkness. Anger rose at last from self-pity, boiling outward. "And what of you, foolish Hunt, just as eager to trust and run and step aside as I? Whose blood freed that cursed thing from her prison? You are the same as I, exactly the same, and all the curses you heap on me are on your head. Now let me up before we end each other to no purpose," he spat, and a pulse of blinding light went off right in Eamnonn's face.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt hissed and slithered back, releasing Illumin and sheathing his knife as he stood. His eyes were dazzled and temporary blinded, but he cocked his head at the other god as if nothing had happened. Other senses were so useful to have. "At least I have ascended and can do some damage to the demons before we end. What is our plan?"

He held out a hand, carefully shorn of claws so that it would do no harm to one grasping it. It was as much a peace offering as he could muster in his current state.

Sosiqui

Illumin reached up without hesitation and grabbed Ea's hand, then pulled himself up. The Aoidei were standing off to the side, looking rather stunned at what had just happened. "We fix it. Somehow. We - we find out exactly what caused this, and..."

He glanced over at Eliam. The winged Aoide still held the blue crystal decanter, the thing they had destroyed so much to obtain, cupped close to his side underneath the impromptu wrappings. "We finish what we set out to do. We find and rebirth this damned Aristogeiton, and pray to whatever gods remain that Creation was right when he said it would bring balance and sanity back into the world. If we don't do that, then everything that has happened was for nothing."

The word seemed to echo a bit more than it should have.

Perri Indiya

"To the throne room, then. To the source." The Hunt agreed, practically vibrating with the preternatural energy that was keeping him going.

"If I carry you we will go faster." He said softly, a hard tone to his voice despite his attempts to be civilized. Even as tired and torn as he was, the adrenaline that sang through his veins promised the offer could be made truly. He might fall down dead when they reached the pantheon, of course, but they would get there.

Sosiqui

Illumin paused, then shook his head. "No," he said, firmly. "You go. I must - Panacea, she was seeking Aristogeiton. When I returned home-" had it only been hours before? -"I had messages from others. One of the followers of the Dragon King Tien Lung has seen Pana... and she told that follower where the pieces she was seeking were located. I was invited to speak with that lord for more information on her whereabouts."

He took a deep breath, then glanced at Eliam again. "And Echo, Music - she came as well, spoke to Eliam. Nergal, Underworld... he has also been seeking Aristogeiton, and has found pieces himself. I would seek them out. We must gather our resources. But you, yes - go to them. Go to her." Illumin's stomach turned over. He had seen and felt what the Grigori could do, firsthand. "Please. Tell me she lives."

He did not need to ask about the Crown.

Perri Indiya

The Hunt nodded and was gone, wasting no time in talk or pleasantries. Such things could kill.

 

[Sosiqui]

Putting the Pieces Together

Sosiqui

Illumin had no idea where he found the strength to keep moving. He was exhausted twice over from fleeing first the Grigori and then the Pantheon, but even though the depths of desperate energy seemed scraped to the very bottom he somehow still managed to move. The Aoidei had to help him fly, hampered as he was by his exhaustion and his wound.

"Radiance, surely you can allow yourself rest-" Eibhilin began.

"No," Illumin said, sharply. "If I stop now, I might not get up again." He could feel something beyond mere exhaustion nibbling at him, the same hopeless lethargy that Eamnonn had so harshly driven away from him earlier.

The Aoidei exchanged worried glances, but said nothing more, even as Illumin had to land once more on an empty street to catch his breath. "Only a moment," he panted, wings trembling against each other. He had to find this Dragon King, this Tien Lung whose follower had so fortuitously found Panacea. There were fresh bodies already. Mortals were so fragile.

Cinderfae

Cinder was starting to get annoyed, she'd spoken to several in her search for Toki or the god of light and it was becoming pressing. Adrenaline pumped through her body and part of her wanted to drop off and rest for a time but the rest of her would have none of it. It was just getting the part of her that was ready to finish things or at least sort things to push the part of her that wanted to curl up along.

And on top of that she had been assaulted by a strange woman with hooves which was now a somewhat minor annoyance.

I told you, she is mine and serves me. She will be helpful, now move along and find the god of light.

Cinder's joints ached in so many ways, frowning at the order from Karaskis she paused and rested against a gate. "Slept for months upon months attempting to fix what your doing to my cybernetics...and still it doesn't seemed to have been much of a help."

I should have found someone with less bits breaking down. Don't fall over now!

With Karaskis berating her in her mind Cinder glanced up with a grimace only to see in the distance a figure drop down from the sky and land in the road. "Wings are a dime a dozen here sometimes...but he isn't that far from the Pantheon. Might as well go take a look."

Cinder moved forward some and called out afraid he might fly off before she got to him, "Hello..."

Sosiqui

Illumin flinched at the unexpected voice; one hand flew to his side to hold the precious decanter close, and the light around him increased, though not by much due to his exhausted state. The two Aoidei whirled and surrounded their master in a defensive formation.

"Your name, and your business," Eliam said, firmly.

After a moment, Eibhilin relaxed, just a little. "She is a god-bearer." The banshee Aoide inclined her head towards Cinder. "Your pardon; the circumstances make us... uneasy." That was a vast understatement.

"Please, unless your concerns are greater than the chaos that surrounds us - be quick, or come to me another time," Illumin said, wearily.

Cinderfae

Cinder held a hand up to shield her eyes slightly from the unexpected bit of light, but then the light didn't come on as strongly as she feared it might and she lowered her hand. Blinking slightly she let her eyes flicker to the two aoidei around Illumin but then pushed aside a bit of reserve moving forward as she does. She'd seen lots of crazy things but the tiredness filling her likely also greatly helped her with not fearing as she approached. He did seem to have a bit of light or something perhaps he was who she was looking for, then again things never are that easy.

"My name is Cinder, I won't take up your time but I'm looking for the God of Light, Illumin." Cinder paused that seemed straight forward enough, though the God in question did seem to be rather hurried and tired so she decided to add a bit more, "I have some information I believe might be helpful, for er...well dealing with these times."

Things were so much easier when I just shot lots of things and sold goods to people. You lot really did complicate matters didn't you? Cinder sent a bit of scolding to Karaskis as she shifted uneasily at the whole diplomacy thing.

And for a space pirate you whine an awful lot. Internal dialogue aside host and Goddess then turned their attention to Illumin awaiting him and his entourage's answer.

Sosiqui

"Do you, now," Illumin said, shortly. He had gone well beyond the ends of the earth to try and fix things, and instead brought back that thing that had done... done something that had filled the world with the taste and stink of Ashland dust, and this woman was going to pop up out of nowhere with information?

Eibhilin felt Illumin tense, and quickly laid her tail lightly over his shoulder. "We are traveling to the Pantheon to seek the Dragon King Tien Lung on a matter of great importance," she said, smoothly. "All else must wait until that is done." She was polite, but quite firm.

Cinderfae

Cinder sighed slightly at Illumin's reaction, narrowing her eyes a moment before rolling her shoulders and forcing her aching body to relax. Gods he's worse then a port official and most of those I opt to shoot before speaking with. Cinder grumbled to Karaskis a bit her eyes flickering to Eibhilin as the aoidei spoke, she recognized the motion however and it didn't make her any happier. He doesn't know anything anyways I'm betting...should let him head to the Pantheon to find Tien Lung, and then only have him end up finding it was a wasted trip.

For pity's sake, one of the reasons I chose you was because you were clever. And even for someone that is clever you can be very thick sometimes.

And although Cinder was feeling tired and worn as was Karaskis the goddess had been laying in wait for sometime and opted for letting her presence be known in a way that was sure to annoy her host. For a moment fire seemed to flicker within Cinder's eyes as Karaskis pushed for control and looked to Illumin. Her dusky voice rolling from Cinder as she addressed the other god in an almost regal manner.

"Forgive my hosts manners at times. However, I'm afraid a trip to the Pantheon will do you no good. Tien Lung has left on some business and is not there, however our own business has taken us to find ourselves intertwined with those of his following." Karaskis inclines her head slightly, "I gather from your reaction that you are indeed Illumin. If you are not, then we are most apologetic for taking up your time. But if you are we have information gathered from a mortal named Penny that we believe may have to do with information you also carry."

The weariness that had been filling Cinder for the day allowed Karaskis to maintain control of the body for a time. And although Cinder now rested within herself Karaskis could feel waves of anger from her host.

Sosiqui

Illumin's wings drooped, the one marred by Remuel's claws shivering a bit more intensely than the others. "He is not - then..." Perhaps he should just give in, go curl up somewhere and sleep for a week. Maybe when he woke up it would indeed all have been a bad dream.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "I am Illumin, yes. Tien Lung sent a message to my Aoide that one of his followers had word of Lady Medicine, Panacea, who is on the same quest I wa- am. If you know anything about it, please, speak plainly and quickly. I am... very tired."

There was no way he was going to mention that he was one of the ones who had brought Samyaza to do whatever she had done. No way in the world.

Cinderfae

See you just needed to stop a moment and put the pieces together. Karaskis lectured slightly to Cinder. Even if it wasn't entirely fair as Cinder was tired; perhaps not nearly as much as the god but it was substantial.

Don't rub it in yet. Cinder trembled slightly shivering as she takes back control of her body. The drugs she had taken earlier to allow her to function were starting to take their toll especially since she also had not eaten recently. Now just not to get sick all over the God and I'll be good to go.

"I can understand that, as I am very tired as well. Perhaps we can walk some out of the road." Cinder's eyes flickered over to Illumin's damaged wing as she spoke. "I can likely save you more then just a bit of a trip. I've spoken to the follower and I know what word she brings. If you have any more knowledge on the subject I would only ask that you share what you know."

Cinder took a few steps to the side as if to fulfill her own words of getting out of the street, "Penny met Panacea, she met her on a space station. Panacea she says was looking for some sort of relics and had found them. But when she was taken from the pirate vessel she had traced them to she lost the pieces that were on it." Cinder started giving what little information she had in hopes that he would be able to fill her in some as well in exchange.

He will, he wants what has happened seen resolved as much if not more then you do. Karaskis voice was soft and somewhat coaching as she spoke. Something Cinder wasn't expecting overly.

Sosiqui

Illumin looked up at her, a look of relief on his face for the first time in what felt like centuries. Light gathered to float around him more softly, a bit brighter than the previous erratic pulse and shift. "So it is true, then. Pana... lives, and has had some success..." He took another deep breath. "Thank you. That is indeed exactly what I was looking for."

Space. How on earth was he to get to space? He knew nothing about it. They had worked so hard, for so long, and had only the decanter and the world broken to show for it. "I chose to try and help her on her journey. In her task." If he had not, would she have sliced Kishara with her scalpels and traveled to the Ashlands herself?

Would she have let Samyaza through?

He shook his head, a bit harder than he needed to. "It must be completed. Soon. As quickly as possible."

Cinderfae

Cinder nodded slightly listening to Illumin as he spoke. "Yeah things are getting pretty bad around here, I regretfully don't know too much about it. But I do know the name of the pirate ship she was on." Cinder pondered some as she stepped. "I actually think I could track it down, maybe not a simple task but I use to run the same sort of circles as those pirates. Which means I might have a few contacts that would know what they are up to."

The light gathered around Illumin and in the night it had a strangely calming effect despite all the havoc. Cinder let out a slow breath coming to a stop once they had moved off the road. "I'd like to know what parts of her task you helped her on, and if you know anything about what she actually had." Cinder looked toward Illumin as she spoke, she wasn't a god and Karaskis wasn't mainfested yet so she wasn't really sure how much Illumin would listen to her, but she had to try. "Because if it will really help, I have a mind to go get the relics or whatever she was after. Now I don't know if I'll run into Panacea or where she is right now but I can at least get the relics if they are still on that ship. Or at least I hope I can."

Well lets see what he says, the worst he can do is just not tell us. And in that case I suggest you grab his leg and refuse to let go until he does tell us. Karaskis voice had an almost light note to it, the goddess was certain that he wouldn't say no or she likely wouldn't have suggested such an indignant act to her host.

Sosiqui

Illumin gave her a startled look. "You would do that....?"

Then he smiled, and shook his head self-depreciatingly. "I apologize to you and the god you bear. I have let panic get the better of me, though I don't think anyone could blame-" He cut that line of thought off. They certainly could, certainly would; best to make amends as quickly as possible. Fix what they had done. "Your aid would be very much appreciated. She has been gone for a long time. This quest has gone on for a long time, and yet now it seems we must end it as swiftly as we can. What happened tonight... is a very, very great ill." How could he explain how it felt, to someone who had never experienced, never dreamed about the Ashlands? The emptiness that was everywhere in that cursed place was now here, was creeping in at the edges, sleek and quick and entirely unwanted.

Cinderfae

Cinder shuttered almost involuntarily as he spoke, there was something bothering him and she wondered what exactly was happening. She almost feared to ask but at the same time she felt the need to know, "What did happen? I feel as if there is urgency but I am not sure what it is for. And I need to know abou the relics," Cinder took in a slow breath allowing herself to relax slightly and hopefully cut out some of the panic in her voice. She could almost feel it rising up in her but as it did she pushed it down as quickly and brutally as she could.

Cinder ran her hand through her hair and offered a small smile, "but yeah I sort of had it in my mind to go out after the relics if they indeed would be potent and useful. As I would rather take the leap to get them then sit idle..I feel as if I have been idle for too long."

Of course we were idle too long, you froze us. That was all you it had nothing to do with me. Karaskis was annoyed and she felt almost like a coiling snake within Cinder as she spoke in short irritated spurts.

Cinder then shook slightly vertigo hitting her a moment, the queasiness returning more strong as if being irritated at being forgotten for so long. Shaking her head slightly Cinder took a step to gain her balance. Clutching her hand she stood on pure stubborness until she could get her bearings. "I'm afraid I'm going to either need food or a stimulant soon if I'm going to be of any use to anyone."

Sosiqui

"I'm not certain what has happened, only that it is terrible - I can feel it," Illumin said, simply. And it was true, even if it was not the entire truth. He had no idea what Samyaza had done, only that it had certainly been the Grigori that had initiated everything. "But the Pantheon... I do not wish to return there." His wings trembled against each other again.

"We have moved your things to the Pharos Beacon, Radiance," Eibhilin said, with a half-bow. "Including your notes and research, and Panacea's things."

Illumin frowned. "You moved Pana's - no, that's not important now," he said, with a sigh. He had to keep himself focused on the matter at hand, even as his thoughts kept trying to slide away from it. "That makes things... easier." He looked back to Cinder. "I can tell you what I know, and perhaps there will be something useful to you among Panacea's effects..." He blinked. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your name, or that of the deity you hold."

Cinderfae

Cinder considered using the pressure syringe to give herself a shot of stimulant but in the condition she already was in it likely would end up more harmful then helpful. She attempted to follow the conversation some as what she believed were Illumin's servants spoke to him. Right so they'd go to his place or something to look at notes...

At the question of the names Cinder blinked slightly as she realized in all the confusion she hadn't even bothered introducing herself. "Things have been insane so much I didn't even realize...I'm Cinder and I am host to Karaskis, Goddess of Fire." Cinder spoke and the familiarity in which she made the introduction struck her uneasily. She had resigned herself in a way to her fate, but if so why all this why the struggle to move on and finish this - quest or whatever it was. And then she realized adventure, one last great adventure before she tumbled into the dark.

"I'm guessing your leading on then? To wherever your new home is?" Cinder looked to Illumin as she spoke, in the background she picked up the sound of hooves on the pavement and let out a sigh, "before we go I should introduce you to almost naked faun girl as well." Cinder turned and gestured toward the sound of hooves.

Kalfyra moved toward the group her hooves making soft sounds on the pavement as she did. In her arms she carried a brown paper back full of various food stuffs; where and how she got such items Cinder was almost terrified to ask. "This is Kalfyra, she is Karaskis' uhm...servant or something." Cinder spoke vaguely not actually knowing what to call her. Seeing the food Cinder was greatful despite her tone and posture of not caring, she didn't know if it would be rude to eat now or not but she did know that she would probably fall over if she didn't so protocal to the wind she decided she might as well.

Kalfyra peeked around the bag she was carrying blinking slightly she looked over at Illumin curiosuly. Her ear flickering slightly and causing the piercings on it to make soft sounds. "Mistress' I returned as instructed." Kalfyra set the bag down near Cinder and then turned her attention to Illumin offering him a respectful bow. "M'lord." Kalfyra then allowed herself to shift into the background her eyes looking over to Illumin's aoidei as she did half wondering if she would remember any of them.

"I'll eat while we walk," Cinder looked to Illumin after speaking glancing to the bag and taking something that seemed unobtrusive from it to eat quickly, "because if I don't the drugs that I've had to use to keep going will likely knock me out."

Sosiqui

Illumin's Aoidei nodded solemnly at the newcomer, recognizing another of their own kind. The god himself shook his head again, his smile turning rueful. "Alas, it is much too far to walk... and I am extremely tired, physically," he said, with a sigh. "Eibhilin...?"

"Radiance?" The banshee Aoide turned to him.

"I believe I could glide with Eliam's aid alone. Could you carry the Host of Flame if she wished it?" He nodded at Cinder.

Both Aoidei exchanged worried looks; Eibhilin nodded, slowly. "I believe so, Radiance."

"That should be fastest, then. Haste is our dearest ally now, and Time our enemy." Illumin closed his eyes for a moment. He wasn't sure how he was still functioning, but somehow he was managing - that feat, somehow, seemed more divine then all of his tricks of bright and light. "If you will allow it."

Cinderfae

Cinder paused a moment holding a prepackaged sandwich in hand looking to Illumin. "Actually, most of me is metal. I'm much heavier then I should be I'm not sure she'd be able to carry me...but if you can give me directions. I might have a way to get us there. If you don't mind riding on a bike." A small smile creeped on Cinder's face as she spoke. She hadn't been able to drive for a while and truthfully she would love to. One of the few things she had saved from her ship was her hoverbike; the machine was fast and more then capable. Plus she wasn't so sure she trusted the whole being carried by someone else thing, especially considering that she weighed about twice as much as she should.

"Promise I'm a good driver and your uhm...servants." Cinder frowns slightly, "is that a good word for them? They could keep up I'm sure."

To the side Kalfyra shifted slightly, her slight fidgeting caused by a bit of culture shock and attempting to catch all of what everyone was saying while putitng it into a sane context. She reached up to mess with one of her barbells when she heard her name, "I can send Kalfyra ahead to open the garage up...my place isn't far."

Sosiqui

Illumin frowned, slightly - traveling on some mysterious vehicle didn't sit well with him, but he had so many more important things to worry about. And now it seemed he needed her, this odd host of Flame. He nodded, warily. "Whatever is quickest."

Cinderfae

Cinder took out a set of keys from her belt and looked over to Kalfyra, "Kalfyra the house on the other side of the lake from the Pantheon, go to the garage there and open it up. We'll be there in a bit and leave from there. Find yourself some pants while your at it. And then see about packing up clothing, stay away from my weapons I'll get those myself - we'll be going on a trip once I get back." Cinder gestured ahead to show Illumin the way to her small home.

Kalfyra caught the keys and flickered her ears in annoyance at the suggestion of pants. But being the least tired of the group she hurried ahead at a speedy trot. At some point she had remembered to grab the package of Oreo from the shopping bag.

"The hoverbike is speedy but as long as no one shoots at us or something bizarre, shouldn't be too rough of a trip." Cinder smiled slighlty seeing the bike in the garage and tossed the bit of trash from her prepackaged sandwich in a nearby can. "I'll get it started up, hop on the back. And hold on." Cinder offered Illumin a helmet a she settled into the seat, Kalfyra was within the house and she could hear various things being moved she just hoped the place wasn't completely trashed when she got back.

Sosiqui

Illumin gave the contraption a dubious look, but he had to get her to the Beacon somehow - and he had to admit, it would be nice to sit down on something rather than half-fly, half-fall through the sky with his Aoidei holding his limbs. "Very well. Eibhilin, lead the way; Eliam, behind, just in case." The two Aoidei nodded and took to the air, moving into their positions.

Illumin took another deep breath and climbed onto the weird mechanical thing. Holding on was awkward, but he had bigger problems. "Let us go, then."

It was fast, and noisy, and Illumin was on edge, but he had to admit it was fast; ahead of them, he could tell Eibhilin was going full-speed just to stay in front. The banshee Aoide led them out of the city and along the coast, where he could hear the sounds of water sloshing at the rocks. That was surprising. Eibhilin directed them around the town, thankfully - even though it was longer that way, he had no desire to confront the wary inhabitants.

The Beacon had lost some of its white facing, and the lower building had collapsed somewhat, but the tower still stood true. It looked safe enough. "There," Illumin managed, past the sound of their speed.

Cinderfae

She had gotten the god to accept a ride on the bike that was only half of it there was still the journey. Snapping her goggles down over her eyes, she started them along their journey, opening the engines slowly she got them to a quick pace in a timely manner. Cinder kept pace with the banshee a small smile on her face if things hadn't been so dire she might have suggested a race to the creature.

Breaking out along the coast she hoped that it wouldn't attempt to take them over the waters. The bike would have probably been alright over shallow waters but it's make wasn't really made for going long time over deeper ones. Hearing Illumin's voice Cinder looked out toward then destination. Giving a small nod she made for it, starting a slight de-ecceleration as they got closer, no use in throwing someone off the bike by having a shoddy landing. Finding a place near the base of the tower she settled the bike.

Cinder let out a breath and pulled her goggles up, "seems we're here. What is this place anyways?" Moving down off the back Cinder stretched slightly taking a moment to look up at the tower.

Sosiqui

Illumin relaxed and got off the contraption as quickly as he could manage - the ride hadn't been bad, but he still wasn't entirely comfortable with the whole thing. "Thank you. This is the Pharos Beacon. It was the lighthouse for this region before Destruction called the sea away." He could hear water now, though; had it returned? But that was a question for another time. "I had intended to make a home here. That must wait."

The Aoidei preceded them, opening the doors and bowing them inside. Illumin dimly noted that they had done some work on the place while he was gone; while the Beacon was still no palace fit for a god, it was now closer to its original, functional-for-mortals state, at least on the inside. "Where did you put everything?" He knew where the original puzzle-box was, still in the battered duffel bag that Eliam had carried without complaint.

"Here, Radiance," Eibhilin said, spiraling up as they walked into the tower proper. Spiral stairs climbed the walls to the first level high above, but the banshee Aoide flew up, vanished, then returned after a moment with a carefully packed box.

"Thank you," Illumin said, relieved that he wouldn't have to try and ascend himself. Eliam brought chairs over, rickety but serviceable, though he gave Cinder the strongest one after a moment. Illumin nodded approval; he couldn't have Fire's host tumbling through 'his' furniture, even in such disarray as things were. "I will do my best to explain things. What do you already know?"

Cinderfae

Cinder pulled the chair around and sat on it carefully taking a moment to get comfortable, frowning slightly she shifted. She could tell that the area around Karaskis' stone was starting to blister again.

Try not to fall through the chair. I'd really appreciate you not being all embarrassing in front of the other gods. Since your my representative for now. Karaskis spoke but did so in a soft manner as if the goddess was taking time to rest.

Cinder refrained from rolling her eyes, she was heavy from the cybernetics but not too horribly. Instead of dwelling on something so trivial she gave her attention to Illumin. Lights on the device on her hip went off randomly at times a sign that Mycroft was likely attempting to scan the entire place. At least he was being quiet Cinder thought, no telling what he'd go on about if allowed to. "I truthfully don't know a whole lot, just have a want to actually do something about it. What I do know I learned from Penny. Basically she met Panacea who was attempting to get some sort of relics that are needed...as Penny put it 'to save the world'."

Cinder paused thoughtfully a moment. "However, I haven't the foggiest what the relics were. I know the ship was called the Athenia, and that it is a pirate vessel. The frantic fella wearing rabbit ears told me that you may have an idea about all of it. He said that you and Medicine had been close."

Sosiqui

"Save the world, indeed." Illumin sighed. "I will try and be as brief as possible." He leaned back in the chair, his injured wing twinging a bit. "Panacea was searching for Aristogeiton, Lord Harmodius' mortal lover - do not ask me who, how, or why our Lord had such a thing. All I know is that Lord Harmodius believed locating Aristogeiton would aid him. At the time... things were not so bad as they now seem to be, but I have no other idea or recourse as to how to set things right. And if it hadn't been for Aristogeiton, we never would have gone to the Ashlands in the first place...

He shook his head. "It seems the essence of Aristogeiton was split into pieces, though I don't know how many. One of them is here, with me." Illumin lifted the decanter free of its bindings, from where he had carried it close to himself the whole way. Liquid sloshed inside, and the large key-like object clinked against the crystal. "Hunt and I researched a great deal and traveled- traveled far... to get this. I do not know what Panacea found, but I believe some of her notes and journals are in her things..."

He took a deep breath. What else to tell her? "My servants received word in my absence that the god of the Underworld, Nergal, was also seeking Aristogeiton. He has a piece as well, and a relic that may point the way to the other pieces. As for Panacea, the word from Tien Lung's follower is all I have heard of her since she left two... two, or was it three, years ago..."

Cinderfae

Cinder listened as Illumin explained, right so they were pieces of something bigger. Pieces of a person a mortal that was so important to Creation he believed he could help bring him back from destruction. "Hmm, mortal or not if Harmodius loved this Aristogeiton; that has power of it's own." She frowned somewhat in thought, the power of love seemed a bit - silly or too simple.

"Anyways, if Harmodius believed Aristogeiton could help, it seems the best bet. At least for me in my current state. Would you mind if I looked over Panacea's notes? I may be able to find something within them." Cinder glanced over the interior of the place and then to Illumin, "even if I don't mind much, I'll attempt to go after whatever she had. If she had the pieces on her when she was picked up by the pirates there might be notes or someone may know about it."

Cinder leaned forward curiously looking at the decanter, people essence seemed strange to say the least. She hoped the other bits came in easy to carry containers as well, "and if I head off...once you rest and heal." Her eyes flickered to his wing. "See if you can leave word or get the others with the pieces together, let them know. So when I get back maybe just maybe we will get lucky and have what is needed and be able to put him back together." Cinder sighed slightly and rested back, "but first things first Panacea's notes."

Sosiqui

"Help would certainly be valuable," Illumin admitted. He wanted to go after Panacea himself, but he knew nothing about space, let alone space pirates, and he could hardly run off with everything that had happened. He had an obligation to Ea, if nothing else, and to Kishara...

"If Panacea's things are here, as I am told they are," he said, with a vaguely grumpy look at the Aoidei, "I have no objection, so long as you are careful and remain only on the subject of Aristogeiton. She has a journal, I believe." He had never read it. It was only for the sake of what had just happened tonight that he was letting her read it. "Hunt and I found some information that might prove useful."

He did not call for the puzzle-box. It spoke of the Grigori, of the Ashlands; he did not need to be reminded of such things. Their taste, their taint, was everywhere; it seemed they all would learn without the aid of artifacts and relics. Instead, he dipped into the box Eibhilin had brought and took out a sheaf of notes. The original yellowing papers were packed away with far greater cautions, but these quick transcripts would be safe for her to read and carry. "This one..." He shook his head. "I feel it in my bones. The numbers ring in my mind too." Nadir, naught, nullity, oblivion.

Numbers Fragment

I think of numbers. The numbers 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 all have power.

The Twin Crown. Two hands to Creation, simplicity in the left hand Life, and the right hand of Anima. Three horns of destruction, five are the primordials. Gaia, Light, Darkness, Universe and Time. Seven are the Influences of the End, the domains of Destruction. Nine are the kings of all, the greatest of dragons and guardians of the Pearl which fashioned All.

What of the nothing, the zero that I see in the back of his eyes? aught, cipher, nadir, naught, nullity, oblivion. Or is it Infinity? I wake in the night with numbers in my mind. Nihility. There should be no numbers there.
There was nothing before there was He. Or He was in it. He was it. But Became and in becoming locked that away and should be something else. It should not be accessible.

Or is it beyond in the further reaches, held out from all of us Younger that we should not toy with such things?

He flipped through the notes a bit further, and extracted another transcription. "This one we could not understand; perhaps it applies to a piece Panacea sought or found." He held it out to her as well.

Storm Fragment

This will be the last thing I ever write.
there is a storm coming

Is it sadness? Despair? Pensive sits in my stomach like a carrion bird, swallowing up for me any appetite I may have for nourishment. There is sickness in it. But it is not an ailment that will help Plague. My arms shake, and War is not in them.

a sword fallen from the hand will always point north

pommel to the roots of the world, blades to the limbs, point to the head
To his heart.

It will be beyond the beyond. His foster sons, their lights are dimming. I'll take the key and hide it. Or

Leave the key as a lantern, displayed for all but locked away but for one hand. One claw. When it is needed, the barrier may draw it forth.

It was nearly done; he had almost said all he had, all he could that would not bring judgment upon his own head. Only the second small tablet remained. Those words, too, he had transcribed. "These last words were scratched into a stone tablet as if by a claw."

Claw Fragment

What are the runes and names We call? Where is the Heart of the Twin Crown?

"And if you can answer and divine that last, then I will truly be in your debt," he finished, wearily. Now that he had let himself sit, let himself rest, all the exhaustion and that sinking lethargy was making itself known again.

Cinderfae

Cinder looked over the notes with a frown, lovely riddles. World is crashing apart and all we have are a bit of riddles. Sighing slightly Cinder started looking them over the numbers seemed to have notes with them. "Have a feeling I might be repeating things you have already questioned yourself. Now the dragons, the guardians. Toki the man I met outside the Pantheon he is a servant to one of them." Cinder glances up to Illumin, "are they too scattered to bring them together as a group?" She shrugged slightly after the suggestion, "now it speaks at various spots about the heart, heart of the twin crown."

Cinder chewed on her bottom lip slightly looking over the notes and murmering, "two hands of creation, twin crown...if creation is the twin crown. His heart may very well be Aristogeiton, or just a referance to matters of the heart. And the piece with the bit about the sword, it speaks of the sword pointing to his heart as well...perhaps when we have those other pieces it will make more sense." Cinder sighed slightly looking at the various notes accusingly. "Mind if I have Mycroft make copies of these?" As she spoke of him she tapped the device on her belt that contained Mycroft's programming, "I'll continue to think them over...and get a look at Panacea's notes. If nothing else well I'll shake down some pirates to see what she was after when they captured her."

Cinder frowned a bit again staring at the pages, she'd take a look at Panacea's notes but it seemed that her best bet of actually doing something lay in making a run in space. Hopefully she'd make good on her deal and be able to locate the Athenia, best luck in finding them was to hope they were decent enough pirates to make a name for themselves, problem with that was that meant they would be harder to pry anything they found from them.

Sosiqui

Illumin shook his head. "I know nothing of the Dragon Kings; I only met a host of one of them once, long ago, and had word from Tien Lung when I returned earlier." Had it really been only today? only today that they'd stepped through into the mortal realm again and dragged it inside-out? It felt like a lifetime and more already. "Do as you like with them, I have the originals as well. I've all but memorized them."

He was flagging now, even with all his will - but he had shared the burden with another. He didn't have to do it all by himself anymore. "Please - share what you find with everyone you can. This knowledge is too precious to lose again. It must be known. If Aristogeiton is truly the heart, truly the key to everything... then we must find him. Someone must, no matter who it is."

Cinderfae

"I'll get a digital copy then just in case, takes a bit much to destroy Mycroft." Cinder held Mycroft up so he could scan the pages. A light flickered over the words making a copy within the AI's memory banks.

"I shudder to think of such a thing," Mycroft commented, "I do surely hope no one ever feels the need to destroy me." Mycroft's voice as always was refined and very British. It took only a moment before he had the papers locked away within the storage banks. "I'll be on standby if you need me."

"Thank you, Mycroft." Cinder then looked over to Illumin, "if you point me in the direction of the notes I'll go take a look or have one of your servants show me. It looks like you could use a bit of rest before you fall over."

Cinder stood stretching slightly and winced resting her hand on her side. It felt like the blistering around Karaskis' stone was getting worse. "I'll find who I can to tell about it and see if I can get aid going after the pieces Panacea had maybe make sure word is left with Kalfyra or something so she can pass the news around while I'm gone." Cinder then glanced toward where she had last seen Illumin's servant waiting to be shown to the notes.

Sosiqui

"Of course - I wish you luck. Please, ask my Aoidei if you need anything. I think I will try to sleep." Oh, the promise of sleep was really enticing now, and the stranglehold of guilt was easing just a little bit, enough to allow exhaustion to claim him in mind as well as body. He had passed his knowledge on; this host would help. "Thank you," he added, as he stood up, and the word came out more emotional than he'd meant it to; he'd hoped for refined, and ended up with sincere, near to tears-

To hide it, he quickly and awkwardly flapped up into the air, light haloing around his wings; Eliam leapt up after him, coming up along the injured wing and guiding his Lord upwards. They spiraled up to the next level and were lost to Cinder's sight.

Eibhilin nodded to the woman. "I will find Medicine's journal for you. Please, come with me." She led Cinder over to a small collection of boxes, kept separate from the rest, and opened the top box with care. "Here it is. Please be careful and do not pry into anything not concerning you," she added, politely but firmly. If it wasn't potentially the end of the world, her Lord would have never permitted this.

Cinderfae

Cinder was a bit surprised by the tone in Illumin's voice, the emotion that the tone of his voice suggested made a feeling of urgency grow in her more then anything else. She wasn't even sure if she had heard anything but the hint of it had been there. Tilting her head slightly she watched Illumin fly up the stairs with his servant in tow; even with the broken wing he did appear godly the light creating a halo around him added to the image.

He's tired, I'm not sure what all has happened but he is very weary. If we are able to help him we should do so and not delay. Keep in mind if that weariness has filled Illumin at such a time there is no telling what will happen with us so take heart and lets hope Medicine kept precise notes.

Nodding slightly perhaps some to herself and some to Karaskis' words she then looked over to Illumin's servant, Eibhilin. Following the banshee over to the variety of boxes she paused and waited for her to get the journal; the frightful wasn't as frightening after being around her for sometime. Cinder nodded slightly as she took the journal and received the warning, "I won't pry, I promise."

Once she was left to look at the journal Cinder kept Mycroft on hand and started skimming the writing hoping to find some clue to the recent happenings and workings. She'd have to head to space soon and all the information she could get before she went would be priceless.

 

[Sosiqui]

Confessions & Blame

He woke with every part of him aching. The sleep had been deep, but haunted at the edges by shadows and shapes that giggled and scratched at him. Rest may have taken away his physical exhaustion, but it had done little for his mind.

"He wakens," came a quiet hiss, and then Eibhilin was there, looking down at him with a concerned look on her face. "Are you well, Radiance?"

"N- ow!" Illumin flinched as he sat up, rustling his wings in the process; the injured one sent a burst of pain down into his back. "My wing-"

"Eliam has gone to bring food and drink. By your leave, I will tend to your injury," Eibhilin said quietly, coiling her long tail to perch snakelike on the bed behind her Lord. Her long fingers were delicate, but Illumin still flinched away again, involuntarily. "Oh..."

"Please, continue." He scowled, and forced the injured wing to stay in place as she tentatively plucked at the gauze again. There hadn't been gauze there when he went to sleep, had there? Maybe before everything had happened. It hadn't been on his list of priorities. "Who tended to it?"

"I did, Radiance. There were some useful references in Lady Medicine's things - under the circumstances, I thought it wise to seek advice."

"I suppose," Illumin admitted. He still didn't like the idea of anyone fiddling with Panacea's possessions, but there were far bigger problems to worry about right now.

"This type of injury... was not in Medicine's books, I admit... but I am doing everything I can."

"It wouldn't be," Illumin said, pulling his knees up to his chest and bending to rest his arms and head on them. "I doubt anyone has sustained this type of wound in Age upon Age." He wondered, blankly, if anyone else had claw-touched injuries now.

Eibhilin paused. "What happened, if I may be so bold?"

And here it was. Illumin took a long, shaky breath. "A... a Grigori. One of the inhabitants of the Ashlands... his claws, if you could call them that. He injured Hunt as well." He was trembling again, now; Eibhilin remained silent, but continued her work on his wing. "She... there was another one... gave me the piece..." He reached down one hand to touch the cool crystal decanter where it sat at his side. "We. Brought her back. With us. Last night. She... oh, Eibhilin, she wished to see the Crown... and Ea and I, we were so tired." His shoulders shook. "So tired, and wounded, so we left that damnable thing with the Empress and trailed to bed, and now the entire world shakes and I can feel the ashes pouring in at the edges. Crumbling. It all tastes of her!"

Eibhilin said nothing, but she stopped moving. Was still. Silence fell on the room like an axe.

"Our fault," Illumin whispered. "My fault. I do not know what she has done, but there is no question that she was behind... it... and I brought her there. Called her to waking with my Light, as surely as Universe stabbed his blades through Creation..." The others would look at him, and know, of that he was certain. What could he do? The guilt was his, by rights. 'It was a mistake' was poor comfort indeed in the face of the effects he could feel, let alone... whatever had actually occurred.

And he had been so happy, so damned justified in his reaction to Lucius' own punishment...

"Eibhilin. Talk to me," he said, after a moment.

"... Radiance. I had some idea of what you say, from what Hunt said when we met him." The Aoide's words were slow, sad. "My Lord, it was not - surely, you were tricked -"

"I was tricked, yes. And foolish, beyond foolish." Illumin laughed, the sound a harsh, self-depreciating bark that had no joy in it. "And what now? What now, damn it? Aristogeiton-" Oh, how he wished he'd never heard of Aristogeiton-

A moment later, Light found himself flat on his back, on the floor, a second time. This time, though, it was Eibhilin who coiled over him, rather than Hunt. He stared up at her, breathless.

"Stop this," she hissed, her tail cracking like a whip. "What has been done is done, Radiance, and this... this hopelessness... I feel it too. So does Eliam. But what has been done must be stopped. If not you, than who? Who will stop it?"

Illumin was shocked to realize that fear, not anger, was shadowing her gaze. "Eibhilin..."

"If it is your fault, then take responsibility for it! Mend it! Find her!" Her claws scraped against each other, convulsively. But then, slowly, she deflated. "My Lord. Find her, or find him, and then move. Light has never been needed more than now."

Was that... a tear, on her face? Have I ever seen her cry before? "I will... I will find him. Aristogeiton. Ea has gone after Samyaza." Oh, how he prayed that Hunt was well. That Kishara was well. "Nergal. Underworld. He has... he has a piece..."

"I will direct Eliam to find him, then. That woman, host to Fire, has gone. She will seek what Medicine found, I believe." She held down one hand and lifted him up, much as Eamnonn had. "And us? What shall we do?"

Illumin took a deep breath. He could still feel the guilt and hopelessness sucking at him, trying to drag him down once more. "I will bring light."

There was a town here, after all. Mortals. People, broken and hurt because of what he had done. The memory of that old fisherman's face danced in his mind.

'Did ye know what had happened? Did ye care?'

"I will help them."

Eibhilin bowed. "Then I will aid you, Radiance."

"Thank you," he said, quietly. "Just... please, maybe a bit less violence next time?"

She laughed, then, a real laugh. "Oh, it worked well enough for Hunt. I thought I'd try it again."

The Aoide nearly made it out the door before being caught by a light-burst.  

[Sosiqui]

Coming Back

The Age of Destruction had not been particularly kind to the town of Solde-on-Palecliff. Whatever Samyaza had done had only made things worse. Much of the town had fallen in on itself, houses caving in. A few smoked, lazily, though the wood had too much old damp in it to really burn. From atop the Pharos Beacon, Illumin could see the mortals moving around, distant, tiny ants.

What must they think about the world, now?

The sea had come back, but it was not the vigorous salt water that had blessed the region before Destruction's ascent. What had rolled back in to shore was a pale, milky sea that sucked at the cliffs like a live thing, redolent of ash and bleached bone. The piers and abandoned fishing boats were being eaten away by it, a wave at a time, in small sizzling fits. Already the dock was half of what it had been before, the old planks crumbling down to be devoured by this new, cruel ocean.

And what can I do?

Find Aristogeiton, yes. The Aoidei were looking for Hunt and Underworld. And he was left here, alone, to ponder what he had done. Again. He knew it was a tired thing now, this litany of guilt, but to give into lethargy was to allow that guilt free reign to rake through his mind.

He had promised Eibhilin, in a way, hadn't he?

Illumin spread his wings and leapt into the air, spiraling down - his injured wing hurt, and he had to use far more light to support himself on that side, more energy, but it worked. The Pharos Beacon was tall enough to allow a nice, long glide.

As he approached, the townsfolk looked up. Some blinked up at him, and even as he moved past he recognized the hopelessness in their eyes - the same that plagued him, as well. Still, he was startled to see that many of the townsfolk were just sitting, staring at nothing. Traumatized? Driven to utter despair by what had happened? Only a few were actually working, tugging at crumpled houses, apparently digging for people trapped inside.

There seemed to be a small hub of activity on a rise just outside of town; Illumin made for it, landing with only a small stumble. A group of mortals was congregated around a man in a weatherbeaten coat. They drew away from the god as he moved, startled, with no small amount of fear.

"Stop that," Illumin said. "I'm here to help you, listen..."

But none of them answered him. Instead, they turned to the man in the coat, ignoring this odd, glowing, winged stranger. "Elder," one of them said, "should we...?"

With a start, Illumin realized that he knew the old man. This was the one he had met briefly so long ago, before the Ashlands - and he saw the spark of recognition in the mortal's eyes, as well. He opened his mouth, and then thought better of it. Instead, he stopped and waited silently with the townsfolk for his answer.

After a long moment, the elder snorted. "And who be ye, stranger come among us to offer.... help?"

He definitely remembers me, from that time. He had been so prideful then, so vainglorious... but now, he owed these mortals a very real debt. The brokenness around them, of buildings, of bones, of lives, would not have happened if not for Illumin's actions.

Probably.

'If ye be a god in truth, come back when ye've learned humility.'

"I am... exactly what you say. A stranger come among you to offer help." Illumin bowed his head.

The elder raised one eyebrow; the answer had clearly surprised him. After a moment, he began to laugh, the sound harsh, grating, but genuine. "I see. Something we sorely need, and no mistake. If ye'll bend yer back freely to our aid, well. I'll not turn ye aside."

"I will," Illumin replied, and concentrated. A ball of light spun into being between his hands; he sent it up into the sky, and fixed it above what he judged to be the center of the village. "There; light, for your search."

"A pretty trick," the elder acknowledged. "And?" There was still skepticism in his face. Illumin couldn't blame him.

"I will do what I can. Show me your trapped; my light will brighten them, help you find them. I can cut passages, perhaps. Anything." And underneath, the undercurrent - I must atone.

"Anything, aye. Well." The elder turned to the young man standing near him; the youth was dirty, but seemed unharmed other than a few scratches. "Tenir. Lead the way. Put this Stranger to work." He glanced back at Illumin.

It was a hard thing to swallow, this humility - but then, that was the point, wasn't it? "Tenir. Show me, please." The young man nodded, and set off towards the village, newly lit by Illumin's miniature sun. The god followed, taking wing and gliding low over the ground.  

[Sosiqui]

The Little Things

The old man's name was Alvir, as it turned out. He had retired from fishing some ten years ago after getting his foot caught in a line; the doctors had almost had to remove it, but he had made it through intact. When the Age of Destruction - the 'hard times', as the townsfolk called it - had begun, they had drawn close around Alvir. He had weathered many storms at sea, more than anyone else in the village; surely he could help them weather this one, as well?

Stories. Details. Little things. Anecdotes and insignificant facts. They told Illumin these, slowly, as he walked with them, worked with them. "My aunt married a tinker - they say the lamps he made outshone any in all the world, but yours might be better," Tenir told him, as Illumin stood outside of a collapsed house and fed tiny bright light-orbs into the wreckage. They blinked and flickered as they moved, leading searchers, showing them where pockets lay within the debris. Where people might have survived.

"She was only sixteen," a woman wailed to him, when the searchers removed a broken body, her face cast into sharp relief by the light-orb that had hovered next to the corpse until the rescuers uncovered it. "Sixteen..."

"Give me that," the doctor's apprentice ordered, when Illumin tried to help shoulder a fallen beam out of the way and ended up with a nasty splinter in his thumb. "This poultice, now - 'tis made from the most common things, but put them together just right... black-grass, dried maiden's lichen, just a bit of minsie and poppy... and presto, a nice soothing balm. Old remedies, that's the way to go." It had hurt when the man pulled the shard of wood free, but the balm was indeed soothing. Illumin tried to remember the ingredients, for later. For Pana. Just in case.

"I cut the wood for this house with my own hands-"

"Sea Sprite, that was his boat, scuttled these past ten years-"

"She lost two children before Anira was born-"

"M'dad always said that to tie a stalwart knot, y'need to do it this way-"

"Her name was Pirta-"

They talked, they muttered, they recounted. Every fragment of normality, every bit of life that had been before, when things had more or less gone well, or if they had been ill, it had been misfortune that they could handle. Not like this. Never like this. So they wove a web of words around themselves, remembering.

It has not always been like this.

Orbs of light gleamed in the scrubby trees around the communal campfire. Illumin stood in line with the rest of them, offering awkward smiles and trying to make sense of it all. The woman behind him had given him a set of work overalls when his gauzy things had torn; he'd worn them awkwardly too, and flushed when she laughed and told him about her son, the original owner. "Broader in the shoulders than you, no mistake, but you're of an head, I think." She regaled him with stories until the slow shuffle of the line had brought them both to the pot, and they'd both been given a crude clay cup filled with a nameless stew.

She'd gone back to her family, then, or what remained of it. Illumin took a seat alone, squirming against the itch of the coarse fabric on his skin. The stew was watery, the worst thing he'd ever had, and the best.

He had taken his second sip when the prayers began. The small family group not too far from him bent their heads over their stew cups, and he heard their whispers. What he was not expecting was the sudden sursurus in his ears, the sound of quiet prayers spoken by people all the way across and around the gathering-space from where he sat.

Please, cure her wounds...
... let him return safely...
... guide us in these dark times...
... help her to live...
... guide his soul in the afterlife...
... protect us...
... help us...
... save us...

They crawled over him, filled his ears and his mind. Suddenly, a firm hand clapped down on his shoulder, and Illumin jumped. He looked up into the face of Alvir, the elder.

"Many a time I've prayed meself, and thanked the gods that I weren't the one what had to answer those prayers."

And the old man nodded, solemnly, and left.

Illumin sat there, quiet, for a very long time.

How long has it been since I heard a prayer? More than just 'since the Fading', that one - the Aoidei had handled that, turned their ears to mortal demands and pleas so that Light-in-Glory would not have to do so. He'd sheltered himself, placed a wall of distance between himself and the mortals whose worship he so indolently enjoyed.

No wonder they turned to others, in the end. He'd forgotten them, mortals. He'd forgotten the short, sharp vibrance of their lives, lived out in bursts, so often lost to history but powerful enough to support the existence of gods. Tiny bundles of will, of desire, of hope. Hatred, love, sadness, delight, story upon story.

And this... this knowledge, this hearing, this is what it is to be a god? Truly?

The prayers whispered and hissed, seeming to go on long after their speakers had turned to their meals. So many. Too many. He could never hope to answer them all.

But perhaps he could answer some.

Illumin drained the rest of his stew, then stood up. He could have flown over to Alvir, where the elder sat under a tree, but he walked, instead, moving slowly through the huddled groups of people. "Elder."

The old man looked up at him. "Stranger."

"I have... taken the Beacon, as you know... but it is sturdy, I think. You... they are welcome to rest. There is not enough left standing here to shelter you." They had told him, during the day, about the makeshift tents and splintery lean-tos that had become home. "If you wish. If they wish."

Alvir gave him a long look. "Yer name?"

Illumin blinked. "My... my name?"

"Under whose roof will we shelter, Stranger?"

"... My name is Illumin."

"Ah." The old man smiled again, and stood up, cupping his weathered hands around his mouth. "Ladies an' gentlefolk!" All around, talking stopped, faces turned to look at them. "The Pharos Beacon is open to us, for shelter, if ye will take it." He glanced back at Illumin. "This one has offered it t'us. His shelter, his peace. What say ye?"

There was a soft murmuring, and then a chorus of "ayes".

"Well, then. Seems the people have spoken," Alvir grunted, bringing his hands down and turning to Illumin. "Will ye lead them?"

"... No. That's your job, elder," Illumin said, with a small, grateful smile.

"Aye. 'Tis. For now," the old man said. "For now."