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Senga had been in her arms, and then Soren pulling her away as the colt's soft murmurs had turned to growls. She remembered the guardian saying her name, something he'd never done before, then... it was all very fuzzy after that. Everything seemed to have gone white as if the world around them was being swallowed.

Waking, if one could truly call it that, provided nothing in the way of answers. A soft flex of the women's fingers, wood beneath her palm now instead of dirt. The air was still more, no longer chilled or stirred by a breeze. It wasn't silent, but beyond the gentle sounds of bodies around her there was no noise. No buzz of insects or soft scrape of leaves. With each of these unnerving realizations the horseman grew more aware, and after a few moments she pushed herself up into a sitting position, dainty fingers immediately raising to press over the note on her shoulder, before jerking away.

Her skin was tacky with blood, but beneath the strain of red her flesh was untouched.

"Soren?" His name had fallen from her lips automatically, and as the panic began to bubble up within her age rose to her feet, turning on the spot to search for the large man, or any of the others she'd been with, but all she could see was the fog. Their sudden absence seemed overwhelming, and its then she realizes how terribly quiet her own mind is. No buzzing voices, no urging whispers. It makes her pause, breath catching as she stays to hear some she'd of soft coercion, but there's nothing but white static and her own ringing thoughts.

"Wait.." Distress was very apparent in the baffled whimper. "Senga?" The edge of her voice was beginning to pick up with the start of hysteria. The colt had been with them, only moments ago... maybe he'd know, or at least could say if he felt it to. The sudden and undeniable void left by the absence of the voices. She'd wanted a cure, looked for the silence, and now she had it. It was deafening! "Soren?!"

When the wolf woke again, he was alone, and the world was white. There was a soft hiss of breath as his eyes opened, gold irises unfocused and wild. The floor beneath him was cold and smooth, and he found it very odd that he could criticize such a small detail when only moments before he'd been thinking only of Home. Pushing himself onto his elbows, and slowly to his knees, the Executioner let out a soft keening noise at the pain that sprang all at once through his body; a dull ache that spread throughout his joints, exacerbated by movement and exhausting to feel. "Mmmmn." Senga bent his head, stringing together fragments and memories and voices in his mind in a fruitless attempt to remember how he had gotten here, and more importantly, where here was.

But the only memories that came were broken and torn; those of the Death Guardian, and the Priestess who'd held him like a sibling until he'd been taken again by the fog. Panic settled briefly in his gut; had he hurt them, killed them, done something unforgivable? But no, he would have remembered that... he would have, right? Senga pressed the palm of his hand to his head, his breath shallow, his body heaving as the clouded memories became like sharp knives, fierce and unforgiving and clear all at once. And he waited; waited to hear the voices that had become familiar as friends to him, waited for them to jeer and snap and tell him what a shadow of a War Horseman he'd made himself into once again.

But nothing came. Nothing but static, and the sound of his own thoughts.

Nothing. No one.

Senga's heart leapt in his chest, aching and erratic and spreading adrenaline through his veins. Were they gone, had they left? Was it all over? Was this just a trick? It had to be a trick, right? They were just playing a game with his head, right? Senga pushed himself to his feet, the absence of his pelt making him shiver and rumble in dissatisfaction. And then there was a sound, and for a moment he thought the voices were back. But no, it was tangible, it was out in the air - it wasn't in his head.

There was no thought as he followed the voices, no plan ahead for what he would do when he found Soren and Nergui. The lack of noise within his head made him feel sick and lonely, as though he were suddenly exposed to a new level of deafening sound, only sound was silence, and the silence was something he hadn't heard in such a very long time.

And then they were there, and Senga all at once fell more alone than ever. It was a rather unearthly feeling, a contradicting one as well. Here were creatures of the Clans, and yet he could not connect. He stilled just close enough that they could see him clearly, and he them, his breath slow and steady, though his heart made it hard to hear. "Soren." His voice was soft and dry. "Nergui." His eyes flickered uncertainly, and finally he glanced at the Priestess.

"Can you hear them?"

Are they gone?

Stats:

The priestess moved to his side quickly, clinging to him, and it was, more than anything confusing. She could not hear them? Telling him to speak when he was as silent as he was? What was he supposed to say? An arm curled around her much smaller frame loosely. "I'm here, Priestess," he tried to assure her, racking his brain for anything to say other than the obvious "who is gone, what isn't right," that was playing through his head. "I'm not leaving." He pulled his hand to her back, rubbing small circles there at her whimper and apology. "There's nothing to be sorry about."

He said nothing about it, but it made him crazy. Seeing a priestess, any member of the clan really, at this point, but he understood somewhat. The fog was unnatural, and at least she had not been taken as far as Senga had...

Thinking of the devil, a soft voice reached his ears and Soren looked up at his name. Senga. They had not been able to save him, but here he was again. As himself. The question, and the mare's answer. So it was insanity. Their insanity gone, the taint stripped from them, and that had left her in such a state? He dropped his hand quickly at the first hint of her moving away, watching the two of them, but conscious of their surroundings. He did not trust this. The last time they had thought the taint had been gone Senga had went back to the fog. One hand tightened into a fist, he would not go through that again.

He would not.

But the Colt's appearance also served to remind him about something else. He was weak. He was meant to be a guardian and he was not living up to his station. If one or both of them were consumed again....he doubted he had the strength to win in a fight. But maybe he could keep them safe for a bit longer than if they were alone. "We should keep moving," he finally said. Staying here...well, there was nothing to be seen, and they were potentially just making themselves targets.

Senga moved, and dark arms fell away from him as he took a step towards the swirling fog. Mismatched eyes watching him keenly for a moment before she turned her head to look back up at Soren, nodding. He thought they should keep moving, so they would do just that. She waited until he too began to move forward then fell into step beside him, hugging herself tightly as if to guard against the cold. It wasn't chilly, but still the mare shivered. Tiny tremors racing up her spine periodically as they continued on.

A few quiet moments passed, and that alone was unnerving after their initial excursion through the fog. So far there had been no monsters, no tasks, nothing to bar their way through. Through to where though? Soren was leading the way, and although he seemed determined, she doubted very much he knew where he was going. None of them did.

She kept to his side though, like a second shadow, until finally something began to form of the fog. Large and imposing, the closer they got the more clear it became. "A door?" Curiously she reached out to touch it, half expecting it to dissolve beneath her fingers, but it was solid. "It's real, what should we do?" But even as she said her hand was drifting towards the knob.

The tip of a finger brushed against it, and a voice called out, in reality or in her mind, she wasn't sure which, but it pleaded for her to wait. It startled her, made her pause. A large hand on her shoulder stilled her, another at her hip drew her back against a familiar chest as thick, muscled arms wrapped around her. "Soren?"

"Don't go. Please. There's still another way. You don't have to do this!"

The mare frowned, laying her own much small hand over his where it rested on her stomach. "We don't have to go this way.. but it's the first real thing we've encountered." What he was saying, it didn't sound like him. "I won't be going alone.." She tipped her head back to look up at him, but the fog was too dense, she couldn't see his eyes. "I won't go without you."

Then you'll stay with me?

The question seemed more loaded then it should, and the mare's slid between those of the guardian's where they rested against her, squeezing. "Of course I will." Where else would she go? He was her friend, the one person left of their clan that she placed value in. She would always be his shadow.

She didn't see the smile, but she felt the rumble in his chest, the strength in his arms as they tightened around her before.. nothing. She was left to stand on her own so suddenly it made her stumble, and she had to catch herself on the door before jerking her head up to see where Soren had gone. Of course he hadn't moved from where she'd left him when they'd first encountered the door, and he was staring off now with a look on his face that suggested he was seeing something that wasn't there. It made her doubt the memory of arms around her, the voice in her ear, and she hastened to straighten up, dark arms wrapping protectively around herself as she looked to her side for Senga.