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 Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:49 pm
Here are the latest events that have taken place. Those so far involved in this roleplay are as follows: AthanShade, Reyna Crelos, Kamtrouble (Chandra), & TarnishedHalo. The roleplay is taking place in the shop thread and is open to all Guardians. Events will be recorded in this thread to keep everyone up to date!
The final event features AthanShade, Reyna Crelos, and azuredreams.
... read on if you're brave enough. ( Seriously. XD It's long. )
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 3:16 pm
Athan appeared quite literally out of nowhere in the shop. He seemed to pace for a moment before calling out for Reyna. He knew she was there since he could feel her presence but he was in too irritable a mood to go and fetch her.
He smiled faintly when the silver haired girl in question poked her head around the corner and arched a brow, no doubt wondering what it was he wanted.
"Just came to see... how things are going.." he murmured faintly as his eyes darted about the room almost as though he were nervous about something or suspected that something else might be there.
Driven to take another nighttime stroll by a fight with her younger "sister", Chandra stumbled into the shop. She raised one eyebrow silently when she noted the man who had explained the black pearl to her. The man who she assumed had somehow shackled her with this depressing shadow.
"Greetings." She said calmly, attempting to draw his attention.
"Ah.. Nice to see you again, Chandra," Athan replied in that same smooth, almost elegant tone of voice he typically took with just about everyone, "I'm sure you and Pearl have gotten along well?" He smiled briefly before he frowned and his eyes darted about the room again.
Something had unsettled him and left him tense and nervous -- something that was quite unlike his typical calm, cool, reserved demeanor.
Reyna made her way into the main part of the shop after she put away whatever project she'd been working on away. She frowned quietly as she poked her head outside the doorway again to peer curiously at Athan.
Normally he just appeared near her side in an effort to make her jump at his sudden presence. She hated that, but it was strange for him to not do it. "Wonder what he's up to now," she mused faintly before shaking her head and heading on into the main part of the shop to quietly busy herself while Athan spoke to the girl that she recognized faintly from a description he'd given her of a new Guardian.
"I am not sure we have." Chandra said, noting Athan's odd behavior. He seemed nervous about something. Wrapping her arms over her chest, Chandra decided to pry. "Are you alright?"
"Ah.. I'm just fine," he replied with a charming smile as his eyes darted briefly towards Reyna before focusing intently on the girl before him. "A bit.. anxious, I suppose," he murmured slowly as his eyes drifted faintly about the room as though he were looking for something or someone.
His eyes narrowed and he focused intently on a shadow moving in the corner before breathing a slow, steady exhale when he realized it was only Mystic, Reyna's Shadow, that had been lurking about, no doubt curious as to what the sudden ruckus and sound of people in the shop was all about.
"Tell me," he began as his gaze fell upon Chandra once more, "Have you noticed anything.. strange as of late? Another shadow perhaps that isn't your own?"
Athan paled visibly as though frightened that the girl might come in contact with what he was looking for. "Should you see it, contact me or Reyna immediately," he replied as he cast a look in the silver haired girl's direction. "Though I'd hope that such a thing doesn't happen."
He fell silent for an awkward moment before muttering a quiet excuse, "If you'll excuse me, Chandra. I need to discuss something urgent with Ms. Crelos. Though do feel free to roam about the shop. All Guardians are more than welcome here."
He drifted away and caught the other girl by the arm before visibly dragging her into the other room.
"Athan! The hell is wrong with you?" Reyna demanded in a low hissed breath as she pulled her arm free and glared balefully up at the man. She fell quiet and frowned when that strange sense of something being terribly wrong came back and hit her with full force. Since when had she been empathic.
Something is coming, isn't it?, Mystic asked as he floated towards them both after emerging from a nearby wall that had been shadowed in darkness, I can feel it coming. What is it Athan?
So that was the source of that feeling. It was her bond with Mystic, but what had him and Athan so antsy? "Who's coming?" she asked before scowling darkly when the man she was demanding answers from remained quiet. "What's going on? Tell me!"
With a shrug, Chandra drifted back out into the night. Athan's behavior and abrupt departure had vaguely disturbed her, but she had other matters more pressing on her mind. No doubt she would have to answer to both Kam and Kiran when she returned for having been gone.
Athan fell silent and seemingly refused to meet the girl's gaze before he glanced up, green eyes glowing faintly there in the darkness of the room. "There is.. another, like me, that is coming and I fear that he may.. cause us some trouble," he admitted before glancing away as he scowled darkly. He hated admitting fear or that he might need her help. It wasn't something his pride usually allowed for, but this was urgent -- everything was at stake.
"W-what? Someone else like you?" Reyna gasped before visibly paling at the implications of that. Athan, despite his attitude and her generally not getting along with him, was utterly benign and could be downright generous when he wanted to be. To think that there could be someone else with powers similar to his was a bit like having a bucket of ice water dumped over your head.
Another.. Athan! Athan I can feel them coming, too! Why is that?, Mystic whispered, his projected voice taking on a slightly frantic edge to it that sent shivers down Reyna's spine. In the several months that she'd been bonded to the Fiend she'd never heard such a strong hint of fear and emotion of that sort in his voice that whispered against her mind. He was always slightly shy when he spoke, as though afraid he'd truly intrude on her thoughts.
"I'm going to jump out on a limb here and assume that this isn't a good thing? That this.. other person is coming here?" she murmured before her eyes narrowed and she stared over at Athan pointedly. "I've only got one question -- Why? Why would such a person be coming here with such malicious intent as you've suggested?"
He took in a shuddery breath and paced back and forth across the room. Normally when he walked it appeared more like he was gliding or floating midair, but all the bravado and mystery he typically held about himself seemed to have vanished save for the glow of his green eyes.
"I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this," he muttered as he walked about the room, "I didn't want to have to explain all of this so soon!"
"Cut the crap, Athan! Get to the point and tell me why the hell this.. person or thing or whoever is coming this way?!" the silver haired woman demanded as she threw her hands up in the air in an exasperated fashion. She hated playing games with him, and if something bad was about to happen by this other person's presence they didn't have time to do such a thing.
He stopped midstep and gazed levelly at the girl for a long moment before he folded his arms over his chest. He frowned briefly before seemingly coming to some internal decision.
"An old.. friend, I guess you could say, is on their way here to stop me from releasing any more Shadow Fiends," he replied before exhaling slowly as though to keep his composure. He held up a hand as though to ward off any more comments from Reyna when she opened her mouth to speak. "The situation is far more complicated than I could ever explain to you in one sitting."
He began pacing nervously again, muttering faintly under his breath as he resisted the urge to tear his fingers back through his hair that was hidden by his ever present cloak. "I know you want to know why.. but the timing is just so off.. I can't explain everything," he grumbled before sighing as he pressed a hand to his face.
"But.. I suppose I must tell you this -- I am undoing what has been done by my former colleague. I'm releasing the souls that have been trapped within the stones you see within the Shadow Fiends," he replied after a moment. His voice had gone soft and his face shone with more emotion than Reyna had ever seen.
-------------
Athan ended up explaining to Reyna, in great detail, more than she ever wanted to know, about his little creations called 'Shadow Fiends.' She learned what they had originally been: trapped souls within precious stones. They could be reborn to take on a shadow form, a shadow of what they once had been, but would have no memory whatsoever of who they were.
They would never be able to regain that consciousness of their former selves, but they would be allowed to live again. It was a sad story he had told her. He and another had simply been mages who occasionally dabbled in darker arts, but his companion fell in too deep – so much so that it twisted his soul into something sinister and purely evil.
He trapped at first his enemies and those who opposed him inside the stones before his mind went completely mad and he moved on to more easy prey: innocents. Reyna was hardly an innocent, something she knew for a fact, but it didn't stop the shudder that raked down her spine at the thought as she gazed over at Mystic, idly wondering who he had once been.
Had he been one of his enemies? Or had he simply been a bystander in the way of a psychopath? It was hard for her to tell. Athan didn't even know when she had asked. It was a mystery, but one that chilled her to the core.
She now sat in her shop the next day, moving about in a sort of mechanical way as her mind worried over the situation. Athan had disappeared the evening before, claiming only that he needed to find answers and perhaps warn others. It was a dire situation, and she hardly knew where to begin or how to explain to the other Guardians that the creatures they had become bonded to, and even themselves, were now potentially in grave danger if a way to stop the force that was coming wasn't found.
Halo had decided to swing by the shop for no other reason than.. well she felt she needed to. This weird a** thing was left on her doorstep and now it was following her around. And Wren was annoyed, not at her, but this Athan guy.
She'd been told all about it and she knew Reyna only slightly through her husband. But she thought maybe it would be nice to come around.. instead of hiding in the house all the time and causing trouble.
Reyna was lounging quietly in an over plush chair, gazing silently over at the cases full of sparkling jewels. They weren't the 'special' ones that Athan used to create his shadows. Those were stored in the back in a safe place, but it still left her with a sort of unsettling feeling at the sight of them.
She was dragged out of her thoughts when someone entered the shop. She smiled when she recognized the girl as someone familiar -- Wren's wife. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise as a small wisp trailed in behind her in her shadow. She hadn't known that Athan had gifted her with one as well.
Halo looked at Reyna and smiled before she followed the other's gaze back to Bloodstone hugging her shadow. She was thankful that this stone was not as troublesome as Wren's.
"Hey Reyna.." She waved a bit and walked further in. "So I found this on my step and figured I'd stop by." Fairly nonchalant way of saying it.
"So I see," she chuckled faintly before shaking her head and pressing a hand to her face as though imagining Wren's reaction at discovering that Athan had bestowed his wife with a little 'gift' as well. The tension in her shoulders and overall appearance seemed to bleed away at that thought, distracting her from her ominous thoughts from moments ago.
"How are you taking to being.. well... stalked by your own Shadow?" she snickered, "It took me a good while to get used to Mystic." At the mention of the Fiend's name he appeared, fading in through one of the walls as he clung to the shadows that were scattered there.
His jewel tinted eyes immediately flickered towards the small wisp just as Reyna's had, and a sort of child-like curiosity replaced the almost worried expression that had been on his face. Another one.. I thought there was another. I felt it awaken, he murmured in a soft voice, that brushed against their minds.
She honestly wasn't sure if it was Mystic's demeanor that made his telepathic speech so soft and almost hesitant, or if it was just the way it was with his kind. They wouldn't know, of course, until another Fiend aged as he had.
Halo blinked when she saw the other. "Oh it's not so bad. Sort of.. calms me down a bit. I think it's giving me more motherly instinct than is natural." She chuckled slightly and fluffed her mohawk.
"So.. is that what it'll grow to eventually?" She peered at Mystic. Bloodstone peeked out form her leg at the other fiend and shimmered a bit in recognition but that was all.
"Mine is Bloodstone. I call it Bloo. Because.. well I'm odd like that."
She turned slightly eye Mystic as he hovered in place, head tilted to the side as he watched the small wisp skitter about it's bonded's legs. "As far as I know, yes.. he's kind of a teenager right now, though his age doesn't necessarily reflect it so much as his physical form does," she replied slowly.
"He's Mystic Topaz.. I just call him Mystic. Whatever works," she went on as she crossed her arms and glanced towards the floor as her thoughts from earlier came back to her. She and her Shadow had become so close. He was dear to her almost as though he were her child, and to possibly lose him .. -- She didn't like the thought of that, even if when she'd first 'acquired' him she hadn't been too happy about the situation.
"Hi Mystic.." Halo waved a little but was really unsure how you greeted a fiend.
Her attention was back on Reyna though as the woman seemed to be very troubled. Halo wasn't good at comfort but there was a wave of sympathy emanating from Bloo that seemed to absorb into her. She was getting used to that feeling.
"Hey Reyna.. you ok?" She took a step forward and set a hand on the other's shoulder tentatively. It was something she probably wouldn't normally do without a shadow fiend nudging her on.
Mystic waved and blinked as his gaze settled on her before shifting towards his Guardian. He felt the same feeling that Bloo did, only it was stronger since he was directly bonded to Reyna.
"I.. well, no," she began before laughing faintly as she admitted it out loud. She wasn't one to admit her own fears and worries, though she was in a sort of position to share what was wrong with Halo since technically she was involved as well. Damn, Athan.. getting us all in over our heads.. , she thought to herself. Really she was more irritated that because of his little rivalry with her best friend that she'd managed to drag said friend's significant other into the mess as well. If things ended badly...
She sighed before glancing up to meet the other woman's eyes for a moment. "I'm afraid that we've all been unknowingly dragged into.. a very, very complicated situation," she murmured slowly as she motioned towards Bloodstone.
Halo lifted her eyebrow at Reyna's admittance but just sort of smirked a bit, "That happened to me once before.. I married Wren." She smirked a bit at her stupid joke (even if it was true) and just shook her head. "What do you mean though?"
"Well," she began after laughing quietly at Halo's joke, "Long story short? There's a guy somewhere out there that's.. kind of like Athan. Only evil and he wants to destroy all the Shadows that have been created." She sighed and leaned back in the chair as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"There's.. also a chance that if it destroyed them we, as Guardians, could go down with them since we're bonded to them," she went on, though honestly she wasn't all that concerned with her own well-being. She'd lived longer than most, though it wasn't something she boasted about.
"Athan is out running around right now trying to figure out how to stop him," she explained, "So if your Shadow starts getting a little antsy, it's because Bloo can feel the other person's presence, and if you happen to see a shadow other than your own or anything strange.. well.. contact me if you can."
Halo listened and frowned. No that wasn't good. She didn't need to be dying off anytime soon.
"Yeah.. I'll let you know.." She felt something from Bloo that made her want to pound this mysterious evil person's face in. In the name of.. righteousness or something?
Halo swatted her hand at the fiend behind her who sunk back and hid again. "I think Bloo wants us to fight him.." She chuckled a bit.
"Oh," Reyna began with a dark smirk that seemed to twist at her lips, "There will most definitely be a fight to be had if it comes to that. I have absolutely no intention of letting Mystic or any of the others, Guardians included, come to harm."
She fell quiet as she scowled down at the floor angrily. There was no way in hell she'd back down and give in without a fight, even if it meant using a bit of magic herself that she hadn't dared try in many years. One of her hands unconsciously crept up to her face to edge around her eyepatch at that thought.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:19 pm
Over a series of several long weeks, Reyna continued to feel as something or someone were watching her when she left the shop late in the evenings. It was frustrating as hell. Whenever she looked for someone there, all she saw was shadow -- and not even the suspicious kind.
Mystic hovered nervously at her side almost constantly. Rare was the occasion he wasn't there by her side. It was almost as though he were a tiny wisp again who was afraid to leave her shadow. She couldn't offer him any comfort though. She was just as antsy as he was. The feeling of foreboding she felt and the feelings of anxiety that fairly radiated off Mystic was rather difficult to stomach after a while.
Things seemed to only get worse when Athan decided it was a good idea to lurk around the shop more often. He typically peppered her with questions she didn't know or simply couldn't answer. Those questions would lead to more questions and then he'd fall quiet. He'd pace restlessly after that before finally disappearing in that eerie way he did, only to return hours or sometimes even minutes later to begin the entire process all over again...
--
Reyna sighed irritably as she rubbed the back of her neck. It had gone stiff what with how she'd been hunched over her latest masterpiece. It was then that she remembered why she preferred to work with acrylic paints rather than watercolor. Watercolors were best done flat and taped down to a solid surface which of course meant she was bent over the paper in a rather uncomfortable position.
Already she could feel the beginnings of a headache pulsate at her temples. The pain seemed to reverberate inside her skull and she grumbled under her breath as she pushed away from the desk to stretch her lanky limbs out. She idly glanced towards Mystic's direction who had busied himself with a small drawing of his own.
He'd pestered her enough that she'd finally broken down and bought him his own little sketchbook and some rather nice pencils that were perfect for beginners. She had to hand it to him, he really was quite good, even for a beginner. She had a sneaky suspicion though that it was a talent he'd simply sucked up somehow from her through their bond. He seemed to carry quite a few of her traits sometimes. It was almost eerie.
What was more eerie was the nagging feeling in the back of her head that seemed to worsen her headache. She sighed again and pressed her fingertips against her temples before running her hands back through her cropped, silver hair.
"Mm.. I think we should close up shop early today, Mystic. Business is slow, and I'm feeling sort of cranky," she informed him. Really, she wanted to be home before dark. At night that twisting, gnawing feeling in her gut worsened to the point that she almost felt sick. It wasn't so bad in the daylight. It was ironic really -- she usually preferred night to day.
She moved to clean up the mess she made and wash out her paintbrushes before frowning when she heard the bell to the front door ring signaling that someone had come inside. She peeked through the door to the adjoining room where she'd been washing the brushes to see who it was.
"Reyna! I think I've found a solution!" Athan declared, surprising her with both the fact that he was there, and by the fact that he'd come through the door like a normal person.
"To what?" she asked dryly, even though she knew the answer all too well. It was almost a reflex that she reply with something snide or catty when it came to Athan.
"I found an old spell that I think might work on Doran and rid him of us for good.. I think," he replied as he plopped down a dusty old book that was several inches thick on top of her desk that she'd just finished cleaning off. Dust rose around it in little plumes before finally settling as he opened the volume and flipped through the pages and stopped at a certain chapter. "We can trap him with his very own magic.. he won't see that coming," Athan smirked, looking rather pleased with himself.
It wasn't quite dusk yet and Wren knew that the shop Reyna and Athan controlled didn't close until sometime after dark. There was just small fact about that: Wren didn't want to be caught alone after dark. Not when Hawk's Eye was barely visible in his shadow, the only sign he was even there a glint of his gem from his chest.
The fiend was as shaken up as he was and showing it far more. But what could the demon expect? He had laid down to take an afternoon nap and soon found himself trapped in a vision apparently Hawk's Eye was having. It had been disturbing and destructive. Even now he could still remember the sight that he and the fiend had come across in the vision. The blood that he had seen, the slow pull of energy slipping out of his own body that was Hawk's Eye.
And then it hadn't stopped as Hawk's Eye was screaming and disappearing from his mind, but it went on as he had slowly collapsed to the ground and his own energy giving. There had been others, he was sure, going through it but the only one around him was Reyna. He had now idea where his wife was or what had happened to her, only a sickening feeling that she couldn't have lasted as long as he was. Reyna and him had been left, slowly slipping as even two demons couldn't last forever as their life was being eventually sucked out of them.
Athan, he could remember, had fallen far too easily under the power of Doran ... Was that the name Wren and Hawk's Eye remembered from the vision? The man, if he could be called that, was hardly anything like it. Doran had been nothing but shadows and glinting eyes in darkness that he controlled.
He had enjoyed their fall too much in the vision.
Wren shook his head, blowing a streak of black hair from his eyes. When he had come to earlier, he could remember the faint voice of Hawk's Eye in his mind. Didn't mean too ...
The mischievous young fiend hadn't meant to show the vision to him, but he seemed too shaken up to share much beyond that. That was the final straw. Hawk's Eye had been having numerous visions of late. The weeks had passed and Wren was sure whatever had decided to stalk and play games with Athan and the guardians, along with their Shadow Fiends, couldn't have been done away with. Not with Hawk's Eye still acting as he was.
It was wearing on him, the consistent sense of stress and fatigue from Hawk. The feeling of fear he couldn't block out. Going to the shop was the only thing he could think of, since Reyna couldn't be home. Yet, he hoped. He had to tell her what Hawk had let him see and then see if they could do anything -- if Athan had done anything yet.
The door to the shop opened up easily and Wren stepped in, trying to shake off the chill that went down his spine. Even if he was hiding it, the way his posture was gave away his mood. The fact that Hawk's Eye looked like he had his arms wrapped around Wren's shoulders and was hiding his face against the back of the demon's neck said something else entirely.
Wasn't a good thing either.
Reyna glanced up from the passage she'd been reading from the massive book Athan had brought in with him. She smiled faintly at the sight of Wren and Hawk. She hadn't seen him since he'd grown! He was turning out to be quite a handsome little.. shadow. If she hadn't been so worried over figuring out how to help Athan work the spell she would have laughed at that and probably teased the little Fiend about it as well. Unfortunately they had more pressing matters at hand.
"Hey, Wren," she murmured faintly before falling quiet for a brief moment when she took in her friend's appearance as though seeing him for the first time since he walked in through the door. Those worried lines on his face weren't supposed to be there, nor was Hawk supposed to be hiding behind his shoulders. He was a child Fiend -- he should have been poking through all the gems in the cases and causing mass chaos not slinking around as though afraid of -- Oh.
"I'd ask you what you're doing over here in my neck of the woods but I've got an eerie feeling I already know," Reyna replied slowly before glancing towards Athan who turned to face the two with a look that was equally grave as Wren's.
Normally there would be snide remarks exchanged between the two, most of it was playful banter and only half-serious, but this time Athan greeted Wren with a loud, echoing sort of silence that weighed heavy in the room. "What has he Seen?" he asked simply. He was bonded to all the Shadows to at least some extent, and he knew of the stones powers. It had to be what had brought them there.
"It's good that you're here, though," Athan went on as he turned back towards the book, "You can help Reyna and I with a spell. It's rather complicated and two such people with your uh.. talents, would be incredibly helpful. The general idea is to trap Doran with one of his own spells. Specifically, the one he used to lock up souls in stones. Here's hoping he still has some semblance of one."
Reyna sighed faintly and stared down worriedly at the book as Mystic floated over towards her side and took in the sight of Hawk for the first time. It was a shame that their first meeting would be under such strained circumstances, especially after he'd heard so much about the Fiend that had caused her long time friend so much trouble. He'd been looking forward to meeting Hawk.
Wren just snorted lightly at Reyna and what she said, though he raised his hand to greet her and let the door drift shut behind him. If anything, it looked like his friend wasn't in much better shape than he was. "Ah, well. If you know, you know. Kind of hard not too at this point." His words sounded cheerful, but there was a sharp edge to them. This particular demon concerned and edgy was one that had to hold on hard to playing nicely with people. These moments it was easy to see that he really was the demon he claimed to be.
He felt mildly better, however, that the others didn't look any better. Reyna looked tired and most likely not just from her work. Probably from the never ending feeling of something not quite right with the world at large -- their portion of it at least. The demon finally moved closer to the small group, eyes locked with Athan.
A grim little smile on his face as he briefly glanced at Hawk who was peering around his neck towards the other briefly. "Usually he delights in sharing what he Sees with me, at least if it's potentially chaotic for me. Not lately though. He's not sharing a thing." The demon paused, watching Athan and the way the other seemed devoid of his typical arrogant flare, the one that he saw there sometimes. It was what made him poke at the other, exchange retorts and barbed words back and forth. Just right now he couldn't play that game. No one could.
"This time, he didn't have a choice in the matter. From what I can gather, it was like everything had gone wrong in a fight. Let's just say that I don't believe any of us made it through." The demon paused, running a hand through his hair and shaking his shoulders some as if he was trying to dislodge Hawk's Eye. The fiend wasn't moving however, keen on attaining some sort of comfort by attaching himself to his guardian.
"Doran?" Wren asked after listening to Athan, snorting at his comment about his 'talents'. "Doran was, well. He's who Hawk Saw. Not that it matters now, but I suppose if you believe this spell might work I might as well lend my support. How's it work?" Curiosity of both fiend and guardian seemed to kick in and as Wren moved closer to Athan, he was trying to get a good look at the book he was turned towards. It looked old to him, ancient, and the writing that he could see looked vaguely familiar.
Hawk only spared a brief glance at the other fiend, a brief flicker of recognition in his eyes at the other. If he could've, there might've been a slight smile in greeting. As it was, he only nodded his head slightly. Silence was his friend at the moment and he felt none too interested in seeing what he could do with Mystic. Or do to him.
"Doran is much to my dismay, an old colleague of mine I believed to be long since dead. The stones that the Fiends come from are actually his creations. The both of us occasionally dabbled in the darker arts. There's never anything wrong with learning to attain more knowledge in my book, and that's what it started out as," Athan confessed as he turned the page and continued scanning the book at the same time as though searching for something in particular, "I didn't mind when he began going after his enemies, either. Surely, I thought, they had done things just as hideous to him. Though when he began going after innocents and trapping their souls for sport.. well.. that's where I drew the line."
He sighed as he continued to flip through pages and scan the paragraphs. He looked disturbingly human at that moment rather than the foreboding, arrogant man Reyna and Wren both knew him to be. The wind that seemed to be constantly flowing in changing directions about him had ceased, and he looked paler than usual. His eyes still glowed an eerie green, lending to the fact that maybe he really wasn't entirely human. "My own moral misgivings aside," he went on, "Doran has managed to survive being killed once by more conventional means and now he is after us because well.. your guess is as good as mine. I'm going to assume he's not happy about my releasing the souls he's trapped."
Reyna had heard Athan's little story once before when he'd first ran into the shop in a flurry of upset and had dragged her aside from her customers to explain in a hushed tone that something was coming. Mystic had actually said the words first. He'd panicked and flown to her shadow to cling to her side and he had been doing just that ever since.
"So.. what do we need to stir this particular spell?" she asked to get an idea of what they were dealing with.
"I'm looking for the list of ingredients.. yes.. right here," Athan murmured as his finger stopped on one particular paragraph that held a detailed list of ingredients. "I know we'll need a stone for sure. I'm thinking quartz. It'll handle all of his negative energy well," he replied with a sort of bemused smile, but quite truly it was merely a ghost of an expression.
He paled suddenly as he glanced through the list. Most of the things on there he knew he already had in his possession but there was one such item that he definitely didn't have. "Not good," he stated quietly as he ran a hand idly back through his hair, disrupting the hood to his cloak slightly, "This spell calls for dragon's breath. I'll be damned. I haven't so much as seen a dragon in centuries."
"..."
Athan glanced up, unnerved at the sudden amount of attention that was being focused on him. Four sets of eyes settled on him intently before Reyna seemed to fairly erupt, cursing up a storm and flinging every insult she could muster (in a couple of different languages) at Athan. He'd claimed to have found a solution. An old spell he didn't know that even worked with ingredients that hadn't existed in ages was not a solution to their problem! It meant they were doomed, that's what it meant!
"You have to be ******** kidding me!" she all but shrieked, "Athan.. I swear I will kill you if Doran doesn't get either of us first!"
Hawk's Eye was slowly starting to slip forward. Ignoring Wren, though keeping close to his guardian. If anything, he could count on the fact that despite it all, Wren wouldn't actually do true harm to him, though he couldn't say the same about himself. Besides, he was getting a closer look at Athan. Something was tickling his mind in the back of it, a picture in his mind he couldn't quite grasp yet. There was something he should've realized, but ... well, he just let the thought drift away.
The talk of magic and spells was something that interested Hawk's Eye, so he turned his attention to that, unobtrusively poking at Wren's mind to see if the other had anything he was willing to share with him. Hawk's Eye was not like the feien bonded to his caretaker. Not all knowledge instantly came to him as he came to be as he was, but he was quick to learn and quicker to use what he had learned.
Letting out a small snort, eyes glancing to Hawk, Wren let him share some of what he knew. "It's not truly a Dark Art unless you apply it to a dark means. Magic's more of a grey area until you apply the intent of the person." The demon paused, studying Athan and rolling his eyes a bit. It was all too believable that Athan and his friend Doran could get caught up in something like this -- and he could remember all too well the information he had heard about the story. And then again? Wren really had no room to talk about dark things, considering that everything about him was truly dark in nature -- he just acted otherwise.
Listening in and noting some of the things mentioned, eyes cutting to Reyna briefly then to Athan as he finally spoke again, he arched an eyebrow and just stared. Really stared. It was a rare actual glare from the demon. ( And, briefly, his mind did decide to take note how normal Athan looked. It would've been creepy and worth noting, but this wasn't the time. ) He was silent, through Reyna's cursing, his blue eyes seemingly turning icy and there was a faint glow for a moment. A small sign of irritation.
Their solution was potentially nothing but a dud and they'd all end up dead. What a lovely, ohsolovely, thought.
"Just a small thought," he said idly, the words sounding far too sweet too cover his vexation, "but we are in a place where potentially a dragon can be found." The demon paused, lifting up his glasses and rubbing his eyes for a moment. "But dragon's breath doesn't necessarily mean dragon's breath, right? Wasn't there a plant or something called that?" His glasses were put back into place and the smile on his face none too pleasant despite appearances.
"Exactly right," Athan replied, "But the plant that this spell calls for is obscure to begin with and hasn't existed in.. well.. a very long time. We don't have the time to go searching through this entire realm to find out if it does still exist in some remote area." He sighed faintly and pressed a hand to his face, inwardly cursing himself and the fact that he'd ever associated himself with Doran. If it had been only his life that was in danger, it wouldn't been such a problem, but he had the lives of all the Guardians he'd bonded the Fiends to and the Shadows themselves.
Needless to say it was a horribly messy sort of situation that he'd found himself in, and he knew it was up to him to remedy their little problem.
Reyna fell quiet as she contemplated her friend's words and Athan's own silence before she felt Mystic rustle near her side to peer down at the book over her shoulder. His dark hands drifted towards the pages to read the list of ingredients. Maybe it can be done. There are many strange plants in our gardens at home. Might it be there? I know some of these things are in the house..
The silver haired woman arched a brow at her Shadow's knowledge of the more secret things she kept in their home. She figured he'd poked through the gardens but that little admission led her to believe that maybe he'd found a way around some of the locked, sealed doors within their house. Either way, there was no time to sit and question him about such things. They had more pressing matters to attend to.
"Well," Athan replied slowly, "That'd certainly be helpful but starting a spell without all the proper ingredients would be as wise as trying to reason diplomatically with Doran." His voice took on a sort of dry, bitter tone to it as he spoke. He looked weary and tired, and Reyna couldn't help but wonder when was the last time he'd slept... if indeed he did such a thing.
Hawk was ignoring the others, focusing on his bonded guardian who seemed to be thinking of something. There was one mental image that the demon of his seemed to be focused on. A flower, a strikingly beautiful flower, in moonlight. What's that? Hawk's voice flitted softly across Wren's mind, distracting him from his thoughts and the demon looked up from the point on the book he had been staring at.
A solution to a potential problem, if anything. Nice to see you're so interested in what I know about spells and protection. That was enough to send Hawk into a small fume, the shadow sharply turning and giving Wren a piercing stare. The demon merely smiled widely, turning to look at Athan and Reyna now that he wasn't stuck in his own thoughts.
"Nah, I'm sure Doran would love to sit down with us over a spot of tea and discuss a treaty." He snorted. "Actually, no. I'm sure he'd like to destroy us all while drinking a cup himself, but he doesn't seem friendly enough to share. Damn shame too." Rolling his eyes, trying to lighten the mood some, but probably poorly, Wren moved forward and looked closer at the book and the necessary items needed.
"Is dragon's breath the only one that's seems to be giving you an issue with locating, or is there something else?"
"That would be the only problem at the moment. Everything else I have on hand, though Reyna, do you truly have all of these things that Mystic believes you to have? It would save me the trouble of going home and retrieving all the items we need.. which could waist precious time since your home is closer," Athan replied as he glanced over towards the silver haired woman who was fidgeting with the edges of her eye patch.
"Mmhm.. I do. Though any quartz I have is probably tainted," she replied before smiling at that last bit. Her own skills with magic and other.. talents she kept hidden remarkably well, though the magic that had ruined her left eye had the tendency to warp all the spell making ingredients that had to be kept completely pure and untouched. The seals and locks on many of the rooms in her home weren't entirely for the sake of privacy and keeping prying eyes out.
"You might want to get your own stone then," she went on as she tilted her head to the side as though in deep thought. "Yes.. go fetch your own quartz and I can purify the rest and start the spell. You'll have to finish it though. I lack the talent to truly complete a spell like that," she murmured as she tapped at the pages of the book. It was a lie. She could complete a spell as complicated as that, but there was a chance it wouldn't turn out quite the way they all hoped it would.
"So.. where to get the dragon's breath.." she spoke aloud as her gaze slowly drifted over towards Wren who seemed not at all upset by their 'problem' of having a missing ingredient. Then again, she knew her old friend always seemed to have something up his sleeve, and like most demons, he had connections. It was a shame she had to sever all of her own..
"Ah, I'd offer some quartz, but I doubt any I've got around the house at home is any of the caliber you really need." Wren snorted, lifting his head to study the other two. The seemingly young looking demon did have his connections. He had more than his fair share, but he really didn't enjoy the fact that he'd have to risk a run in with people he didn't want to deal with. Though, his back itched idly, an urge to ditch hiding his wings and let them free. He could do that if he had to go where he thought he would.
"If you need any assistance with spells or the like, just tell me what needs to be done and I'll do it. Though from what looks of the spell, I may be able to help out with some parts of it." It was a rarity that Wren actually admitted to having any sort of ability or power, preferring to seem harmless as opposed to a danger. Except, in times like these he didn't play around, and he just shot Hawk another look. His shadow had come back to his own and was just quietly contemplating something that was on his mind.
"Just won't be able to help out for a bit." There was a wide grin on his face, fangs visible and the look present down right evil. "Because I'm going to go get the dragon's breath for us and we can do this spell and get Doran out of our hair."
"I knew there was a reason why I've always been friends with you," Reyna declared with a sort of fierce looking grin. "That's settled then. You get the dragon's breath, I'll get the spell started, and Athan can go get the quartz," she went on, grin still in place as things seemed to slip into place. It made the entire situation easier to deal with.
"We'll meet at Reyna's house, then," Athan spoke up, "It shouldn't take more than a few hours for me to acquire the stone, though the spell will take up quite a bit of our time. No need to waste a
moment more." He smiled faintly and left Reyna with the book as he walked towards the door and seemingly disappeared as he stepped through it.
She still couldn't help but feel that it was terribly eerie when Athan walked through doors like a normal person. She shook her head and ran one hand back through her short hair before snatching up the book. She coughed briefly when it sent a plume of dust up into the air when she shut it. "Let's get moving then," she murmured as she headed towards the door as well.
She locked the door behind Wren and offered him a small smile before he left. "Be careful, and try not to do things I would do," she teased, though her heart wasn't really in it. She knew all too well that her friend could handle himself. Really she was more worried about the spell somehow going wrong and Hawk's visions of destruction coming true.
Reyna.. Mystic whispered against her mind in a sort of weak, slightly frightened voice. She glanced up to meet his jeweled gaze and paled visibly at the sudden overwhelming amount of fear that rushed through their bond. Doran.. I.. I think he knows.. he feels closer..
Her visible eye widened slightly at that admission before she reached for the Shadow's hand to twine her fingers in his. "Then it's best we hurry," she breathed in a low voice before simply taking off towards their home, moving far faster than the average human could ever dream of.
"All ways thought it was my charming personality that won you as a friend," Wren said, winking at Reyna, before stretching his arms out above his head and mentally preparing himself for the trip he was about to make. He wasn't going to like it one bit, but he'd manage it all the same. The demon only gave Athan a small nod, holding back the urge to tell him to keep safe.
Lost in his thoughts for a moment, Wren moved to head out after Athan did, only turning to look at Reyna and murmur a brief bless you, and then open the door to head out. "Oh, don't worry, I'll do things I do -- which may actually be worse." And the glint in his eyes said that the statement would be very well true in this case. "You be safe, though. Hawk's still feeling uneasy, and with the things he's probably seen ..." Wren trailed off, waving good bye to his friend. She'd be all right, he was sure, but still.
Sighing, Wren turned his attention to Hawk's Eye as Reyna moved on, biting back at the groan as Hawk's panic seemed to heighten for several moments. It made his own pulse pick up and he let out a steady breath. Now was the time to put all those skills of his to use and he calmed himself, detaching from the panic that Hawk's Eye was feeling. Calm down, Hawk, even if Doran was around, in a bit he won't be able to follow us.
Seen too much. Was all Hawk offered in reply and Wren shook his head, walking along the path that would take him back to his own house. His mind was all ready running over the words in his mind he needed to use to get where he was going to. His hands were out in front of him moving in a pattern, a swirl of darkness appearing in front of him as he opened up into a shimmering portal. "In any case, Pierce, you may want to hide yourself very well within my shadow. The company we're about to be in could probably make the Morningstar himself look like a saint."
And once the portal was opened enough, and Wren was sure it was one of the checkpoints he needed to pass through, he took a breath and went through. After that the portal promptly winked out of existence, all traces of him and Hawk's Eye gone.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:20 pm
Reyna remembered why it was she didn't like using spells -- they were a royal pain in the a**. Particularly so if they were written in the older languages, which the one they needed was. Typically the original authors of such old volumes were wise asses and left quite a bit open to interpretation. They were all just damned lucky that she knew what she was doing, otherwise they would have all been doomed even without Doran hot on their trails.
She had neatly scrawled a circle and various markings out on the slate floor and was careful not to smudge any of the lines. They entire room was composed of panels of slate, all for drawing up spells like she was doing. Mystic floated over head to read verses to her while she worked, something she found to be infinitely helpful. The room seemed to calm him some and she knew it had to be because of the wards that had been placed on it. It was a safe place, but she knew all too well that no place would be truly safe if Doran was as powerful as Athan hinted at.
"Speak of the devil," she murmured softly without looking up when the man in question appeared in the doorway. She paused for a brief moment when she glanced up and realized that his customary dark robes were strangely missing. He looked.. so very human. It truly was disturbing, more so than his using a door like a normal person.
"And he shall appear," he replied as he sidestepped inside the doorway to avoid smudging any of the lines that Reyna had so neatly scrawled out on the floor. He wore dark pants and a sleeveless shirt that was just as dark. His hair was long, far longer than she thought it would have been and ended at the middle of his back in what appeared to be dreds.
Had she not been preoccupied with what she was working on she probably would have taken the time to tease him about his appearance, but that brief moment that she paused in her work was more than she cared to waste. "Got the stone?" she asked simply.
"Yes.. is Wren back yet?" he asked as he slowly walked around the circle as though double-checking her work. It irked her slightly, but then again she knew he was more adept at magic and mistakes, even small ones, weren't something they could risk. Her ego would simply have to be shoved aside.
"No.. he still has plenty of time though before it comes time to use the dragon's breath," she informed him before standing slowly. She stretched her arms up over her head and sighed when her spine popped in a few places. She'd been kneeling over the floor for far too long.
It would be a bit longer before Wren would return, but he did eventually. Hawk's Eye once again let himself be completely visible as they came through the portal that he opened in front of Reyna's home and knocked once before heading in. ( Damned if he'd actually break down a friend's wards to just transport in entirely, but clear areas were better as it was. )
"Reyna? Athan?" he called out loudly, to announce his presence. In his arms, carefully being carried was a beautiful flower. It was encased in a glass, though part of it could be moved and lifted off as a top, and the base was filled with dirt. It obviously looked like it might've been a well loved and taken care of plant.
Except it hadn't been. Not in the slightest. It had been a part of plants kept as a means of bartering by a pair of demons. A pair of demons that Wren had not wanted to deal with and because of it he was in a particularly foul mood. His face was set in a scowl and even Hawk's Eye wasn't willing to poke at him at this point, but the shadow fiend was still dealing with the ill feeling and the fear of what Doran could potentially do. Wren's appearance had changed since he left and was different as he made his way through the house. His horns were longer, curling towards the back of his head, his hair was all most pitch black, and his skin looked an unearthly pale and glimmered faintly in the lighting, sometimes looking like scales that reflected an endless amount of colors. There was a tail that was briefly curled around his ankle and it lashed out in irritation as reflection of his mood. The scales were black, but reflected just as the scales else where did, and there was a tuft of fur at the tip.
The benefits of traveling dimensions and other factors lead to Wren being unable to maintain his human guise, particularly because of who he met. He felt too drawn on from it and he still needed energy to help out with the spell. He'd be able to, but it was easier to do so and let go of the guise -- somewhat, some of it was still there. Certain aspects were best left not seen.
Scowling and rubbing at a marking on his cheek without realizing, Wren stared at the plant he had gotten. "Damn thing. If Doran didn't seem like a ******** pain in the a** to get rid of without this spell, I'd get rid of him my self just because of the s**t I had to go through to get this. I hate torture demons." The tirade didn't get much better as Wren hoped he was getting closer to where the two were preparing and his language was colorful. If one language didn't do it, another was spoken.
... and Hawk really could only enjoy the foul mood Wren was in. He'd have to take lessons from the two they seen, even if they had been intimidating to him.
Hopefully Athan, Reyna, and Mystic were all most ready for the dragon's breath and Wren wasn't running too late. He suspected he wasn't, or as much as Hawk's Eye was willing to admit he wasn't.
"My you have good timing," Reyna remarked when she felt more than she saw Wren enter the room. Her one visible eye looked slightly glazed over as though she weren't truly seeing what was in front of her and her voice was softer than it normally was. Her mind was focused elsewhere on the glowing lines that pulsated a faint red color.
In a moment she was going to have to break away from the circle and let Athan take over. She just hoped that she didn't do something stupid like stumble and ruin everything. It was unlikely that she'd do such a thing, but that brief worry was there gnawing in the back of her mind.
She took one step backwards, carefully following the path that she'd marked out specifically for that purpose as Athan entered the circle from the opposite direction. Once she was completely out of the circle she blinked a couple of times and allowed her vision to clear. She hated working with circles. They always gave her such a headache!
Nothing seemed to have gone wrong, though. The red lines had faded to green. It was a good sign since that was Athan's color. Her magical abilities typically were more well suited for fire, Athan's for earth. It was strangely fitting for him considering that he often worked with stones and the like.
She smiled faintly and glanced towards Wren, not at all disturbed or taken aback by his appearance, though it had been a very long time since she'd seen another of her kind in anything that even remotely resemble their true selves. "Give the flower to Hawk or Mystic.. they can give it to Athan without having to truly enter the circle since they are derived from his magic.."
"Eh, my associates," and that word came out dryly sarcastic, "understood the need to be fast and got me what I needed." Wren eyes fell to the circle, eyes studying the power that was flowing within the room and noting the way Reyna looked. She must have been working part of the spell. Watching briefly as Athan and Reyna exchanged control he resisted the urge to comment on Athan's appearance, now not the time for barbs or witty commentary.
Instead, Wren was carefully tugging on his own energy, wrapping it around himself just in case. Personal protection wards were a must in this situation, he felt, though he was careful to keep his energy away from anything near the circle. He stood towards where Reyna had marked out, his tail once more carefully wrapped around his ankle, and not lashing about in tune with his mood. Everything, from his perspective, looked good. Though, honestly, Athan didn't strike him as being suited as aligned with earth -- but it fit him nonetheless.
Giving Reyna a fanged grin, he nodded a bit. He'd regain his guise as soon as this was over, though Halo probably wouldn't mind if he came home looking like he did. "All right," he responded, eyes going to Mystic. "Here, you take it." The demon held it out for the other shadow to take. It wasn't that he didn't trust Hawk's Eye, but it was that Hawk seemed too shaken up to him to really carry the plant without risking it.
Besides, he too felt the ill feeling that Hawk was giving off and he wasn't truly sure what was wrong besides the obvious.
Mystic took the plant from Wren carefully and hovered in front of Athan who had the same glassy-eyed look on his face that Reyna had had only moments ago. The man swayed slightly as he held on hand out, palm outstretched to take the bloom from the Shadow. The flower never actually touched his hand, instead it floated midair amongst a small glow of green as it seemed to grow slightly until the petals were glistening at the edges in a strange sort of way.
He whispered something low under his breath in an ancient language that Reyna just barely recognized. She squinted over at him and noted faintly that he now looked as though he were glowing and his feet were no longer touching the floor. He hovered there above the circle about an inch or so.
Moments later the large quartz stone that he'd acquired was hovering there as well. There was a blindingly white flash of light that made her flinch back and press against the wall. Mystic mimicked the motion and made a sort of keening noise inside his head. He was afraid. Of the light? Shadow Fiends hated bright lights..
No. It was something else. Her eye snapped open and she glanced almost frantically towards Athan. She felt it now as well -- that overwhelming sense of foreboding, of something coming nearer. Though what she felt wasn't through her bond with Mystic.
"He's close! He's approaching the lake Athan! He knows!" she all but yelled before visibly growling as her appearance altered slightly as her human guise seemed to fade about the edges. Her eye glowed an eerie red and a strange wisp of black radiated and pulsated away from her eye patch that covered her left eye. She could sense the man's magic. It left a sort of tingling sensation rippling about the air that made the hair on her neck stand up.
"I know.. the spell is nearly complete," Athan murmured in a soft voice as the glow about him receded and the chalked lines on the slate floor faded away as though they'd never even been drawn out in the first place. "It'll take a few moments for the stone to set," he continued in a more normal tone of voice.
"I don't think we have a few moments," Reyna muttered as she stalked out of the room before pausing midstep. She reeled back at the sudden nauseating feeling of magic everywhere. The room had a seal on it and a barrier to foreign magic. It was no wonder she hadn't felt the strange presence sooner.
"Deities be damned, arse can't learn to wait until people are properly ready for him." Wren bit down on the swell of panic that rose up in Hawk's Eye and bled over into his own mind. It wouldn't do for him to be blind-sided by an emotion that wasn't his own. He was worried himself, but it wasn't a raging feeling like within Hawk. Shielding his eyes from the bright light, grumbling under his breath, he watched as Hawk shimmered in and out of shadows that both he and other things created. The young fiend seemed frantic, all most, and then he went still suddenly.
And Hawk's emotions went blank within his mind, as if he was actually putting a cap on them. It was all coolness where there had been panic and fear of something nasty approaching. Hawk's Eye was expecting the man now and in the fiend's mind he could see him all but approaching and breaching the wards of the building and getting in.
Leaving Hawk be, Wren's eyes trailed to the circle and to Athan and the stone that was said to not be set and ready. "Whatever, it doesn't matter at this point! Just finish five seconds ago," the words came out in a near hiss and Wren turned and followed Reyna out the door and let out a small growl. Doran's presence was hard to mistake once one realized it was that presence that had been lurking behind everything.
"... think we try to stall him to give Athan a bit of time or what?" Wren reached with a hand to touch Reyna's shoulder, actually trying to extend a ward of protection over her as well as make sure she was all right. If anything, the ward he was trying to weave around her would lessen the magic around herself. So far as he had all ways known, Reyna practically attracted magic like a glowing beacon. It wasn't a good thing and his own were strong enough to fight off the ill feeling, but he felt the crackle of a power he didn't like at the edge of his senses and the sensation it caused wasn't pleasant.
Doran just snorted, barely visible in the darkness and shadows that he hid himself in. There was no picking him out from the shadows that he called to his aid to hurry him along. The only thing visible was the glint of his eyes as he made his way to the house that Reyna lived in.
"Mm, these have made it easy for me to do away with them. All here at once." A sinister smile was on his lip and Doran stretched his hand out at once to start breaking down whatever protections would attempt to keep him from getting into the house as he didn't even bother to come in the front door.
... not like he was suppose to knock or anything. Heaven forbid be a little polite about invasion and come through the front door to kill them.
"Yes!" she hissed, "I don't want him tearing up my <********> house.." It wasn't so much anger that made her voice slightly raspy and lisped as it was that her teeth had sharpened and she had become more accustomed to her flatter, more 'human' teeth. "Let's try to hold him off.. we don't want him to break into the circle that is cast in that room," she went on, "If he breaks through we're as good as dead!"
Mystic hovered anxiously about her. His panic was just as strong as Hawk's was but he seemed to have a slightly better grip on it. He was no child, and he'd absorbed enough knowledge of magic from Reyna to know what he ought to do -- stay out of the way.
She paused for a brief split second to press her hand over the gem in the center of Mystic's chest that always seemed to radiate a sort of warmth. It was comforting and she smiled a toothy sort of grin. "Guard that door," she ordered him before taking off towards the front door at a dead run when she felt Doran's presence begin to tear into the protective shields that fortified her home.
She appeared outside in a swirl of shadow that seemed to seep out of her very skin. It was the darkest near her left eye and she smirked faintly as she felt out where Doran was since he was so well hidden in his own shadows. "I know you're there," she growled out between clenched teeth, "I can feel you there.."
Reyna tensed when she felt a faint shift in the air and suddenly the beast of a man was there. He didn't at all resemble a human the way Athan did. He was almost entirely composed of shadow. At the center of that mass of swirling darkness was a man, she knew, but it was still eerie to gaze into darkness and see only the whites of eyes staring back at her and the faint curve of a smirk.
Wren arched an eyebrow, eyes turning towards Reyna who seemed to be going feral. It wasn't every day he could remember her getting that agitated, but his own irritation rising. "Let's go. If the two of us can't hold off something like this, it's damn pitiful." Particularly considering all the training that was coming to his mind at the moment.
Hawk wasn't so much controlling his panic as that the child was briefly locked in a vision, and as he came out of it, he let out yell to Wren's mind that caused the demon to pause and rapidly turn around. "Stay with Mystic!" he said in a harsh breath and Hawk ignored him to push forward before Wren stopped him with a hand. "Stay." This time it was an order and Wren just turned his back around. Mentally, he was sending Hawk's Eye a reassuring feeling. Things would work out.
... careful ..., came Hawk's quiet voice in Wren's mind, even if he was following rapidly behind Reyna and outside just as fast. His eyes were glowing brightly, all most icy in appearance. "Smirking b*****d," he hissed, fingers flexing in and out and trying to ignore the itch to just lunge forward and see if he buried his claws where he saw those eyes and that glint of a smirk if he'd hit pay dirt.
Doran wasn't playing around though and these two weren't worth messing with, but he let them see a hint of what he really looked like. While they were potentially worthy opponents, the work it would take to get rid of them would take away from his energy and that should be saved for Athan. Destroy Athan and they would all crumble without any effort at all.
"I am here, but you're not who I'm here to see." The shadows around Doran increased, stretching out and breaking the wards and protections thread by thread, but also growing around Wren and Reyna -- meaning to envelop them in absolute darkness so that they wouldn't be able to navigate their way from any perspective. He was pressing forward, just as careful to not trigger one of the two demons attacks, but at the same time speeding up the shadows. Shadows that seemed to come alive and curl around the ankles of those in front of him.
Reyna's eye narrowed in a visible tic of irritation as Doran seemed to mock them. She was so close to spilling over that edge and completely losing herself to her true form -- something that was potentially dangerous for Doran and herself. "You will not go anywhere near Athan!" she yelled as her appearance seemed to visibly sharpen. Her nails lengthened slightly as did her hair in messy tendrils that drifted down her back in an eerie sort of way. "This is my home.. you will not go any further!"
"Now, now, Reyna.. no need to lose your temper," came a calm, collected sort of voice that all too familiar. Her gaze flickered briefly over her shoulder to see Athan there, though he looked much different than he had when she'd last seen him completing the spell they'd been working on. She didn't have long to study him before she had to dodge away from more shadows that tugged and pulled at her.
She managed to absorb some of it, but she knew if she took too much she could pose just as much threat to her friends as Doran did. No.. Athan was there. He'd fix things. He had to. They had the spelled stone. She blocked out as much of the darkness that seemed to try and consume her as she could and gave a silent prayer for her friend who had placed a ward on her. If he hadn't she would have had an even harder time repelling Doran's shadows.
"Athan," Doran's voice growled somewhere amongst the thicket of shadows he surrounded himself in. "Old friend.. it's been a long time.. a long.. long time," his voice rasped and took on a strange tonal quality before he launched his attack against his old comrade, all but forgetting about the demons that were waiting for the right opportunity to attack.
Athan countered the attack smoothly, and the two of them seemed to fly into action midair. It was morbidly fascinating to watch as the shadows from both men seemed to swirl together, battling each other and boiling over like angry storm clouds. Athan's human form was barely even visible. He was all shadow, a writhing mass just like Doran, and she realized with increasing alarm as she watched the two that it was difficult to discern between the two of them.
Wren's tail twitched in irritation, as well as lashing about to avoid being caught by the shadows. "Damnit, I hate being taunted, and I loathe shadows acting like they're eating me." Still able to see in the shadows, the demon let go of his guise a bit more, though it only increased the appearance of markings and scales on his skin. Slicing at the shadows with his claws as well as moving about, he let out a sharp hiss and looking towards Reyna to see if she was okay only to see Athan come out.
Withholding a scathing comment, Wren pulled back some as Athan seemed to go forward and finally closed his eyes. "Fine," he muttered to the shadows that seemed to devour a good majority of what he could see around him, "let's see how you like a bit of light in your diet." Holding out his hand, murmuring quietly in a language too melodic to be anything human. After a second, light appeared in front of his hand and he pressed it forward -- using it to push back the shadows.
Where there was light, there could be no darkness and he'd be damned if he let it get snuffed out. He had to admit though, as he thought he picked up the sound of fighting, that he could barely make out everything. When he did it was too hard to tell the difference between Athan and Doran, but he was slowly increasing the light that had an all most holy glow, at least enough so that the shadows were only licking at him and not consuming him. Where was Reyna?
It was too dangerous to risk an attack and not know where she was or which one of the shadows fighting was Athan, they looked too similar at this moment.
"Nothing to say, Athan?" Doran spoke again as he used another attack to shove Athan back where he wanted him. To push the other around and exude his stronger power over the shadows -- proof the other didn't even have half the strength he did. He was slowly going to take over the shadows that Athan was controlling and turn them right back on the other as energy to destroy him entirely.
"Then again you all ways were the silent type." And Doran the type to gloat and taunt, just like he was doing now as he pressed forward again, pushing for an advantage. He was preparing for a one major strike to make the other fall.
Reyna felt as though she were suffocating within the grasp of Doran's shadows. It was like a thick, black cloud of ink that she couldn't quite make her way through. It was infuriating! She growled and clawed through the shadows and managed to catch sight of a brief glimpse of light. It wasn't a natural light either. Must be Wren..
"And why didn't I think of conjuring a light to drive away the darkness!" she hissed under her breath before smirking faintly. She knew the answer to that -- it was because she was losing her temper and she greatly disliked being at a disadvantage. It muddled her thoughts and made it hard to focus, but now with the help of her friend, she'd discovered a way to combat the shadows that tugged and pulled at her skin.
She whispered a few chosen words under her breath as her eye slitted half closed. She pushed out her hand before outstretching her palm to send fire swirling up amongst the shadows that fought against them, effectively creating her own light to repel the darkness that surrounded her. She caught sight of Wren and smiled before the expression faded when she caught sight of Athan and Doran.
Her little spell seemed to burn away most of the shadows except the ones that were directly around them. Faintly she could make out Athan battling against Doran. He seemed to be holding back, and then as she briefly caught a glimpse of a bright shimmer that she knew was the quartz stone they'd spelled, she knew why.
He was biding his time. He was waiting for the perfect moment to use the stone to trap Doran. It would be best if the man, if he could even be called that, were coming directly at him as though to attack when he tried to absorb him and his powers into the stone, otherwise there was a chance that Doran would see what he was doing and deflect it somehow. It all boiled down to timing, and she just hoped that Athan managed to get the timing right.
"Because it's hard enough to think clearly when your leg is being eaten by shadows." Wren yelled at Reyna, hissing under his breath. This was beyond being on his nerves. If everything worked out in this, he was so totally sleeping in the light for several days, Halo could just live with it or make him sleep on the couch. At this point, he didn't care.
At least content to see his friend had found a way to combat the shadows, he smiled at her and increased the glow of the light in his hand to push the shadows further back. This wasn't good to him, that the fight was dragging on like this, and when he saw the smile fade on Reyna's lips he turned his attention back to the fighters he could finally see. What Reyna's fire wasn't burning away, Wren's light was pushing back to a point it couldn't get close. The demon couldn't see the quartz, but Athan had to have it ...
He let out a small growl, not even realizing that even as him and Reyna were pushing back shadows, Hawk's Eye was slipping along the edges of them. The child knew something wasn't right, knew that he needed to be out there. So he slipped along the edges of the shadows, unbothered by them as much as he was one of them. There was a vision there, clearly in his mind, and that was what was guiding him. He had to do this or else.
Doran was patient, but there were limits to his patience, and the fact that he was merely exchanging pitiful blows back and forth with Athan was beginning to rake his nerves. Where was the power he knew Athan had? It was pitiful honestly. "This ends, Athan. You should've stayed in hiding." The words were still in that odd tone of voice that seemed to over come Doran and the creature, no longer even something really a man, suddenly pulled on all the power of the shadows he commanded. He was siphoning even the shadows around Athan and pulling them into his own attack.
A black force seemed to grow and crackle around Doran until it finally shaped into a single form that was Doran's eerie eyes could be seen behind. For once, there was a hint of the man he may have once been, devoid of the shadows and bending them to his will. With one final sneer towards Athan, Doran let loose the energy and fired it at him.
There was no avoiding it and Athan would not be able to move out of the way at the rate it moved. He was caught dead in the path of an attack he didn't think Doran would actually use.
But just before the fatal blow could be struck, Hawk's Eye was there with Athan, in front of him. His back was to the other, his hand going to touch Athan's outstretched wrist.
I've Seen this, his voice was quiet, serious, all most devoid of the inflections of fear from earlier. Needs to be done ... The child's voice stopped, but he was trying to do what came to him.
The energy hit Hawk's Eye completely, some of it spilling over him and to Athan, but most of it was taken by Hawk. The child was using his connection to Athan, taking the blow that he had Seen as a killing strike, and filtering only some of the energy back to Athan.
He was taking the power into himself and attempting to nullify it as best he could. There was a fleeting thought of his guardian and the child suddenly clamped down on all the energy, stopping it from going along his connection to Wren. Hawk was a part of the shadows, there was no way that he'd let the dark energy reach out along his connection and harm. This could be done with just one, he knew it.
Athan was sent tumbling backwards slightly at the sheer force of the magic that hit him even with Hawk suddenly there shielding him from the attack. He drew in a shuddery breath and somehow found the will to stay upright. He realized the only reason why he was still alive and standing was because Hawk had intervened.
He didn't have much time to revel in it, though. He had to work fast before all the dark energy that Hawk absorbed completely destroyed him. He sent the quartz hovering midair between his outstretched arms the way he had done when he'd first spelled it. It glowed faintly and swirled with both a familiar green and a bit of blue mixed in with a darker hue.
He glanced briefly towards the ground and he realized that Mystic was there as well. They were aiding him, guiding him, though he knew quite well that Hawk was the one who had Seen what needed to be done.
The stone pulsated and glowed and slowly the darkness that surrounded Doran began to fade and then rush towards the stone as though being sucked in by a vacuum. It began pulling in the shadows faster and faster until he felt the stone heat up from the friction of so much energy being pulled into it at once. He cursed under his breath and hoped like hell that the stone didn't fracture.
Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to hold onto it any longer it all stopped. Doran was nowhere to be seen, and the pure, crystalline quartz he once had was now a smoky brown. "It's.. done," he whispered faintly before his eyes closed and he simply fell midair, unable to maintain his own powers any longer.
Mystic dashed upwards in a swift move to catch the falling man before he hit the ground and truly met his end. He was severely weakened, but he was alive. He could feel the sheer lack of energy about him. It was like the shadows Doran had launched at him had sucked away everything and left him with very little at all.
Reyna rushed towards him, her appearance seemingly normal again aside from the fact that her hair was a bit ruffled in places. "Take him in the house.. he needs to rest," she murmured softly. She felt that drain as well. It had been a long, long time since she had been forced to use her powers.
Hawk was barely holding it together towards the end, but held on long enough for Athan was to do what was necessary. His eyes burned and there was a crackle of energy around him. There was nothing but darkness in his sight and he continued staying where he was.
He could barely tell that what was going on, his body over whelmed by the energy absorbed, until he thought he heard Athan's voice. The utter darkness was still there, his body feeling like it was on fire. His eyes were burning still and as he blinked he couldn't stop him. It was hurting and he felt tired and weak and over energized at the same time.
... but he could let go and he did and was barely there as Wren caught a him. Hawk's form was extremely wispy, barely there, and the demon let out a small yelp as the crackle of energy leapt up from the shadow fiend child and shocked him. "Bugger, at least it's this done." He let out a quiet sigh, letting the weariness he felt show for a change. He did his best to ignore the little shocks of magic that kept coming from Hawk's Eye.
"They both look like hell, but it's over." Wren said to Reyna, giving her a half-smile and glancing down at Hawk. He should've been experienced some sort of aftershock from his own connection to the fiend but hadn't. The damnable thing had spared him of that. Maybe he did have a conscience.
"Just got to recover now." The demon murmured, form shimmering and shifting to his more human appearance as he joined went with the others into the house for now.
He'd call Halo and see about a ride home anyway, not like she wouldn't know of the chaos that just happened but he didn't feel particularly up to walking home and after his not so little trip and the chaos, he was too damn tired.
Damn, she was going to kill him for not bringing her along.
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