Question martin and the old man until i can figure things out.

Isador's thoughts collected themselves. He realized he was closer to the shadow world now. His communion was stronger with his mental stillness. He would keep with this path, at least for now. The ramifications would be something he'd have to deal with at a later time.

Isador backtracked through the caves, leading back to the shield shrines. The riddles remained the same, but he thought perhaps he was overthinking the riddles involved. He stood before the shield in the chamber of fire, and asked plainly, "Grant me this blessing, elements of the realms."

Isador approaches the shield, the chanting and joyous singing coming to a halt. But when he asked for the shield, nothing happened. The inscription glows brighter...and then fades, so that the only word remaining is take. Isador reaches out and grabs the shield, a flash of light, a chorus of cheers, and a sudden change of location to the middle of a large arena happening all at once. The stands are filled with spectators of no definable origin...some goading Isador on, others cheering him to victory. He was dressed as a gladiator would be, with armor Before him was a great beast, with the face and mane of a lion, the claws of a dragon, and a long, scaly tail. It spoke to him.

Enemy of the fire demons, you come seeking the power they hold?
Not in humility, like a torch in a dark cave -
Not in secrecy, like the stoked fires of a camp before the war-
But for domination over others, for the heat of the battle.
It is this that you have chosen, and that alone which you will receive.

The beast reared, and as if compelled by a divine force, Isador lifted the sword as the beast pounced on him, sending the sword straight down his throat. Isador was bathed in the beast's blood, it seared his exposed skin and the armor he wore. The scene was whisked away from him, his skin still burning. Isador has acquired the traits of added accuracy and reaction time, especially in high stress situations.



"Dan, I think we owe you an explanation," Martin said apologetically to Dan.

"Oh Marty, I don't think that's such a good idea..." the old man said. There was howling, "but you both better come in. Come at once. These forests hold many strange abnormalities not explained by science as we know it," he said, beckoning them into the cave. The old man looked at Martin, expectantly.

"Alright Doc, this is - this is Dan. He's a scientist, Doc, like you. He can help us figure out where we are!" Martin said pleadingly.

"We will see about that," he looked at Dan more closely now, arms crossed, "but a field scientist of all things, in this day and age.I presume you have your log book with you, a way to record your findings as you travel? No? Navigation equipment, a telescope? Great scott, man! What have you been doing in this exciting time without a way to study or record?" Dan emptied his satchel, procuring his synthesized tonics and showing them to the old man, who picked it up greedily, pulled an intricate magnifying glass from his pocket, and looked closely. "Ah, a chemist are you? On the dawn of your discoveries, I see. Fascinating...truly fascinating..." He puts the magnifying glass back in his pocket and returns the vials to Dan. "The name is Emmett L Brown, student of all sciences." The old man walked to the back, kicking some metallic things under the covered object he had been working on earlier, Dan's gaze drifting to the other things in the cave. The work bench they had seen outside was crudely constructed of fallen timber and stumps for legs. It was also covered by a lumpy tarp, and setting precariously on top of the tarp were a number of strange objects, including rusted iron spikes, another covered package, which looked like a satchel, except much sturdier - and lastly, a brass telescope.

"Gotten sentimental in your old age, haven't ya Doc?" Marty said, picking up the telescope and setting it back down again. The old man ignored him, setting a pot of water in the embers of a fire. He held onto the handle with a rusty iron mechanism that would act like his hand, so that he didn't have to touch the fire. Lying on the floor by the fire was a dog, wagging his tail vigorously as Martin went to pat him on the head.

"Oh now Marty, that telescope has become very handy in trying to figure out where we have ended up," the old man said firmly.

"And where are we, Doc? What happened?"

"I - I don't know. The constellations are nothing like ours, and it is clear to see we are not in the same solar system. We may not even be in the same galaxy, or universe!" He responded, pulling out a folded pieces of parchment with an intricate star map, tracking the location of differently heavenly bodies, occasionally notes, names in parenthesis with a question mark, and calculations on the speed or apparent direction of objects, and even a well drawn map of the moon that hovered above. It was fantastically accurate. "I'm sorry for the crudity of the map, I didn't have time -"

"-to scale it, I know I know," Martin said with a small chuckle. "None of the constellations look familiar, Doc."

"That is correct, Marty. At first I thought that these three stars here," he said, point to three nearly stacked one on top of the other, "Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, and that we were merely seeing them from another angle. But following that logic - with help of interstellar parallax and astrometry, of course -" he said to Dan, "that would mean that Rigel should be in this direction, or at least visible from our location, even if it just barely. I need to do more observations, more calculations...but I do not know if we are so much as in the same universe that we belong in." the old man grinned wildly, "it is frustrating, but also a bit of exciting. It's how Copernicus, or Galileo would have felt in their day, isn't it? Invigorating, absolutely invigoration...except I have the perk I don't have the catholic church hounding my ever move!" Howling from the forest interrupted his laughter.

"That's great Doc...but how...? Where are we...? How are we...? When are we?"

"Well by our timeline, I think we are in the far future, 2115, to be precise. But by this universe, we are still in the period of late antiquity - the fall of the Roman empire, the rise of the dark ages - dark times are ahead for these people, Marty."

"Doc, we are already in those dark times," he said, explaining everything he and Dan had seen and heard... "and there's magic here, Doc! And the pantheon, the gods and goddesses - they're real! I wouldn't have believed it, until one tried to kill the both of us!"

"Strange, strange indeed..." Doc muttered to himself, sifting through more detailed drawings and a few schematics Dan could not recognize. "Marty, we must leave immediately. I am afraid that it is our fault that these things are happening."

"What do you mean Doc? Surely - you couldn't think we cause the magic, do you?" Martin said helplessly, "and we can't, Doc. The pieces you need to complete the De-" the old man hissed, cutting Martin off, "alright, the things you need for our, uh, thing...are buried outside of Astron. We have to go get them if we are to uh...you know, properly disperse the -"

"Great Scott! Marty, I get it now! I see what happened! It happened during our last attempt at temporal displacement, when the left fender blew off as we hit 88 miles per hour...if my calculations are correct, the fender is still energized in the time stream - it's been left behind, Marty! It is causing the events that should naturally be happening in this universe to speed up erratically! As we speak it is ripping a hole in the time-space continuum, both creating and destabilizing this world completely. We have to go back and get it, Marty! We have to find that fender!"

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 26 2012, 7:20 pm by Fire_Kame.

Isador stood for a moment, absorbing the magic that had imbued him. There was at least one more shrine he had to see. But, following the logic, the first shrine - the sword marked of the earth - didn't have fire or water counterparts. At least not that which he had found thus far. For the moment it did not matter. He would backtrack there soon. First, he traveled to the western passage, the one shrouded in darkness leading to a ladder. With two more passages in this region, he conjured another projection to take the north one, while he struggled with the ladder to take the western route.

The north passage way leads down and around, towards the bottom of the cave. Going west leads to a cool pool water. The ladder Isador takes leads to a trapdoor, that with a great amount of force finally pops open, a cloud of dust falling on Isador. A long passage lay before him. The passage way was dark, but he distinctly heard skittering echoing, and he felt cobwebs everywhere, as if the passage had not be used in a long time.

Isador drew Excellion and his Fangs, and pushed forward through the passage.

Proclaim to the heavens;

"For the great eve of our night the infinite outstretching twilight reaches into abyss. For the edification of man is nigh; We shall either burn in the flames or be cleansed by the holy fire."

Then ask Emmet Brown for anything that can help in our journey. Take and act according to this then go and fetch the metal.

After walking for several minutes, Isador comes face to face with a spider that encompasses the whole passage way. The spider is white, decrepit, and partially blind from the look of the eyes...however, on her back lay her children, each the size of a small dog. Although the large spider has not seen him, the smaller spiders have, and they launch themselves upon him. It is very clear that they are poisonous.

The fangs react before Isador does, intercepting the spiders as they fly through the air. Their bodies explode on contact, spewing white blood across the cavern and filling the air with the bitter smell of rock melting. Isador backed away, withdrawing his shadows to the walls, ceiling, and floor. He surrounded the passage in shadow fonts, and summons a network of phantasmal chains to skewer the remaining attackers. This attracted the attention of the larger spider, however, who drew closer to the chains - felt the bite of their vampiric aura - and then backed away. A standoff at best. Isador rose Excellion over his shoulder like a Javelin, tuning his mind to the beast as it considered the obstacle in front of it. He figured if he could strike the brain...

Doc looks at Dan and says, "well first things first - we need to reassemble the DeLorean. Some of the panels and pieces are still outside of Astron...so when the sunrises we'll have to go back to where you hid the pieces before we can move forward."


Isador rose Excellion, aiming for the large spider's skull...but the large spider had sensed her young in danger, and was flailing wildly, cutting Isador's arm. He screams as the poison burns his skin. He falls forward, the spider directly above him. He sends Excellion straight up through the spider's head, impaling her in one swoop. The spider twitched violently, and then fell.

Dozens of other spiders fall upon Isador.

Three days turned to three weeks and then three months. I have all but forgotten your face.

Athenos stood before Serena. His face was mattered in mud, his hair slight longer and unwashed. His appearance was best described patchwork, and not of very good quality. His eyes no longer had a youthful sparkle and rage; instead replaced with a sad remorse. He had seen far too much death.

"You must stop them, Serena."

"We have to stop them."

He paid no attention to her correction, however well intended. His former impatience was only a whisper of what it once was. She had no doubt, he had learned his lessons in the most extremely painful way possible. The things he had seen, the things he had must of done. Only someone like Athenos could have pulled it off -- and still he left a shadow of his former self, running on determination alone.

Athenos held out his hand. A crystal with a soft glow laid in it, not more than the size of a small rock. It was like a window to the night, endless yet contained; it was divine power. Her divine power. Serena reached to grab it, holding Athenos's hand for a moment.

"You have done well, little knight."

An warm air circled the two of them, as magical power was released. The demon energy, repressed by the god's magic, broke its chains and intertwined with it, forming a violet light, strong, but controlled with elegant finesse. As the energy weaved together, so too did Athenos's body dissipate, joining the stream of light around him.

Athenos looked at Serena for the last time, finally smiling, before disappearing completely.

---

Serena snapped back to the realm of the gods, exiting from that mental realm where they could have been in secret. The air around her was swirling with violet magic; she was once again whole.

The council chamber was left in awe, the judge Tarlos having stopped mid-sentence. The light faded, and in the place where a frail Athenos stood just moments ago, stood a girl with a slender frame, not more than fifteen years, almost human. But she had fox ears and tails, a testament to her faerie roots.

Tarlos had regained his composure quickly, motioning the guards to hold their position: "What have you done with the defendant?"

Serena looked to him, "I am your defendant," she waited a brief moment, if to add dramatic effect, "Secondborn."

Hushed whispers spread throughout the courtroom. The prosecution spoke up, "Look at this magic show! It's a trick. She should die where she stan-"

The man's commanding voice was silenced by the loud crack of the judge's gavel, "Silence! I have not granted you a turn to speak." The man and room quickly hushed, unwilling to provoke the judge's temper further.

"Or part of me is," she smirked, "Athenos is but a third of my power. A physical manifestation of it, in any case. But as I am not of the secondborn, I am not subject to your laws."

She had moved to sit on the table in front of her now, kicking her feet. The judge took a moment to speak to one of the other members on the council panel, but she couldn't hear what he had said, despite her superior ears. There was magic to prevent it. A few others entered the discussion, she saw, before they returned to their seats a few minutes later.

"This council has determined that you are innocent of the charges presented."

Isador's reflexes, empowered by the element of fire, snapped into motion. He rolled away from the spiders, tried as they did to grasp him, hurling a straggler off his tail with a stiff lash. They scurried in all directions, half chasing, half ascending the walls. Again he released his shadows, and again he flooded the hallway with phantom chains, impaling a number of the creatures. He felt a dozen tiny, bitter pangs as he tasted their life force. The chains vanished, and he sent forth the Fangs, catching those who remained in a short but messy shower of deep knives. One sprung across the distance between him and the larger corpse, which he managed to catch with Excellion just before it hit him in the face.

Only when the last spider had stopped moving in close vicinity did he check his arm. His skin appeared undamaged - it was merely shadows, after all. But the poison had passed into his essence. The pain had been very real, and the effects were still potent. The poison of these spiders would surely have been fatal to any mortal. He would need a short time to remove its effects entirely from his body. His eyes trained ahead - more of the spiderlings were still active, scattered by the chaos of the short but bloody battle. Isador wondered if there was any point pushing into this particular cave. No cultist would have survived a venture into here. Moreover, he was not familiar with any shadow techniques that offered him an advantage over such a numerous foe. Where one spider nested a thousand could roam.

For the moment, Isador decided he would return to the beginning network of caves. He would relocate the shrine of earth containing the sword, and once more vocally request for it.

Isador returns to the room with the wooden sword and speaks, "Grant me this blessing, elements of the realms." Without touching the sword he finds himself on a dirt path, dew hanging in the air, large redwood trees surrounding him. Ahead of him was a fountain with a green whispy substance floating out of it.

With mild humility you come seeking me,
With a battle cry you could've moved boulders -
With a whisper in the night, riches beyond riches-
But I, humble of the humble, bestow upon you my greatest gifts.
It is this that you have chosen, and that alone which you will receive.

Isador snapped back to the altar room - the sword that had once been there now a piece of drift wood. He has gained the ability to heal others exceptionally, and immunity to most poisons and diseases. His victory was short lived, however. Once he had found his bearings again he realized the earth around him was shaking. At first he attributed to the shrine, but he realized it was unrelated altogether when he appeared in a large open field, with what appeared to be the rest of humanity, including mortals he had never seen before, but also a multitude of faeries, nymphs, demons, great winged creatures, and creatures of the sea. Even the gods themselves appeared to be confused as to how they got there.

Isador looked around, and realized that many of the people he saw did not look like anything he had seen, and were speaking different languages. He quickly picked out the royal families, the Tryvali court eying the exiled court of Kriste suspiciously. No one seemed to know what was going on or where they were.

Nearby, Serena found herself standing beside two males much like her, with similar ears and tails. One was buff and tanned deeply by the sun, with war paint on his face and chest. The other was much softer in appearance, a bit boyish with pure complexion and striking eyes. "Serena!" the beautiful one cried, grasping her hand in both of his, "We have been looking for you - we called you in the other realms, and you did not come," he said, a hurt look in his eyes.

"Alaire, what do you mean?" Serena asked him.

But Alaire did not have a chance to respond, as the large one responded for him, "We were being blocked."

"Kardos, if you keep speaking in riddles..." Alaire whined, but Kardos ignored him, his gaze shooting straight in front of him.

"I think we may have figured out who is to blame," Kardos said, pointing to the middle of the mayhem. The mortals had begun yelling at each other, some petty fights were breaking out. The gods seemed to be off to the side, trying to figure out what was going on. Standing in the middle was a figure, several heads taller than a man and much broader shouldered and formidable. He was a strange black color - not like the shadow demons, but looked as if he were made of charcoal. He was surrounded by black, oily creatures - the same as the monsters that had been attacking Kriste.

"Who is that, Kardos?" Alaire asked, standing on his tip toes to get a better look. But Kardos did not respond, just flexed his muscles impulsively.

"Your attention please," The charcoal figure boomed, somehow silencing the entirety of humanity. He chuckled. "I have brought you here for you to witness...me." He paced around regally. "I am sure you do not know who I am, and I assure you those of you who think you know me have been poorly taught." He inspected the humans as he went past them, leering at them sporadically. "The Tryvali Kingdom thought that they could harness me - they thought that they could use me to show them the ways of magic older than mortal life," his teeth flashed menacingly as he passed Serena, Alaire and Kardos, "or even that of the faeries. Tell me, you might tribunal - the ones left to govern the fallen faeries, the pathetic little things that they are now...how does it feel to look on me and know that you lost? That the sacrifices you once made...were for nothing?

"I am not one for speeches, but I must explain myself if you do not mind," he said clearing his throat again. "Mortals have hunted the magic of this world, the elements that be, or the high powers bestowed on them by these...gods" he said with clear distaste, "but they never found what they were looking for. They got greedy. Even the faeries in the days they ruled, and the demons. You see, these were our play things, my sister and I, we created them," he said, pointing back at Kardos, Alaire and Serena, "we created you. And how did the oldest of you respond? You imprisoned us. You feared the unknown, the unpredictable. You were afraid I would show up again, destroy the world you made so beautiful. But did it work? No. You trapped us while we slept, you split our power when we weren't looking," he was now addressing all of humanity, "you left us with nothing but the shallow grave you dug. And then, it hit me," he said, pulling a burnt and bent piece of metal out, throwing it before Dan, Marty and Doc. They cried out in shock, Doc picking it up and staring at it. "You could say it was a wake up call.

"The Tryvali, seeking the powers of old, knowing that true power was higher than that of the mere elements or of those bestowed by these so called gods...they found me. A legion of agents found me and communed with me. We made a deal. I would help them achieve power beyond their wildest dreams, and they would free me when they were complete with their knowledge. They studied my ways, they found how to combine the elemental and high powers," he said, leaning down to pet one of the monsters that had roamed Kriste, "But things didn't go as planned, did they?" He waved his hand and a number of people flew up above him, hovering against their will. Among them was Isador and Tiev, along with three others. "These brave beings vanquished the Tryvali agents that renewed my prison, perhaps for their own will, perhaps for mine. And as they feel, their bond grew weaker. But there was still one more left to vanquish that these foolish beings would never have killed, let alone found," with a wave of his hand he dropped the suspended people like they were nothing, a crumpling noise emitting as they fell to the earth, struggling to stand back up. He did not give them a second look as he walked towards a breathtakingly beautiful woman. "But my champion, my most faithful servant sought him out and killed him like the scum he was," he bowed lowly at the woman, "isn't that right, my dear Psamathe?"

"I am not your champion!" She barked madly, "You tricked me - you told me -"

"You silly child, you really think I would go back on my promises to you? Stay with me, I will show you where your lover lies shackled." He turned to the fallen men and pointing at Tiev says, "if you come with me, I will make you more powerful than you could've dreamed," he finally turned to Isador, "and I can show you the secrets of the elements...although the power I possess is far stronger than that of which you seek."

"Not all of us seek power or lust after false promises," Kardos called out. A multitude of people yelled their agreement.

"Oh yes yes of course," the man said nonchalantly, "I nearly forgot. What fun is a game without the stakes?" He turned to Kardos, clapped his hands together, and with a great rush of wind knocked him back several hundred feet. Alaire ran to his side immediately. "Listen to me, I will say this only once," he cried out to the crowd again. "You will stay here for the next three days and debate amongst yourselves where your loyalties lie. If you choose to stay with me I will accept you with open arms into my empire. If you choose to stand against me I will send you back from where you came from, and I will pick you off one by one until every mortal, god, and creature against me lies dead. You have your choices. I will take my leave of you."

The charcoal figure walked off into the corner of the clearing. Some humans and creatures following him immediately, among them Tiev. The gods were the first to leave, Darte and her followers in an uproar over Psamathe's interference. Behind Darte hid Aleiya, still looking weak, but much stronger than she had the last time anyone in the party had seen her. With the gods' disappearance some of the more reclusive creatures left to discuss the matter on their own land. The humans and faeries remained, Kardos now sitting upright, fuming.

"We will stand against him," Kardos said bitterly, "and we will win. I see now who he is - he is the Father of Chaos, and his sister, the Mother of Terror. They were sealed for good reason, we must find a way to reseal them."

"The mortal realm is in turmoil," Alaire said to him, rubbing his arm carefully, "everyday war threatens - and with both the Tryvali and the Kriste kingdoms losing their leader..."

"We can only hope the mortal realm chooses to side with us," Kardos said, the doubt of this happening clear in his voice. "The longer they fight each other, the more time it gives the Father of Chaos to strike at us. We must figure out who is on our side, and quickly, before we discuss further strategy."


-----

EDIT...



Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 28 2012, 6:28 am by Fire_Kame.

"What a silly man," Serena determined, finally coming out of her pensive pose, "Certainly has a flair for drama. And," she added, "He is not telling us the truth, I fear."

She adjusted herself to be more comfortable, stroking her tail, before continuing, "What use does he have bringing us here, dear Kardos? Unless it is to distract us; but I fear we have little choice, we must rally as many as we can to our side. But it is not the mortals for which I worry."

Isador considered the man's thoughts. His thoughts drifted to the words of Jhinheim... A spawn of midnight... could midnight been what this man had spoken of? An element of pure elements and high magic? Isador had his theories. The prospect of facing an opponent who could simply pull everything out of any given realm seemed unlikely. At least in his current state. If only Jhinheim were still alive... The Shadows would have engulfed the realms and such a threat would never have survived.

But the Shadows slept instead. Kalkatha's blood had to be spilled to once again awaken the world. To achieve this, Isador had two options. The first would be to side with the man and take up arms against the Fireborn. But the Shadows were never created to be servants. They would be dogs without streets or fields to roam, leashed for all eternity as the flames of war drifted to bitter memory. Should he choose to turn at such a point, the creature would be at his strongest. Isador growled under his shadowy breath, eyeing the crowd of meat around him. If he chose to fight... what hope would he have? Without the strength of the Shadow fathers, Isador could do nothing.

Isador had failed his father and the shadow realm.

Try to find the parts of the Dolorean.

"Your time has come, mere mortals, as you all are to me - will you stand by my side, or will you allow me to conquer you quickly? In one hour I require your final reply - choose carefully."

"The shadows may die... but we shall die free," Isador muttered.

On the last day Kardos, Alaire and Serena were sitting with one another, contemplating what was to come. Kardos appeared to be revered by some of the mortals, all of which were wearing large headpieces made of feathers and beads, and he sent them out to take to the other mortals, fearing the appearance of faeries would scare mortals away from their fight. One of the mortals came back now, kneeling lowly before Kardos before talking to him rapidly in a language Serena did not understand. Kardos nodded, and the mortal returned to the side of a large, broad shouldered man, who's arms were folded menacingly over his bear chest. Alaire had already explained earlier in their reuniting that Kardos had found himself accidentally the object of worship to several tribes in the wilds on the other side of the world from Kriste, and that he had chosen to stand beside and train them in the things he knew.

"He says that those mortals," Kardos said, pointing to a group wearing an exceptional amount of fur and leather - obviously out of their element in such a mild climate, "recognize this place...as legend. It is the old eternal resting spot of their ancestors, they claim the stars at night and specific natural Their scouts and my scouts have both been to the reaches of the plain, it seems to extend forever in every direction except west, wherein it hits an insurmountable mountain range. But this place is of the mortal realm, which is very peculiar, because if this were a diversionary technique in order for him to wrought chaos on earth he would have taken us somewhere else. I do not believe he has attacked anything yet, beyond the initial destruction of calling us here - why would he ostracize those that might help him? It seems like a base fear for such a powerful deity...but I believe that it is his base fears are the only thing we have to combat him

"At the very least we have a general idea of where we are right now," he looked at Alaire meaningfully. He groaned.

"Those savages are of lower station in life than me. I do not associate with them!" Alaire said, straightening a bow tie to otherwise ridiculous seeming attire. Kardos stare continued until Alaire continued, "they perhaps are talking of a great landmass across the ice from us - you can see the coast on a particularly clear day, but it is usually too foggy. The ice is not stable enough to cross on, few make it over, and those men you see over there are of no help, and account for more deaths than the elements alone. But I do not see what your point is in all of this. Why do we need to know where we are now when he is about to send us back?"

"Think! Alaire, why is it that those you call savages want this land protected?" Kardos asked, "What is it in their history, why is this of legend? I have my own theory, but we must make haste, The Father of Chaos' patience is wearing away, and from the looks of it not many chose to stand beside him. I will say this though. Look at him, he sits there. He has the power to somehow bring everyone in existence to this place at this time, and yet he does no more than sit and talk amongst those that listen to him. Peculiar isn't he?"

The Father of Chaos stood up, and a hush fell over the crowd. "It is decided then? Is this all?" he boomed. He laughed, clapping his hands. "So be it. I will send you back to where you belong." A whirlwind of power surrounded him. Kardos grabbed Serena's arm roughly, he gazed at her imploringly.

"If you are able to travel between realms, you will always find this place. Do you understand? We will meet again soon - and we will meet here. You will know when."

There was a crack and a flash of light. Serena, Isador, and Dan felt themselves torn apart from the other branches of humanity and thrown against a wall.

The first to come to was Isador: he found himself alone bound spread eagle to a wall, light blasting and reflecting off of every piece of the wall.

Dan awoke next and found himself alone in a large, cold, abandoned castle.

Finally Serena awoke, finding herself alone bound as the demon had been when Athenos first dominated him.

"I had thought about sending you back to the location you came from...but I thought your current arrangements much more...befitting," The Father of Chaos growled to each of them , but not from a discernible position. Just as fast as it had come, it had disappeared.

Serena gazed back at the darkness, drawing forth all of the power she could muster, her eyes sparking despite the cold iron binding her hands and feet.

"Even chaos will burn."