Just as Jhinheim suffered the unholy light of the Fireborn... so shall I suffer the light of the forsaken father...

The light was an unholy machination, not unlike that of Esofar's. For he, the keeper of light, caretaker of Kalkatha's throne, could burn the flesh from a man with his very gaze. But Isador had no flesh to burn, and so the light burned his essence, drew upon the midnight bane and cast him to hysteria. Isador knew not where he was, nor what he was bound by, only the burning euphoria of light's embrace. He could not reach Starscourge, nor could his thoughts touch it without focus. Even so, he would be as likely to kill himself with it as he would destroy this cursed sanctuary.

Atash atash,
Itash sateesh,
Song of my father,

Grant me strength this hour,
That I may avenge my kin,
That I may cast down this jester.

Isador forced aside the pain, forced aside the motion of the elements burning within him. He steeled his thoughts and culled doubt from his essence. He poured every ounce of strength into his psychic image, forming faint flickers of shadows across his body. But the shield would not form, for the light drew too much of his strength awry.

Such a creature did not deserve to exist. Even the Fireborn knew more honor than this. He focused his thoughts to his arm instead, focusing the shadow shield only on his right hand. He projected what tiny bit of shadow font he could manage, trying to find the source of his bonds, and drink of their essence.

Serena let her fire dim and closed her eyes. The iron around her wrists and ankles felt like lead weights, sapping her strength and will. But, she wasn't to be defeated. Not here, not like this. She focused, her attention to the void; the bracelet on her arm glistened as she opened the gateway.

The iron grew colder, and she poured more attention into it, even these chains could not hold against her will, regardless of their enchantments. They became unbearably cold, refusing to travel to the abyss -- held in place by dimensional anchor spells. Undeterred, she focused more intently, but it only helped the metal become colder, and what was once only unbearable became much more, their form now partially phased out of existence. She was fortunate this realm was so susceptible to the abyss.

Summoning whatever physical strength she could, she flung her limbs into the wall behind her. The iron shattered into pieces, unable to withstand the force in its brittle state.

Serena fell to the floor, wrists and ankles numb from cold. But free from the iron's grasp, she was able to evoke her elemental powers more fully. Flames poured around her form, reheating her cold limbs, and establishing blood flow. Feeling returned, accompanied by throbbing pain, but she could move.

The metal bars around her still held her captive, but while they could stand the intensity of her flame, they were powerless against the onslaught of the void.

"Voidfire."

Black flames flew out of her hand, her power infusing with the eternal nothingness of the abyss, chilling the iron. She ceased the flames and kicked them hard.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 5 2012, 2:42 am by Sacrieur.

-Look around the room for anything of use

Dan is alone in the room. He also realizes that his gear, except for a tunic and simple leggings, have been removed. There is a locked chest against the wall opposite him.

Isador grimaced as the weight of the light burned into his skin further. He struggled against his bindings, succeeding only to cause a pocket of his to rip. He heard a small clinking noise. Looking down he realizes Justifar's gift had fallen out, the filigree pattern burning brighter than the room of light. It created a pattern of stars, seemingly leading to Isador's chest. Isador suddenly found that he was struggling to breath - his chest seered and every time he inhaled it appeared to make the pain worse. His head snapped back, hitting the wall behind him, as if forced there by monumental effort. Isador closed his eyes, ceased resisting and felt himself pulled down quickly. When the motion stopped he realized he was hovering. Opening his eyes he ralizes he is in a deep pool of water. The elements had come to aid him - and although he was no longer in the room of light he was still so deep underwater he could not see the surface to discern his location.

Serena looked out from her prison - although she had managed to break her bonds she was still trapped by cold bars of steel. To her side she saw two other prisons - one of which was empty, the other of which held Alaire, also bound, seemingly unconscious.

Isador had never been underwater this deep before. Breathing was a function unnecessary to Shadows for living, but being deprived of it made him no less comfortable. There was little he could do to ease his mind despite the darkness of the depths, however, for the light had burned his essence dry. Communion was weak at best, rendering him blind and lost. Isador took the opportunity for what it was worth, and relaxed as best he could, trying to recover from the experience. He had lost sense of time and being, drifting in the depths until he felt strength begin to trickle through his fleshless skin once more. He was not safe here.

Isador realized something. The Father of Chaos had made enemies with the Gods, not just him. Of the Gods he knew, Justifar would be an ally, if not a fickle one - but the meanderings of Gods surely did not escape his new foe. He noticed the metal orb had followed him into the pool, shining lightly in the depths below. He drifted down, grasping it and hiding it away back in his essence. Then, he sought the surface of the pool.

Isador heard whispering as he approached the top of the pool, the same whispering he had heard in the underground network of tunnels. The elements concede to the one that masters them...are you here to claim that rightful title? He continued to swim, the water pressure decreasing drastically as he got closer to the top. Chaos pulls us once again into a new direction, where will we go? We do not want to serve him. We carve our own path through the rock and soil of the earth. He cannot meddle again. He does not understand that our world is so fragile, can so easily be destroyed. The elements yearn for peace among one another, however temporary - we need one who can claim dominion over all of us. We have delivered you from your prison, what say you? Isador surfaced the whispering stopping as his ears hit the openness above. There was a small island nearby that he heaved himself up onto. He was in what resembled an under cavern, flourescent mold providing minimal light. He couldn't see an exit here.


Serena paced her cell, looking over at Alaire occasionally to see if he had woken up. He looked hurt, and weak, but not greatly so. "It has been fun watching you squirm, but it is time for the main even to begin," the familiar voice of Father Chaos boomed. "But first how about some atmosphere?" Within minutes walls went up around a round section of the desolate plain, connecting her cell with the inside of a gladiator ring, the walls lined with sharp spikes, interrupted occasionally by hanging flanged maces, short swords, and throwing stars. It was lined with There were stands, now populated by Father Chaos' retainers. They heckled her - it all seemed so painfully familiar. There was a gong, and a door opposite of her swung open. The crowd went wild as a duplicate of Athenos walked through, black as night and dripping of the familiar oil the monsters carried. He had two axes drawn, also constructed of the pure, oily essence. "As you may not have realized, despite how - 'ancient' - the art of your reawakening was, it still interefered greatly with the delicate balance of this humiliating simple world," Father Chaos said to her. Serena's gate opened now. The crowd errupted into hissing and booing. She stepped through the threshold, her skin tingling suddenly. She looked at her wrist and saw that her bracelet was gone, along with any other magical artifacts she had been able to call before. "You can try to cast magic in the ring but it will be in vain, I have seen to it that your magic will not work here." The Shadow Athenos crossed his axes and slammed them into the ground before him, dark energy swirling out and down. The impact split the ring in half. "Oh, but I don't play clean, you see, as my 'champion' as you would still has access to his - ah well. Play ball!"

"I am born of elements, and so the weight of the elements is what I, too, bear," Isador murmured. His eyes traced the cavern for details. A deep sensation trickled through his veins, coming from his communion. He clenched his shadowy fist, violet embers dancing across its whispy surface. "I will fight Chaos, this I have sworn. Through fire and ash, stone and steel, I will flee no longer!"

Serena huffed, unamused by the shadow Athenos's display of power.

"If you're going to kill me come down and do it yourself, coward! But I will not give you the honor of killing me in combat -- I am not your pawn."

She sat down. She would die, she knew, but she could neither was she a pawn only for some tyrant's amusement. It was the only way to win the game -- by not playing, by not giving this Chaos the satisfaction he so craved. Let her die, but let her death be commonplace and drab. Her thoughts quickly turned to what she would miss -- and a nice juicy ham was at the top of the list. A shame, she had just returned to her former self and hadn't the pleasure of dining.

It could not be helped.

There was a rush of air around Isador as he said this, and he fell into a dreamless sleep. It would appear that the time in the room of light and then his subsequent swim took more out of him than he thought. Occasionally he would awake for a few minutes, spy an ornate room with plush furnishings around him, but he would fall back asleep as soon as he had seen these things, too tired to protest. He heard polite laughing coming from a room near him, but these were no longer the sound of elementals, but rather the sound of mortals. He would hear bits of conversation while he slept, but he did not have the strength to stay awake long enough to see who they were. "Washed in from the storm...Father told us to let him rest...Who is he...Not human...Wasn't he one of the hovering ones...?"


The crowd booed as Serena sat, the Athenos double hovering over her. On further inspection he looked like a bubbling mass of goo - how it held it's shape Serena wasn't sure. "Oh, well...I don't want to kill you," Chaos boomed among the angry crowd, "I want to watch you suffer, I want to watch you torn to pieces." With that the Athenos double reached out and touched Serena on the forehead, a connection being forged between them as Athenos penetrated her mind. With a sudden crack, she was overcome with pain. "You faeries are all the same...you seem to think that somehow the laws of magic do not apply to you - meddling in affairs beyond your nature...mixing things that are not meant to be mixed. Do you not see? Do you not yet understand where these monsters that plague your land comes from?" The Athenos double released his grip on Serena. She was still blinded by pain. "Again," Father Chaos said, and the Athenos double reforged the connection. She felt the screams of her unified pieces all call out together, but they felt seperate, as if they were viciously being torn apart. The Athenos double released her again and paced around her. The shadowy, oily quality had been fading with every touch. "I could kill you right now, if I wanted to...but that is too easy a death for you. And I wouldn't want to destroy my newest play-thing yet. Now, should we continue, or are you ready to fight?"

Ast ast ikragul,
Blood of my blood,
Vessel of my kin.

Ista ista hasheesh nagash,
Brother of mine,
The sea's song calls to thee.

Strength returned to Isador like a trickling stream down a mountain of icy stone. His essence was healing slowly, surely. His mind drifted across the scattered memories of Jhinheim branded to his bonds. A citadel of violet stone, frozen in time... an orb of absolute darkness... the shadow realm was singing to him. A resonating chord slow, repeating, boundless and maddening in its detail. Yet simple, gentle, ripe with potential.

Ast ast ikragul,
Blood of my blood,
Blood of my blood,
Blood of my blood...

"You're the worst," Serena muttered under her breath, presuming the man called Chaos could hear them. She stood up, her expression changing, forming a more serious tone. Her anger was at its boiling point.

"You're the worst kind of person."

She trudged slowly over to wall.

"You prey on those weaker than you, relishing in their torment. To you this is all one big game. Where you can command from your oh so powerful throne -- in safety. You are nothing but a pitiful coward, abusing your power like a spoiled child."

Her hand brushed against the hilt of a morning star. The cold chill of the iron rushed through her, as if she had been doused in freezing water. She ignored the feeling, instead grabbing the hilt, pouring all of her rage into brushing off the weakening effect. Hoisting the weapon above her head, slamming it to the ground before her with all of her might. A cloud of smoke went up in the air, seeming pitiful to shadow Athenos's former display.

"Oh, I'm not as soft as you may think. You are a worthless maggot, feeding on the despair of others. I WILL KILL YOU."

She rushed at the shadow Athenos in a surprising display of speed, throwing all of her fury and momentum into a single strike.

The shadow Athenos would have missed the attack except for a misplaced footing. Serena plunged her weapon into Athenos, causing him to hesitate for a moment. Oily blood poured from a deep wound in his side, the morning starstill lodged in him. Before she could remove her hand, Athenos gripped it in his, and the pain in her mind grew. Serena buckled, her mind clouded with visions from the beings that had united her, each of them reliving their past lifes as if they were about to die. The entire time the Athenos before her grew more concrete...more real. Her mind blanked suddenly, a wild flash of light blinding her. Father Chaos cried out with pleasure.

"Ah we see it now!" He called out as a scholar would to his students, his retainers cheered in response. "You can see this bond so delicately formed...when it is made it creates a horrible biproduct, but when it is broken it releases pure power!" The crowds cheered again. "We must not lot Serena die - her potential is not finished yet. But now that we know what it is capable of-" he said, throwing a long, ivory rod into the pit. It glowed yellow as it absorbed the energy of the white explosion. Serena was panting, her vision still faded from the intensity of the blast. Athenos, no longer oily but now a physical form, lay before her, heaving with effort, losing blood profusely. She searched her mind - he indeed was gone, leaving the white knight and the demon inside her, now restlessly battling. "You will need some time to heal, I imagine, before we can continue our little game," Father Chaos said, whisking away the stadium and onlookers, leaving him, Athenos, Serena and Alaire on the plain. She was back in her prison, Athenos bleeding out on the floor out of reach. As soon as Father Chaos grabbed the rod it disappeared. "You say I wish only to torment you? No, that is not my roll. If you believe this to be the vile of the vilest of tasks, I relish the day you will meet my sister. Until then I will leave you with this - you call me a coward, and yet when I declared war I came to you openly. I declared my intentions and I gave you due time to respond. And yet it is not I that ran into hiding," he nodded at an empty cell, "but Kardos. An interesting circumstance, if you ask me." Father Chaos left her suddenly. Alaire groaned from his cage, Athenos remained barely breathing, and an eternal battle raged in Serena's head.




Isador awoke and saw a pair of wide deep blue eyes peering at him from the door frame to his room. They belonged to a young female, no older than fifteen, with frizzy, fly away black and gray hair. She looked normal, except her skin had a strange, scaley complexion to it. He moved slightly, sending her running down the hall. It was merely minutes later when another human - this one much older, clean shaven with a receeding hairline. He took one look at Isador, and then looked at the young girl. "He is not awake, Lynna. Now really, you shouldn't be up here bothering our guest. Go help your sisters with dinner." He said firmly before she could protest. He walked into Isador's room and closed the door. This man did not bear the same strange scaley complexion that the girl had. The man pulled a chair from the corner and placed it next to the bed, sitting down. He did not talk for several minutes. "Salutations are in order, I believe. My name is Horus Leopold. We found you outside of my manor's gates late a few nights ago, when the storm came through. My eldest, Aedre, brought you in immediately, and you have been sleeping here since." He reached into his pants and pulled out a silk handkerchief. Unwrapping it carefully he continued, "it is just me, my three daughters and a few humble servants here. My wife passed away many years ago, right after Lynna was born. She had this ring on her when she died," he said, holding in the handkerchief a delicate gold ring with several sapphires sat in the middle. "I am not labeling you a thief, because we committed her body to the sea - a cavern far from here, one I doubt anyone could find on a map. I hope you understand me when I say this, but she is that cavern. She is water. She is an element. I speak frankly with you sir because it is no question to me that you are one with an element as well, though I do not pretend to understand why, or what. So please...tell me why it is my wife has extended her protection to you. Tell me what it is you know, and what your involvement with chaos is. Perhaps we can be of some use to you. I have yet to tell my youngest two this, but my eldest knows better...they each carry some of my wife's abilities, but only Aedre has trained herself for it."

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 8 2012, 5:36 am by Fire_Kame.

Isador studied the man. He could sense nothing immediately alarming. If he was related to the elements, however... did he have ties to the artifacts within that cavern? Whatever the case, Isador had little to lose at this point. It was no secret he existed at all, given the spectacle at the gathering.

"I am of a realm trapped in an eternal slumber. All of my existence I have sought a means to undo the chains that bind my kind. Chaos would offer me power, but his offer is hollow. I did not spend an eternity in the mortal realms to exchange one shackle for another. He declares war upon me. I would take that war to him, deprive him of the retribution he seeks. Throughout my time here I have sought a means to better my power, to travel upon my evolutionary path. With limited success, I discovered artifacts relating to elements. However, these will not grant me what I require to make this war. I need more... much more. I believe, however, that the elements sense their own destruction at the hands of this creature. I can commune with elements, to an extent. I studied deeply in their ways. This world seemed barren of the energy I seek... at least thus far. Perhaps the elements are not as distant as I first concluded. But my time is drawing short."

Horus's eyes glazed over as Isador talked, nodding in understanding. "I do not know where you studied the elements, but any information you find would be incomplete or might even be entirely incorrect. Those that know the elements' secrets guard them jealously...because most elements are jealous themselves," he gave Isador a measuring look and stood up suddenly. "If you don't mind, I would like to keep my wife's ring. It holds sentimental value to me," he said, pocketing it. He walked back to the door. "If you would like, Aedre will tell you more about the world of water, she is the most in tune. No, I never carried my wife's gift for communion quite in the same way, but I am but a humble mortal. You must rest. When you are well, you may want to find Aedre. She spends most of her time in the drawing room." Horus leaves Isador.



Serena's headache worsened, the turmoil pulling her apart. Outside her cell Athenos was still alive, but barely. Her insides ached. She couldn't reach him from in her jail. Alaire stirred, he had woken up. "She's gone..." he mumbled... "I can't believe it...she's gone..." Serena looked back out at the field. A shadowy form stood a great deal away from her and walked towards Athenos. At first she thought it was Father Chaos, but the figure had a much broader shoulder span, and looked like a shadowy, oily double of the demon that still possessed her, waging war with Edwin inside Serena's mind. The Demon double looked down at Athenos and touched him. Athenos recoiled. He walked towards the cage Serena was held in and peered at her. Father Chaos appeared then. "I may not play fair, but I am a good sport," he said, the bars raising again, allowing Serena to exit. "No weapons, no onlookers. I suppose I will leave your magic in tact for now, but I will be taking this-" he said, grabbing Serena's bracelet and putting it around his wrist.

It had been a long time since Isador was allowed rest. Years of harrying crossroads and camps, carriages, caravans. And of the recent days, always looking behind his shoulder, expecting Esofar's firesworn to be awaiting him. The hysteria of the hunt had been in motion for many years, since the very birth of his essence. The light that danced to and fro within his translucent skin, casting a dull magneta upon the fabrics around him and the ceiling above. For so earnest a survival he had never the opportunity to consider the mission his father had set him upon.

Isador's dreams drifted beyond the bounds of the world, into the sleeping veil of the Shadows. Beyond the Ocean of Stars, the monuments of the fireborn, and the battlefields of old frozen in forgotten memories. His mind wandered the memories of this world, adrift in silence, motionlessness, yet moving. Always moving. He had always been drawn to one point in this world. A great spire that rose from a more sophisticated structure, jutting miles high into the lightless depths above. Surrounded in a bristling forest of shadowy thorns, craters and mountains. A land he had not yet been to in person. He considered that perhaps he should find out if this structure really did exist, and why he felt drawn to it in his dreams.

Here Isador could hear the songs of the Shadows once more. The droning, vibrating hum that drew fidelity into chords of a stringed instrument of some nature. They spoke in words of motion, fluidly guiding the hand of sorrow that caressed the shadows eternally. Bound by the element that gave them life, they hungered even in their fitless sleep.

Motion, bind, motion, bind,
As, as,
Ista ista hasheesh nagash...

A beacon of light descended from high above, towards the citadel. In that moment, Isador felt a pain surge in his body. His dream ended immediately, and he found himself staring at the ceiling of his room. His energy felt restored to a fair degree. He didn't know how long he had slept, but felt urge to make a move sooner than later. He could sense that the time was a late afternoon. His essence had healed significantly during his time free of that cursed light chamber, but began to long for the warmth of the shadow realm. He still had business here, he reminded himself. He rose and decided to locate Aedre.

Serena growled. Something was off, what was he planning? Why was he harnessing this power?

She tapped into her magic -- it exploded with a familiar demon pulse. Burn. Kill. Destroy. Her body became a conduit for the flames, spiraling out, licking the air around her with menace.

She was too enraged to think. Impulsively she ran at the black figure, jumping into high into the air, boosted by a jet of flame. There was a moment when she was weightless, above the demon below her. Annihilate, she thought. I am the holocaust. Her flames became more intense, and the air crackled with power and she fell towards her opponent. But not fast enough. The same jets flew from behind her, increasing her velocity to a frighting speed.

She flew into the demon like a meteor, flames eager to consume.

Isador noticed many luxuries in the home that would not have been available to commoners, and even a few exotic decorations that did not come from any area nearby. The drawing room was quiet except for a ticking clock sitting on a plush and intricate rug. The room was still lit - whoever had been here last must not be far. Thin glass covered a large window that overlooked darkened fields. It was raining, and judging by the large amount of sitting water it had been raining for a while. There was a closed door on the other side of the room where pots banging were coming from. He opened the door and saw a servant woman hastily picking up a few pots that had fallen to the ground. A bored looking woman sat at a counter, a mug in her hand. Like the other girl, this one had black hair with gray flecks throughout, but her hair was kept in neat pin curls, tied back with a long silk blue ribbon, and she appeared to be several years older. She had the same strange scaly complexion though, and her skin seemed much paler, with a strange blue glow about it.

When Isador entered, she didn't look up, but the servant gasped and dropped her pans again. "It's alright Mercy, I can clean up. Why don't you go back to bed?" the sitting girl said, her eyes barely open. The servant woman nodded and walked up a narrow staircase beside the oven. The girl stood up and walked over to the fallen pans, gracefully placing them on the counter. "Hello, Isador. The elements tell me that is your name," she said calmly almost in a monotone voice. "You are a funny one, I've been told - you sought out the calmness of water, the humility of earth, and the war path of fire? A strange combination indeed. But I am not one to judge. But...you're the leader of sorts for the elements now, aren't you? I talk to my mother often...she told me these things. You have heard her talking too, haven't you?" She was looking at the ground as she spoke. If she ever looked up, her eyes were closed. "My name is Aedre, I have a feeling my father told you that already. There are some things about the elements that can be read, but other things must be taught. I will teach when you are ready, but may I suggest we leave first? You have been tracked here - and the rain is meant to keep them at bay for a little while longer. For how long it will rain I do not know, but the sooner we lose them the better."



Serena and the shadow demon blasted into each other, both dealing equal damage, both flying back with recoil. Upon contact, the oily mass of the demon double took on some emblazoned color. They collided again with similar results, the voice of the demon that resided in her head fading as rapidly as the form before her took shape. Father Chaos had the same ivory staff out. It sucked up the energy as it blasted forth. Serena was sent back one last time, falling nearly on top of Athenos. Between both battles her strength at had started to wear thin, but the demon before her was also starting to show signs of weariness. It would only take one more blow to kill him, but the force it would take to do so might end up killing her in the process.



Pandora wandered the streets of Stoire aimlessly as she had for the few days that followed the encounter with the Father of Chaos. For most of the mortal realm, life had returned to normal. There were still anxious glances shot down alley ways as if they were afraid the same character would jump out at them again, but the encounter had turned to nothing more than a point of conversation. They had heard rumors that the only proof it had even happened was that Astron was now literally broken into two pieces - a giant fissure splitting the town, leaving a great deal of destruction and death in it's wake. Panic had overcome Astron, but as Stoire was untouched, the town remained peaceful.

Pandora stopped for a moment under a tree near the market place, listening to the birds sing quietly in the distance and the general noise of those buying and selling. Footsteps stopped in front of her. "Are you an empath?" A female voice said clearly to her. "Will you come with me? Quickly - my mother is not well, I feel that your services might help."

Isador considered Aedre's words. He was not surprised he had been followed. But by who?

"If pursuers have come, then it is not safe to remain," Isador murmured. He studied the rain momentarily. Something was at work here. His skin tingled with sensations. "I am not ready to fight those who seek me. The sooner we are able to evade them the better. I am curious, though. By what connection does your mother have to this realm? And has she told you who is tracking me?"

"You are part of a great hunt - they come to see who can strike you down first, they will receive something most valuable to them by the person orchestrating the games. I see three hunting parties - one composed of humans, one composed of the gods, one composed of fire. The humans hide from the rain my mother has brought, those of fire shutter at it's touch. The only one pursuing you right now are the gods, but even their progress has become slow in light of the weather. " Aedre paused before continuing with amusement in her voice, "They do not understand the power of the elements, they think it is inferior, and in that is our advantage," she walked out into the drawing room, eyes still adverted, beckoning Isador to follow her.

She knelt behind a loveseat and pulled a wooden board loose from the floor. She withdrew a sword made of a dark blue material, glistening like ice, sucking the light and warmth out of the room around it, "This is the Sword of the Dark Seas. It was a gift from my mother before she died," Aedre turned the sword over in her hands, "You asked how I can still talk to my mother? Well, those of the elements never truly die. My mother resides in her watery home now. She won't be able to reenter the mortal realm, but all of the realms influence one another, and when I choose to seek her out in quiet meditation she is always waiting." She pulled out a leather scabbard with intricate embroidery that seemed to shine like ice, sheathed it, and stood up again. "I must go to my chambers and get a cloak for travel, and then we will be off. But first I must test you. I am sorry if this is unpleasant but I swear it is only unpleasant the first time."

Aedre placed herself directly in front of Isador, her eyes closed. She let out a deep breath, as if resolved she was doing the right thing. "Look me straight in the eye," she said opening her eyes wide. There was no white, no color - just a glassy black mass where her eyes should've been. After the initial shock of it Isador found the eyes to be quite appealing, even if they were not normal for this world.

Jump. her voice beckoned in his head. His gaze drew towards the window. Come on then, it'll be fun. You won't get hurt. Jump out. He stood firm where he was, his feet aching to do as she said but his will resolute against her. JUMP NOW. This last request came with a flurry of activity - Isador's ears were pounding with roaring water, his eyes burned and his body seized up. Then suddenly, it all stopped. He blinked, and looking away from the window made eye contact with Aedre. He felt a desire to do whatever she asked, but it was much weaker now, even more controllable, and he found he did not have that same inclination when they averted their eyes from one another. "Good...I will be back in a minute. Please wait for me here."

[OOC]I read through things /very/ fast to get a general idea of what's going on, but didn't read into specifics too much to avoid taking forever. If I contradict anything in this post, tell me and I'll edit it.[/OOC]

Things really had worked out in the weirdest way possible, hadn't they? She'd gone off to find the princess, and a lot of weird stuff had happened. She'd ended up here, still no closer to her objective, as far as she could tell. Everything was just... Not going altogether well. Not that that was exactly unexpected. Sending a blind girl to find someone with literally no information and a whole kingdom to search wasn't the brightest of ideas, and she'd been tempted to say so. If only she had. She felt the air suddenly cool somewhat, and concluded that she must have walked under a tree. It wasn't an unwelcome feeling, so she stopped there and sat, managing to mostly conceal how distraught she was, and mused.

Not, however, for terribly long. Apparently her reputation had preceded her, or something like that, as she was soon interrupted. A woman's voice, which she did not recognize, tore into her reflections. Pandora almost said something rude, but held her tongue. There wasn't any point in taking her frustration out on some random person, was there? Besides, Pandora had intentionally tried to conceal her mood; empathy, to some degree, works both ways, so it had become a habit. She felt for her stick, stood, and nodded. "I am, yes. I don't typically work for strangers like this, but I do make exceptions for emergencies. You will have to lead me, though. I am not from around here, and..." She gestured to her walking stick. "Please, fill me in while we walk."

It would be nice to have something productive to do, and this woman did not seem duplicitous. Besides, she might have some kind of information, though that was rather unlikely.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 9 2012, 6:59 pm by Biophysicist. Reason: Added OOC note.