"We face destruction at the hands of a common enemy," Isador spoke outloud, his words formed by the distant memories of Jhinheim. He did not know how he survived linking with the citadel. Maybe he hadn't. "The elements stood alone as long as they could, and now seek to retreat... but the battle will soon come to them anyways. The elements have spoken to me of this threat, and of the charge I am oathsworn to bear as your champion. I would carry you to battle, to strike at this enemy of ours, united in strength and purpose, if you would lend me your strength. We can stand together or die divided. What say you?"

The elements talked amongst themselves, voices growing louder and angrier the longer they talked. The orb hovered around Aedre, illumanting her scaley skin and her dark eyes. She didn't flinch. Eventually the elements became quiet and still. "We request two things before we give you this power: first, we will require a sacrifice," the orb said, still hovering around Aedre to make the implication clear. Her jaw was clenched shut and her fists balled, but she did not comment. "Second, we must know what your plan is, and how you plan to defeat our common enemies? Surely you know that Chaos is not a force that you can simply conquer."

Isador considered carefully. Chaos and his sister had been sealed, but the humans had somehow broken the seals. If he were to seal or imprison Chaos and his ilk again, he would need something that no creature could ever break into in the future. There was only one place he knew of.

"The world I come from, the Shadow Realm, has slept for an eternity. But as the power of Chaos grows, so do the bonds holding it asleep weaken. Within the memories of my creator I believe I know of a method that could allow me to entrap Chaos within the shadow realm when it awakens, to be fed upon unto the end of time. The hungering communion of the world would prevent any other from ever finding his prison again. To bring him into these bonds will take great effort. Though I wonder what sacrifice it is you desire?"

"So then, your plan is to take Chaos - and presumably Terror - to this other world. Yes, it might work," the Orb said after careful consideration, "if it is true that it is secure. Of course, there is always the chance that you could turn on us; and of course, we doubt you are the only being capable of transcending whatever barriers are in place." The elements whispered their agreement, Isador could tell they were hesitant to trust him. "As for the sacrifice we desire, we must devour the life force of a willing being that will either sustain us in following you or else will aid us in fusing with you. You have brought us a perfect sacrifice I see," the Orb was hovering around Aedre again, "If willing she can sustain us as well as join us as an element. Her mother's roots call to her. I will warn you that on top of this sacrifice the latter of your options requires a great amount of time of recovery for you. It will not be easy to mold our forces into your...fragile...form."

"I understand," Isador acknowledged. His eyes traced to Aedre. She was tense, but somehow he felt she was at peace with this request. She was unlike the other mortals he had seen thus far. Perhaps there was still strength to be found within them. She would need strength with what laid ahead of them. Perhaps, though, this is where she felt her path would bring her this entire time. Why she had willingly followed him into the most inhospitable depths, and stood as his side when even the very Gods would strike at him. The Gods... Isador felt their role had not yet ended. Despite the Princess' fall to Chaos, he felt she still had a role to play.

The concern of the Shadow world's sanctuary for the new prison was not without cause, Isador admitted. The Fireborn had, after all, found Jhinheim and defeated him within the realm. Isador thoughtfully considered his plans, allowing Aedre the time to consider the choice before her.

"Do you accept these terms, Aedre?" Isador asked.

Aedre smiled, "of course, this is what I fear I was born to do...my mother always said I would join her again, sooner than my sisters or father, but perhaps I had hoped I would fall in the heat of battle," she removed her sword and handed it to Isador. It was heavy and cold, as if it would melt in his hands although it did not. "I hope you will find a use for this."

She stepped forward towards the elements, an eerie calm falling over them as she approached them. Did they not so readily expect this? Their docility was fleeting - they were suddenly upon her, devouring her flesh and lifeblood hungrily. When they were at last satiated, nothing remained except for the robes she had been wearing earlier. The elements took on a soft feminine human form, the elements of water and sub-elementals of ice and hail taking on the most of Aedre's form, some of which if Isador was not careful to focus looked exactly like her. The orb, which had not taken part in the feast, remained as he was beside Isador.

"We will leave when you are ready," the orb said. "Well, 'we' is not correct - I will not be joining them, for my duty is here, in this dwelling, to keep it as a last station from harm." The elements fell into rank, all of them watching Isador intently.

Isador... the whispy voice from the cave called in his mind, I thank you for returning my daughter Aedre to me. Her sword will keep you safe from the harm of the fire elementals if they retaliate in your plane. It was good for you to get the elements to your side, but their allegiance is fleeting and untrustworthy. After they achieve their ends with chaos, it is unsure what they will do. Take this with a grain of salt. My daughter is resting, but she will join the rank and file of the water elements soon enough. Take care, Isador, and do what it is that you claim you can do.

This was... This was not great. The more Pandora thought about it, the less great it seemed. She was lost, and alone, and the only things she had of any use were a walking stick and a dagger, and there was a horse that she didn't know how to ride, not that it would help if she could because of being blind, and there were probably more enemies after her, and she didn't have any food or anything on her... Yah. This was not great.

No time for moping or panicking, though. This was no worse than the time she'd gotten lost in the woods as a kid, she thought to herself. Well, actually it was, and she'd been with Jake that time anyway.

Still, she had a mission here, and thinking about that helped her focus. She took a deep breath to calm herself. The horse wasn't going to help. She couldn't really ride it, and it would only attract attention. She carefully dismounted, then whacked it with her stick to get it to run away.

Now, the original plan had been for her to get captured, so she could spy on her captors. This wasn't quite how it was supposed to happen, but it was as good a chance as any. She felt as hard as she could for someone nearby, but didn't detect anyone. She stood there for a while, but finally decided she'd have to set out on her own. How hard could it be to find some enemy soldier here? She started walking in a random direction. After about half an hour, she began feeling hostile intent, and soon heard soldiers jumping out of bushes. She was surrounded. Perfect.

Isador studied the sword momentarily in his hand. Thoughts trickled by him. The memory he had settled on since this had began, the memory of Jhinheim's great Chains of Woe pulling a Fireborn fortress through the Ocean of Stars and dragging it deep into the shadow realm, had stuck with him. The memories taunted Isador, as if they doubted he could ever wield his father's strength. Even here, within the realm of the other elements, madness had seeded its roots. He could see it beneath the waves, between the trees and beyond the crackling embers. But was the madness that of the realms, that of Chaos, or his own, reflected upon the worlds he had laid eyes on?

"I am prepared," Isador said outloud.

Pandora took a moment to search who these people were. She was able to pick up on one entirely as Tiev, overshadowing the rest of the men with his deep hatred and anger. "We've got you surrounded, lay down any weapons you have and put your hands up," he barked at her. Another man patted her down, removing her personal belongings from her pockets as well as her walking stick and throwing them on the ground.

"Nothing, captain," the man said with disappointment.

"Cuff her," Tiev said. Pandora felt strong ropes tied around her hands. They hoisted her into the back of a cart among other people. The hatred of their captors had been so strong she hadn't felt these other beings, who were severally weakened from weeks with little food or water. "Wait," Tiev said off in the distance, "what is this?"

"It's just a figurine we found in her pockets Captain, it isn't anything we can use now," the man from before said.

"It is pointing southeast. What could the meaning of this be?" Tiev said, storming over to Pandora, "girl, what is the meaning of this item?" she didn't respond, "tell me what the meaning of this item is before I kill you!" A man near her mumbled into his gag. Tiev turned his attention to him. "What did you say?"

"It is used in dowsing, it will point you to water," he said.

"How do you know this thing? Do you know this girl?" Tiev said suspiciously.

"My aunt had one like it, it would show where the deep wells of water were hidden," he said. His voice was scratchy, and Pandora could tell that it pained him greatly to speak.

"Is this true?" Tiev asked Pandora. She nodded. "Very well. Men, we will search out this water source." The men cheered, and it didn't take long before they were off.

"It isn't used in dowsing," Pandora mumbled to the man next to her, her voice drowned out by the creaking of the cart.

"Save your energy m'lady," the man responded quietly, "the troops have little food and water since Terror came back and we are their last priority as far as survival is concerned. They are in a panic to find something to maintain their troops until Chaos returns to this realm, but he will not I am sure," he said, "my name is Edwin, it is a pleasure to meet you," he said, before falling asleep. He was still alive through his sleep, but obviously exhausted from malnutrition.

A not altogether insignificant amount of time passed. Pandora was understandably worried, but Pryti had been confident that she wouldn't be harmed, and that did help. She tried on occasion to speak to the others in the cart quietly, but they either didn't hear, or were asleep, or gagged. There was a fourth possibility but she didn't want to think about it. She finally decided to try to sleep; she got as comfortable as it's possible to be with one's arms tied behind oneself, and after a long time finally did.

Only to be woken up minutes later by angry soldiers demanding to know why they couldn't find water. "Uh, it's not always accurate... Or look harder. I dunno. Maybe I'd be more willing to help if you hadn't kidnapped me."

Isador felt outwards with his thoughts. The Starforged citadel was a ruin, and would never function again. At least, not as it once had. It still possessed a presence in the communion of the Shadow realm, and was still sensitive to the disruptions caused by Chaos. He was certain Chaos was still in the mortal realm, as this was where the disruptions were coming from. By following the disruptions in the elements he could find the relative location of Chaos.

"I will create a path for our travel to the mortal realm using a Shadow Font through the citadel," Isador explained to the elements around him. "When we find him, we must subdue Chaos and Terror enough that I can use the chain technique to drag them into the Shadow realm. His presence will disrupt the blood magic keeping the Shadows asleep. With our combined strength, we will draw the last of his communion away from him."

The plan seemed simple to Isador, but he knew that Chaos' communion was stronger than he could easily anticipate. Despite his reservations, he had no choice but to proceed. He calculated the relative position of Chaos, and stepped through the shadows.

Kame, I'm sorry about this but the Internet and especially SEN are stabbing my mental health a lot so I'm getting Moose to delete my account.