Open [Nyka Event] Elsewhere Is A Scary Place

[Balderdash]

45th of Spring, 512AV Two bells after noon It was meant to be safe. While Nyka’s walls were oft adorned with arcane scribbles and runes, today was overwhelming. The entirety of the inner side of Nyka’s fortifications were covered in glyphs and Shielding wards, there were no less than two dozen forty foot wood poles to allow a Shield to encompass the entirety of the city itself, and the streets were covered in glyphing Paths and barriers. Everything for safety. The first city was destroyed by summoned creatures. Everybody knew that. They stood on the ruins of the reckless. This time would be different, they promised. Of course, many wondered why anyone would open a Summoning portal to an unknown world in the first place. The answer was as simple as it was human- curiosity. When shown a door, there were few who wouldn’t open it, even if it was just to see what was on the other side. Such was today. There were more than a few people gathered outside the Tempered Anvil headquarters just to see what was going to happen. Monks of every quarter had, for the time being, grudgingly come together to make sure the crowd didn’t get too rowdy. However, that wasn’t the only reason they weren’t infighting. Deep down, in most of their hearts, they were worried. Calloused hands fondled the handles of weapons, and withered teeth ground together. They wouldn’t have another tragedy on their hands. They couldn’t. Finally, the moment came. It was in a reinforced room clad in its own sets of glyphs and Shields. A quartet of monks watched from each corner as a Prior of Xannos knelt before the circle with the untouched coordinates, bit his thumb, and let a drop of blood fall. They had expected, perhaps, numbers ranging in the tens, or hundreds, if especially bad. Or maybe it would just be one or two exceptionally powerful beasts that would emerge. Or even- Gods be kind- a High World, egalitarian and peaceful. What they did not expect, however, was numbers measuring in the tens of millions, cracking through the Djed barrier and exhausting the safeguards and contingencies in a matter of ticks through sheer volume and numbers. Those outside heard the sound of flames and electricity, followed by swearing, and finally finishing with a monk leaping out of a window and flooring a half-dozen men upon landing. Out the window spilled what had defeated their fail-safes so easily. It appeared, to the naked eye, to be a vast, inky grey cloud, and it could have easily been mistaken as one, if not for the low electric humming that emanated from it. As the crowd scattered, screaming, the cloud billowed out from the home of the monks of Xannos, racing upwards towards the heavens. Within chimes, it looked as if an iridescent bubble was surrounding Nyka as the swarm strained against the outer Shield. This, however, had been designed to handle much larger forces due to its size, and it did not break as easily. For the time being, they were trapped inside the city- But while that was a godsend for those on the inside, it was not for those within. Throughout Nyka, the cloud spread like a drop of wine in water, and where it spread, shadow followed it. When the Tempered Anvil headquarters was once again visible, the people discovered to their horror that a strange, faceted and furrowed substance akin to porous, purple hued obsidian had swallowed it. Elsewhere, this same material also devoured the Hostel, the Sharp Tongue Pub and the Sacred Flame. The same inky, gaseous material that covered the sky poured from vents in the structure, and the sound of grinding stone could be heard from within. Finally, the light of Syna herself grew dim, then vanished. Nyka had fallen into darkness. OOCThis thread's in place to scene, as opposed to adventuring. While I'll post when necessary, and will after a fair amount of time for a smooth transition to the quest proper, don't wait for me, and have fun.

[Helen]

Helen had been in the Celestial Square shopping when it had happened and the unnatural dark mass blotted out the sun. The merchants began their muttering as though cued, and she followed suit. They knew the stories, the old legends of the Old Nyka that was swallowed up by warfare with inhuman beings. This was an omen, a sign, and spelled doom. Superstitious, the lot of them. Helen narrowed her eyes in a futile attempt to see in the pitch. Fright saturated the cries that rang out around her and somewhere, one of the merchants managed to light some bit of cloth he had thrown in the middle of the street, making most of the nearby people flinch back and shout in the sudden painful illumination. The darkness fled away from them and writhed in the background as though alive, prompting Helen to move forward and take comfort in the light of the fire at her back. The shadows she stepped from suddenly felt hostile and alive, like they were people inside, wanting to break free and smother the light. They inched forward, slowly, and Helen felt her skin crawl at the sight. Living shadows. "What the petch is that!" The merchant that had lit the fire exclaimed loudly at the living darkness. They could hear the sound of struggle in the impenetrable gloom that soon settled around them, the sound of a fight between an armed Nykan and something else that was soon muted entirely. Those that hadn't already drawn their weapons did so now, including Helen, who drew both of her daggers and gripped them tightly within her hands, already sweating and knowing that it wasn't going to benefit her. She had never been faced with such uncertainty before. Did she run in and attack? Bolster confidence of the men and women around the admittedly feeble fire with her, or wait. She chose to wait, to see if a monk would give their people direction. Her hesitation seemed the most common choice.

[Ximal]

Turned out not a lot of things went Xi's way on the forty-fifth...Not a lot indeed Xi headed towards the square, having left the hostel with zand. The trip to the temple of xannos, was a short one but Xi couldn't help but notice an excessive buzz in the air as he headed out, the scriptures on the walls over whelmed with new symbols the likes of which he'd never seen before. Huge wooden beams erupting from the earth and standing erect and resolute, like their own ring of obelisks. Something felt bad, it just...Hung in the air. Xi could almost taste it. Still that had been his general consensus about things since the seventeenth and his trip into the aperture, so he paid it little to no mind. Something about summoning, and co-ordinates to a new place. Whatever it was Xi was a little intrigued and very apprehensive, the only encounters he'd hat with magic other than the ones he used were decidedly not fun ones. Xi stepped out into the square with zand staying near the centre of the crowd. He had with him not a lot more than he usually did, but he'd worn his bow and arrows along with his hand-axes, just for precaution. The red scarf he'd bought ana he's begun to wear like a headband tied around his head holding the hair out of his eye's to help him see. A sea of many different factions of monk barred the peoples approach towards the temple, the more curious of the people edging forwards whilst the more nervous of the monks stroked the handles of whatever weapon they carried. Xi though was more in line with the monks, after what he'd heard he had begun to hold a very... cautious posture towards events in nyka. Still Xi stood next to Zand and made a small comment about the state of events. "The monks look worried. Whether it's about what's going to happen within that temple, or what's going to happen with the crowd... I've no gods dammed idea. Still it'd be best to go and collect ana before all havoc breaks loose. No need to gert her lost in this cacophony." Xi gave zand a glance before attempting to lead them away from the temple t5owards the infirmary, after all it was ana's day to be released too and he didn't want anything happening to his little "sis" If Xi copuld have he probably would have beaten the monk's who'd done that into a similar situation. But alas with that h'd had no idea as to whom they were. Just that they were Laat monks. As Xi took only three steps from zand though, something happened. The sound of erupting fire and the strange sound of sparking , much like thunder but more tame. Xi turned his head at the sound of vicious and rampant swearing. As Xi turned his head though to ask what exactly was going on he was greated by the sound of smashing glass and cracking wood only to see a monk being thrown out and onto a large group of people. Then almost like smoke spilled an inky smoke like mass. Grey and swarming, with the sound of low pulseing thunder. That sound would stick with him. Then total sheer blind panic swept over the crowd followed by chaos. The crowed erupted in screams and began to run off. scattering and knocking people aside, Xi stood resolute though like a mountain rising up from an ocean of crazy people. Xi's eye's weren't on the people at the moment but the inky mass that had begun to slowly swallow the monks of xannos' home. The tower of smoke billowed out rising massively and hammering against the outer shield that had been erected to deal with containment. Making the whole city into more of a domed capsule for an instant. Xi could feel his pulse quickening, something within him was screaming at him to run much like the night in front of the aperture. The screams around him being droned out by his own internal screaming. Xi took a moment before finally realising he was holding his breath, letting it out he sucked down a heavier gasp, right now he was...Scared...And he couldn't hide it too well. His face showed none of it but his eye's revealed everything the normal serenity within was replaced with the wild crashing of waves. Xi now roared out over the screaming crowd his voice now finally at it's loudest. "Zand, that in the ever loving petch is that!?" Xi didn't take a step as he saw the gaseous expanse start to fill out the whole of nyka, the spoke spreading like a thick veil over the whole city slowly blotting out syna's rays. This wasn't good, then after the smoke settled around them ...the sky began to grow dark but not before xi caught a glimpse of the hostel, coated in what looked like a purple glass dome. Then before the final few moments of light blotted out Xi turned towards Zand and Revy taking these last precious moments to walk back over to them. Then before his eye's the whole world went black. But the screams were still loud as was that pulse of weak thunder. Xi then roared out again. "Zand can you use your you know what to get a better view of whatever the petch this is ?! If not and regardless of that we've got to go and get Ana! She's alone ion this mess!" Xi felt his hands flex but couldn't see them he couldn't see anything through the total pitch black darkness. Xi tried to remain calm though and assess the situation, with the group back together they could at least try and make a plan as to whatever the shyke was going on. This is madness. If this is what ever the petch Gregor and the purple woman told me about , how the petch do i beat or stop this shyke ? Still i have to remain calm, panic does nothing but beset more panic. I need to think of a plan or pray to whichever of the gods is listening that zand has one. Or were all petched.

[Alyxandyr Finn]

Alyx's day had been a bum luck one. Unfortunate as it may seem, he had failed to pick any good pockets today. Wary customers, bad approach-and-escape vectors, and dumb petching luck had all conglomerated to make a miserable day for the ermine Kelvic. At least he could go back to his room, settle in, and take a nice long nap. So absorbed in himself was he that he had completely failed to realize the swarm buzzing about the city. As he meandered towards the Hostel he stopped for a moment, thanks to the crowd surrounding the building.

What now? he asked in mental exasperation, A petching brawl? That would just be the petching cherry on the sundae of shyke of a day I've had today. If there are people here fighting, I'm just gonna--

He was drawn up short by what awaited him as his gaze lifted. Porous, purple hued obsidian coated the building, erasing all access in or out.'

"...WHAT the PETCHING SHYKE!" Was what he exclaimed, a vein throbbing in his temple. "Oh, HELL no!"He spun on his heel, moving away, muttering out loud.

"Not my petching problem. I need a Yshul-damned drink." As he made his way to the Sharp Tongue, darkness enveloped the city. He ignored it with a sigh, the inside of his head screaming,

LALALALALALALALA!! NOT MY PETCHING PROBLEM!!

When at last he arrived at the Sharp Tongue, the sight that awaited him made him sick to his stomach. The same thing had happened to his beloved brewery. His weaselly little eyes narrowed as he grit his teeth.

"Now you go too petching far...." Spinning on his heel he turned to someone nearby, staring with mouth agape, and he popped them on the shoulder for their attention, the man of entirely forgettable build and disposition looked to him apologetically, and Alyx spoke up through flexing jaw muscles.

"Where the petching hell did this shyke come from?" He motioned the direction of the Tempered Anvil and the Kelvic immediately took of heading that direction.

You take my bed, fine. I can deal with that. But take my booze? Insanity! I will not stand for this! Not sober, anyway!

As he arrived at the square near the people with their mouths hanging open, Alyx's eyes darted to his acquaintance, Zandelia. He almost said something to her, but she was in strange company, so he decided instead to keep his mouth shut unless she chose to acknowledge him. He didn't want to get her in trouble. Instead he was about to approach the monks to ask what in the hell they'd done before he paused.

Wow.

He was an idiot. How did he not see this before?

It wasn't his problem. Surely some hero would step up and selflessly save the day with daring heroics, a classy catchphrase, and perfectly coiffed hair. Alyx, in the meantime, could take advantage of the chaos caused by this insanity and start looting any open homes he could find. With a gleeful grin he turned and scampered, heading for the housing districts. This was the perfect chance for an opportunistic thief like Alyx. Let someone else save the day. He would save the wealth sitting unused and unguarded in homes of panicking civilians.

Normally one might be concerned with his uncaring attitude for the certain doom that threatened to loom over the city of Nyka, but if history had taught the kelvic anything it was that heroes would not abandon a perfectly good chance to be heroic, oftentimes in stupid, life-threatening ways. Alyx was rather attached to his existence, and so chose to preserve it by letting it be someone else's problem. Meanwhile, he saw the perfect opportunity to get rich.

How could he pass that up in good conscience? Well...he didn't actually have a conscience, but certainly the point was well made. Leave it to the city's brigands to turn panic and public danger into a profitable scenario.

[Zandelia]

The crowd was enormous in size, encompassing all of the free space around the Tempered Anvil’s paramount building within the Western Quarter, as well as packing the streets off shooting the area almost to its tipping point. It was a dangerous thing she thought, to have so many citizens clogging the spaces around the temple just as the Order were planning on possibly unleashing that which could crumble the city once more – or, at least, crumble the city that stood upon the more ancient city. She had known no positives would come of their endeavor, had researched everything she could – questioning experts, locating tomes of knowledge and more – since her fateful conversation with Ximal over Gregor’s reappearance after his death. No, nothing good could come of their working. Not that she didn’t entirely understand their motivation, curiosity was something she could very much relate to.

The difference being, however, is that I don’t tend to try and rip holes through our existence she told herself. She was irritated beyond belief.

She had tried to talk to the Order’s representatives about their plans, had discovered a few small pieces of information before the general public had known of them at all. She had kept all of those close to her abreast of her findings, it was the least she could do over something potentially lethal to them after all. Yet despite all of her attempts to smoothly transition into Nykan life, to work within its regimes, she was still a foreigner to their eyes – she had nothing of worth for them to know. A convenient excuse to ignore the dangers of their escapade too, almost as if they were in denial. Yet they had also prepared hundreds of monstrous glyphed totems as a precautionary measure whilst ignoring her cries for dialogue. She sighed as she watched the spectacle before here, every last one of those present was nervous – it filled the air with a tang that could soon spark into a lethal stampede if they weren’t careful.

“The Monks have a reason to be concerned Ximal, I petching would be in their position. Though I would have dispersed this crowd by now too, they have no room to maneuver if things get out of hand and a lot of potential trampling to boot,” she responded, eye taking in the shifting stances and the hand upon weapons motif the Monks all shared currently, “Revy, be ready to use the shield of yours if needs be. I don’t fancy getting kicked to death nor seeing your beauty marred by a black eye” she smiled at the woman standing next to her and touched her hip lightly for a moment – she was worried too, they all were as furrowed brows regarded the building with trepidation.

Then, just as she was about to turn and make her way back to the Safe Haven, full battle gear encasing her as a precaution, it began. It was only a few wisps at first, smoke from a pipe dissipating in the breeze. Soon it was followed by the torrent, however, and that began to spread the unease through those around her small group of comrades. The jostling started as those at the fringes left the scene quickly and filtered through the streets back to whence they had come. For Zandelia’s group though all it brought was shoving, bruises and a steady retreat towards one of the doorways where they were protected slightly. The air started to grey a little as the mist – whatever it was – began to infect and spread like a virus. They were beginning to breathe it in now and it disgusted her.

“How in the name of Akajia’s tits should I know!?” she shouted back above the screams and pounding of feet, “I’m not a damned expert. I’d say it isn’t petching good though! We need to retreat, back to our Hostel. From there we can bunker in and wait whatever this is out” she stated her position, in agreement with Ximal’s own as she reached out for Revy, patting her somewhere she couldn’t see to reassure herself the mercenary was still there.

Near complete blackness was in effect now, a moonless night where only a dimmest of light remained for them to see by. The words of Gregor and the Mirror echoed inside her mind and she gripped the handles of her weapons tightly with her right hand reflexively – this was getting worse as the parallels continued to mount, the coincidences gathered and taunted her mind.

“It doesn’t work that way Ximal, and it’s Amelias you dolt! I tell you this though, welcome to Gregor’s blotting out of the sun! Right, I’m not staying here to get smashed about, I’ll…try” she finished, wary of the attempt to use her magic on a scale no attempted before.

“Revy…protect me my dear” she stated, trying to focus her mind.

As the concentration focused her she tried to sense her Djed through the tumult around her, it was a difficult task indeed. She took her time however, the more people that fled before they set out then the easier it would be for them to travel and not be separated from each other. Her Djed was slow in pooling this day, as if something were interfering with its progress. She frowned and screwed her eyes shut in an attempt to push her focus further – bead of sweat appeared upon her brow in a smattering of places. It was flowing up to her head slowly but surely, her senses slowly being enhanced and the world around her turned into something else entirely. She did not open her eyes just yet, she was not fully prepared.

“When I give the signal both of you grab a wrist and follow where I take you. I will do my best but I’m not an expert” she told them both above the roars of the world.

[Vladimir Balsam]

There was an opening. There was a portal that was opening. There were many monks around the opening. A dark, dark cloud poured out of the opening. Vladimir was standing in the back of the crowd examining what was going on. How could this happen? Why was this happening? Vladimir has been in Nyka for many years, but he has never seen anything like this. Vladimir hung in the shadows of the back wondering what was going to happen. Was this dark cloud going to kill us all? Something was wrong, something was very wrong. Vladimir was keeping to himself and keeping a watchful eye. If a fight or riot or something was to break out he had to make sure that he was not in the way. Yes he had his bow and arrow, but he was also very fragile if it came to hand to hand combat.

You see Vladimir is a Sym, and they don’t have very strong bones or structure. Long distance is their best advantage which is why Vladimir decided to stay in the back, away from everybody, keeping an eye on everything that was going on from afar. All of a sudden Vladimir heard a low rumble of what sounded like thunder. There were lots of loud noises and soon the crowd erupted into Chaos. This was not a good thing. Vladimir thought to himself. What the hell was going on here? He thought to himself. Whatever was happening was definitely going to affect Nyka in a negative way. There is no way that something positive could possibly come from this. Vladimir sighed to himself and looked around; making sure that nobody came too close to him or ran into him. Vladimir seen that people were starting to run in all sorts of direction and really weren’t watching where they were going they just wanted to get away from whatever was happening.

The dark greyish black cloud was taking over Nyka; it was floating and flowing all over the place. Vladimir quickly turned around and seen there was a wall he could climb up. He climbed up the wall and sat on the roof of a building and watched the people below scramble all over the place. Then something caught his eye. Was the dark mass getting darker … Vladimir couldn’t be sure, but he knew for one thing that it was getting dark here and it was getting dark fast. Vladimir was soon completely paying attention to the dark cloud and not about anything else around him. Vladimir soon came to. He walked around the roof top and was looking to see if the dark cloud ended anywhere, but everywhere he looked it was darkness. Complete and total darkness.

Now that most of the people below were all gone, Vladimir slowly climbed back down the wall and started towards his apartment. This cloud had probably consumed his place but he wanted to make sure that everything there was okay. Vladimir walked to his apartment and went inside. It was getting hard to see out anywhere. The whole place was dark. It looked like we had fallen into complete and utter darkness. There were no stars outside, there was nothing. Complete darkness. How the hell was this going to do us any good? Vladimir tried to look at the positive and negative side of things but he couldn’t see any positives to what was happening. It was complete and utter darkness and he was alone. Vladimir wondered if this was happening anywhere else, or if it was just happening here in Nyka. But he soon realized that he had no chance of finding out. He didn’t know many other people and the people he did know he had no contact with. *Vladimir sighed lightly and then decided to lie in his bed and to do some thinking. Maybe he could ask someone out there about what was going on. Maybe …

Vladimir just couldn’t concentrate on his own thoughts. His inner thoughts were getting the best of him and he needed to go out there and see if anyone knew about what was going on. Vladimir had to be careful with how he did this though. He had to make sure that who he approached wouldn’t try to fight him or try to hurt him. This was Nyka after all. It wasn’t as bad as some places but it was definitely worse than some places. Vladimir decided to put on his shirt and a jacket and to go out and see what he could find out. He walked out of his apartment in search of someone to talk to. Maybe someone would be in one of the bars. Would they even be open with what was happening? Everything would probably be closed down; but it wouldn’t hurt to go and look. Vladimir was out into the bustling crowd once again. Being careful so that he wouldn’t get hurt … He seen the darkness getting closer and closer and decided once again to go back inside. Maybe he would just go to sleep and this whole thing would be over. Yeah, sleep it away, that seemed right. Maybe it was just a bad dream beginning and it would all be over in the morning. There he was trying to think positive, but something deep inside his gut was telling him that this was not a bad dream, this was reality and it would in fact not be over when he awoke later. Vladimir sighed once again to himself, as he let himself back into his apartment, shut the door, locked it and laid once again back into his bed.

[Balderdash]

Zandelia quickly discovered that attempting to use Auristics on a large scale was a terrible, terrible idea. When she opened her eyes, the poor girl's eyes flooded with lights from a hundred different sources, all battling for attention within her poor, poor mind. If she didn't cut the flow of Djed to her eyes quickly, she would be left without vision, and in a state of mental disarray, for several chimes. One thing that she could say with total conviction, however- Whatever was floating above the city was alive. Most definitely alive. Everything else was drowned out by the sheer number of sensory inputs drilling into her skull.

[Apos]

Disdaining the speed and convenience of simply going out into the streets, Apos had climbed the exterior of a dark building until he reached its roof. He was attempting to get a better look at the sky. He'd felt something...different about the area minutes ago but now it was being confirmed. There was something new in the air, and it wasn't the scent of roses. Unimaginably vast, the dark mass was spreading throughout Nyka. Apos stood there shocked beyond action. In all of his days he had never seen anything like this. He felt his jaw slack open a bit as the dark, inky like material loomed, stretched and covered everything in the city. Throughout Nyka, chaos, as it usually did in such situations, reigned. Panicked citizens scrambled for the imagined safety of the Monks, or so Apos thought and those who were lucky enough to not have been trampled in the streets will simply be happy to get where-ever the hell they're trying to find safety. But Apos was still trying to figure out what exactly they needed safety from. The darkness was nothing less than overwhelming during its enveloping of the city, but once one looks into the cause of such panic, its much easier to realize that for the moment, everyone was experiencing just what it seemed to be, darkness, although pitch black. What Apos was certain of however, was whatever would follow this darkness was not good. He decided to stay in his current position and keep his clear view of the situation to see what would happen next.

[Ana Sol Starris]

Wrenmae's Room Before The Boom Earlier in the morning hours of the day Ana had went to the Infirmary, as she had been doing for so many days after being discharged from a five day coma, checking on her arm, and all that wonderfulness that involves healing. The wrist which had been fractured was healed, and the snap in the other arms bone had been healed completely, though if Ana was to be honest- she felt a stiffness creep into her hands. The fingers she had were not as nimble as they use to be, the hand that had the fractured wrist felt the worst of the numbness. Things were hard to squeeze after a certain amount of pressure, as if the muscles there had lost the elasticity they needed to make a good, strong grip, she had to practice with her hand every day just to keep it in tip-top shape. Squeezing it, and stretching, and working it theraputically. Now that her arm was out of the sling, she felt as if she could get down to business- and what better way than to filch off the foreigners that had come after the branding with little knowledge of her being a thief. Tightening the large red scarf Ximal had gotten her to hide her neck, and somewhat her chest, she shrugged on the purple coat and snagged the wonderful cane that had also been gifted to her. Grasping just above the metal clasp and latch that kept the sword inside hidden from veiw, it was a lovely thing, and to her it seemed to be a multi-use tool. Why, the latch was so strong she could swing the hook part of the cane around and it wouldn't even fly out, perfect for non-lethal attempts of escape, if she were to be ever put into such a situation. Wishing more so to make use of a non-fatal attack, rather than one with the blade. Stepping out her door she went, shimmying past the squeeky hinges and stepping light across the floorboards she made her way to the multiple closed doors. Rooms which were vacated and empty were open, but Ana was sure some of the foreigners had gone to the 'ceremony' just as Ximal and Zandelia did. Pffsh, I don't see whats so great about a 'portal', load of bull-shyke is what it is. Placing her ear against a door and listening for an occupant inside, she found she heard nothing, no scritching, or scratching, no stepping about on the floorboards and even as she got down on her knees and peeked down to look through the bottom crack of the door she saw no feet skulking about. No shadows. No nothing, she felt she was in the clear so she got up and opened the door with a deliberate slowness, in case she was wrong. Peering inside she saw the room was vacant, looking around her down both ends of the hall, she quickly stepped inside and made quick work of the room. Searching under pillows, and placing them back as she had found them, smoothing them out and then checking underneath the bed for anything valuable. She went for the stray boots laying about, sticking her hand in and reaching, before pulling anything out that was possibly suspicious to be in a pair of boots. Now she went for the backpacks, this she had to be careful with as one displaced item could mean the end of her, she was careful to sift about anything that could have been breakable or sharp, but not necessarily something she could hand off to Zandelia to sell. There were some stray clothes with pockets, and the thief went after those as well digging about them. Picking up a piece of underwear, Ana threw it to the side with a disgusted look on her face and pocketed anything she might have found in the rather large pockets her coat had. The coat fit her snugly enough, but it was fascinating because of the fact it had large pockets in the front, and inside it as well. Standing and straightening up, she readjusted her coat and made her way out the door to go to the next room, shutting the searched rooms door and continuing on to the next, repeating the same process over and over again until finally she came up to a room that seemed to have a lot of clutter and bags on the floor. It was hard to see through the crack at the bottom of the door, and there was no keyhole that she could have looked through, and even when she pressed her ear against the door- she heard nothing. Ana could only assume. Like the other rooms she cracked the door open by just a hair, opening it slower as she would peek into the room with one eye and was not terribly surprised- it was empty too. "Petch, these people are either really stupid fools, or... Yeah... They're stupid fools, too bad for them, shoulda' known better" Ana muttered to herself as she stepped inside, feeling somewhat secure with the vacancy of the inside area. The room seemed to be a goldmine, simply fantastic, though it had failed to surprise her with the presence of a person- there was a staff with a shiny rock on top of it, two backpacks, something long like a staff with a round thing on top, there was a fancy blue bottle on the pillow of the bed that easily caught her eye. So...the travelers a female, but why would they leave a perfume bottle on a pillow? First things were first, the backpacks, as she didn't know how expensive the perfume could have been despite the fancy bottle it was in. Striding lightly over to them she opened the first backpack to find two books, a leather bound one, and then a paper bound one. Ooo, a reader? Ana set the books on the ground next to her, she would definitely take the time to read those before the ceremony would end. Steal them? Probably not, it would be too dangerous to keep something as rare as this, who knew what lengths the traveller would have gone to if she were to keep them? Next all she saw were clothes, a pouch, and a dagger- peeking into the pouch she had to stop herself from spazzing in surprise. The bag was filled to the brim with gold, and more gold! Ana hit the jack pot, but she had to be smart about this or be caught. Instead of taking the entire pouch she only took a handful of the gold and placed it into her pocket- if the traveller stayed long enough and left for long periods of time she could always come back for more of it later. Settling the purse back so it could possibly look as if it were never disturbed. Next, picking up the dagger she pondered on whether or not the traveller would become deeply upset over losing it? Then she shrugged, a small movement to her shoulders to signal she didn't actually really care if the traveller missed it- there were always more daggers to be found later. If she were to be truthful, it looked to be more of a shortsword rather than a dagger, except it was shaped like a dagger, and not a sword. Straightening, Ana attempted to put the longer type of dagger into her inside pocket, the handle stuck out from the coat flap. What more goodies did this traveller have? Ana began to feel giddy with her good fortune, willing her to go further and check the other backpack to find dead animal parts and bones. Ana stared at them, an expression on her face between surprise and disgust before picking up a skull of a bear and pulling her own lip back in...uncertaintity of what she was holding, and then putting it back. Deciding not to petch with that stuff because it was dead, not like she had use for dead animal bones or parts. Well, besides the bones of a severed arm back in her room... But those were for study purposes only, she couldn't fathom why the traveller had them. Looking around she closed the backpack and went to sit on the bed, her eyes still travelling about the rooms interior for more goodies until she caught eye of a hat. Broad brimmed, and familliar, she tilted her head at it and picked it up- setting it in her lap and letting a finger run across the material. Wrenmae had a hat just like this, if she remembered correctly, a look of melancholy flitting across her face for a few moments before dissapearing and putting the hat on. It fell past her eyes easily enough, making her push it back up to look at the perfume bottle on the bed. Taking the hat off and then putting it back where she had picked it up, and then going to pick the bottle up itself, eyes glinting with concentration, shaking the contents about a bit and pursing her lips in confusion. Why would she need a third perfume bottle? It wasn't like she could use the liquid itself frivously, it made her feel nausious after a time, so she set the bottle down back on the pillow with an inner war displaying itself. Hand lingering as she turned away from it, getting up and going back to the books, she looked between the two and put the leather bound book back for the paper bound one. Leather generally meant a journal, but if she had time, she would go peeping about that book too. Opening the book up, she began to browse through it slowly, sitting back down by the backpack she had taken it out from- it was on something called 'Animation'? Petch the staff, this book was interesting. oocQuick putting my spot in here. Now I go back to finishing before the 30th threads.. and getting my new stuff from Ximal, and Zand. >.>

[Zandelia]

Zandelia took what some might call an indecent amount of time to try and compose herself, there was the tail end of a stampede around her little group after all and it was a deadly environment within which to just stop and breathe. The lee of the doorway they had been forced into no doubt afforded them a certain modicum of protection but it was still far too tumultuous to count upon that serendipity for too long. In truth she had no real desire to try and do as Ximal had indicated, to try and guide them by the use of her feeble understanding of a magic she was far from able to claim the title of master at. She saw little alternative, however, considering that their vision was limited to a mere foot by whatever mist creation had been summoned into their world. No...she had no choice but the try at the very least

Just focus! Think of Revy...she isn’t safe. She could die. Ximal too...but Revy...I can’t lose her. She means too much and balances me out too well... she told herself as she took ever deeper breaths and repeated the various reasons she risked her half-sight for.

In truth she was terrified...deep down she could feel her very soul twist and turn with what she was about to risk – her sight. She had already lost one eye and had come to terms with that so long ago now that the scab never truly bled for her. Now, however, it flowed freely and whispered o her to not even try, to pretend. They would never know after all, would just accept any reason she gave as the cause of her failure. They did not comprehend her abilities and she could use hat to her advantage. Still, she could not bring herself to cheat them in that way – not even with what she had been through already this season. Fear still gripped her and she battled it still – she could not fail them, too many she had failed already.

“Alright...grab hold of me” she told the, terror evident in her voice. She hoped they would at least notice what she was willing to do to survive, for them to survive.

She opened her eyes and for a second nothing registered – a lag in time between vision and processing taking place. Then the world hurtled towards her and shoved its way into her eyes, forcing itself into her mind with the stealth of a Morningstar. It bludgeoned her, her knees buckled instantly as she slammed into the door behind her with enough force to dim consciousness for a few moments as the back of her head struck solidly. It was what saved her in truth, her mind had fragmented and given in to the cacophonous voices of attraction that the use of magic always produced. She had known of the dangers but the sheer magnitude of the experience had shattered her resolve. Her Djed cut off with the impact of her skull upon wood.

She would say she was lucky in the aftermath but, as her vision blurred and distorted with the impairment that was the signal of minor overgiving she could only manage a babble of repeated words – two of them

“It’s alive...it’salive...alivealivealiveavile..." she babbled as she tried to recover. her mind tried to reel her in and protect itself.

“ALIVE!” she shouted as reflexively she covered her eyes with her hands and folded into a ball within the doorway – Revy and Ximal the only two thing in the world between her and the trampling.