Quest The Longest Road To Nowhere

[Gossamer]

Timestamp: 6th of Winter, 513 AV

Eosi

The man stood before her. He was not her lover, Leo, but there was something so utterly like Leo about him that Eosi should have immediately saw the similarities. Molten gold eyes bore into her own as he woke her with nothing more than his presence in her room. The man was pure emotional intensity, with the strength of a volcano and the integrity and humor of a warm-souled friend. There was also no pretentiousness about him. He wore nothing across his chest and torso, the fire inside him warming him more than enough. His leather pants hugged his legs and thighs but lead down to bare feet, the cuffs rolled up slightly. His muscled arms were folded over his chest, and he leaned back slightly with an air of authority that smelled of deep dark places of burning power.

Ivak's eyes gave him away though. It was the same glow his Champion - her lover - sometimes wore in brief flashes of emotion or power. "Get up girl. I have a task for you." The God said, as if his needs bore nothing less than urgency to them overshadowing her wishes completely. He didn't wait for her to fully wake nor struggle to her feet before he continued. Ivak rolled forward with what he wanted of her like molten rock cascading down a steep volcanic slope.

"Something is going to happen in this city that hasn't been seen in Mizahar since before the Valterrian. Your enemies - my enemies - are going to initiate it, diverge someone who is on an important task, and steal his secrets including the key to the Lightening Road. I have no one else in this area. I need you on it. And since you bare no marks from me, you can walk in unnoticed, and my presence in this endeavor will be overlooked. Go to the south part of the city, look for a place called Red Diamond Fashions and wait there quietly. You will know when you are needed." The God said.

"Your task is to eliminate the ability of the quad of Ruv'na to steal what they waylay. And you will need to secure the technology the man carries for me. It is not that we need it per say, but it is that we need it NOT to be in the hands of those that covet it. You will find allies there. Akajia is sending her children, and Wysar will have a candidate there as well. Worth with them. They are not your enemies. The quad is. And do not let down your guard. The Ruv'na quad will kill you if they can. If you need to, take their lives first. But try not to, not before you get information." Ivak said, and just like that he was gone.

When he vanished, it was like he took a the heat and warmth and power from the room. Chill rolled across the night-darkened room and reminded Eosi how alone she actually felt.




Rosela

The shadows awakened her deep in the heart of the night. There was an urgency to the disruption. There wasn't just one shadow either, her entire cottage was full of them. And they were talking all at once. It was hard to understand them. Some shouted, some whispered, but all of them talked. They talked and talked and talked. She was getting no information from them either in their adjudicated excitement. "Get up!" One cried, while another chanted something about a lightening road coming. Yet another claimed fire and said the city would burn from the skyfire. None of them stood out, as sometimes shadows did, holding positions of leadership even among their dark kin. "Akajia commands." Another said, repeating that his Mistress wanted Rosela to report to something, somewhere... and it sounded a lot like her shop. The chaos was enormous, more like a party in her one-room home gone bad, than any organized help.

Finally one voice got through to her clearly. "Your shop. Your shop will burn." The creature said, a shadow of deep darkness, with a voice to match. "Go now. Akajia commands you help those who fight against the Ruv'na quad doing dark work tonight. They will steal a soul out of time. Go girl. Take your daggers and sharp mind with you." It said, shoving at the seamstress, urging her to hurry.


Favchean & Riaris

Mentor and student were out patrolling the streets in the darkened night. Fav had recently joined up with the Kuvay'Nas and Riaris' Squad Leader had tapped him to potentially do some training with the squad, often putting him on the same rotating schedule as Riaris and at the same time granting him pay. His raise would be fully realized once the Squad Leader deemed him worthy of fully joining their ranks. No one in the squad, however, really doubted he'd be tapped. The leader, Katuvin, was ruthless about picking the best and brightest. If he wasn't tapping brutes, he was tapping those he felt skilled and intelligent with the potential to be fierce fighters.

Recruits were paired with veterans and those veterans were to talk them through their volunteer shifts, leading them on pathways through the city and showing them what was right and proper. The night had been quiet, if not bitterly cold, with unusual rumblings in the storm clouds happening. Dry lightening coursed from cloud to cloud, which was more of a summer phenomenon than a winter one. But lightening in the winter wasn't totally unheard of. The bitter wind promised snow in the days forthcoming, and the world was in a state of disquiet wait.

The Group

Riaris and Favchean were swinging by the southern part of the city, near Red Diamond Fashions, when the storm broke. It lit up the sky with thunder and lightening in a fury that was almost unexpected. Bolts crashed down, actually striking the city instead of being confined to the boiling dark clouds high above. The crackling spears of power struck down like rain, frequently and fiercely much to the delight of the four men that stood before the somewhat iconic Riverfall business. They held something high stretched between them, that glittered like metal wires and illuminated diamonds. Another bolt of lightning lit the sky, but this time it did not vanish after expending its fury. Instead it hung glowing in the air forming a road just large enough for a horse to gallop down. One would have not considered it a road except that it was indeed a glowing pathway of violent energy that crackled and hung suspending in the air. It went from one point to another, emerging from the clouds, dipping low to the ground near where the four men stood, and rising back up into the clouds to vanish again.

A lightening road.

One would not have even considered it a road except that there was indeed a rider upon it mounted on a very average looking brown horse of a nondescript nature. The rider was bent over the cantle of his saddle, cloak flying behind him, and every bit of his posture depicting utter exhaustion. The horse itself was in no better condition. Its chest and flanks were covered with the foam of sweat, but still it pressed on. Except, where the road dipped low to the ground, the animal faltered and tripped over something unseen, throwing its rider as it nearly lost its footing on the energy road. The rider fell, hitting the side of the energy lit road, and then tumbling to the ground. The man didn't scream or react as he fell, as if accepting his fate and the fact that he'd lost his seat. The horse skidded to a stop, dancing midsky, spun on the narrow roadway, and did a magnificent rollback on the narrow road, going back for its rider. It gathered itself in a surge of reserve energy and leaped from the crackling path landing on the ground near the rider. It swung, teeth bared over a clenched bit with reins flying free, and all but stood over the fallen man defending him.

The lightening road crackled and vanished in another shower of sparked bolts striking the ground around them, leaving the man crumpled on the ground, the four men facing him and already drawing their weapons to attack, and the witnesses - the two men of the watch, the fiery redhead, and the seamstress who's shop was lightening hit as the road vanished, lighting up the cottage-like structure on the south side near her workroom.

[Eosi]

Eosi, curled up like a cat, jerked awake to the powerful beckoning of her God. She looked at him blankly for a moment before scrambling out of bed, making no moves to conceal her blatant nudity. No instead, she beheld him for a long, painful moment, her heart aching terribly at the reminiscence of Leo. She hadn’t realized just how alike they really were, but then again, she hadn’t met the God of Fire before. Well, not in person anyway.

After she’d had her fill of staring, Eosi began to dress, whilst listening carefully to his instructions. The Lightning Road? It was obvious that whatever it was, she’d soon find out. It was a good thing, he said, that she had not a one of his marks. She could move the pieces in his favor without drawing too much attention. This was good. Being a woman of utility, she did not take the time to get her feelings hurt. Simply put, if he did not value her, he would not have chosen her.

It was time to prove her worth.

She nodded, pulling her cloak fast. This would require coordinating with the others, but she didn’t have the slightest idea who they were. It would take some deduction, but it couldn’t be too hard; the only other players in the game were going to be on the offense, which would then create a foil between them and the agents of Wysar and Akajia. Once identified, it was simply a matter of coordination. Eosi slung the shortbow over her shoulder and grabbed a quiver of arrows before walking out the door.

Red Diamond Fashions, huh? She sincerely hoped Rosela didn’t get dragged into the fray.

Walking quickly and keeping her head down, she moved across town. Eosi kept her hood up against the rain, which helped to conceal her shock of auburn hair. It wasn’t too long before the woman found herself outside of Rosela’s shop, startled by the sudden slash of lightning as it struck the sky.

It was… A road?

Staring into the radiant pathway of light, she watched as the rider drew near. Her heart wrenched for him as he was thrown from his steed and a part of her yearned to run to him, to help lift him from where he fell. But his mighty steed stood guard and rightly so; the Ruv’na quad circled inward, ready to strike at the right opportunity, readying their weapons to open the man up and take his precious cargo.

Eosi notched an arrow immediately, sighting it as well as she could by the inside corner of her cheek. She felt the string quiver and resist, building tension, momentum. She needed only to hit them where it hurt to get their attention. The rest would be a lot of cat and mouse.

Aiming near the shoulder of the man closest, she let her arrow fly.

[Gossamer]

The horse screamed and circled its downed rider even as the four men released the device and the road bounced back up into the sky as it vanished. One of the four men advancing cursed, calling out something to another one that sounded like an angry disclaimer. Just a casual observer would fairly easily see that when the men holding the device that caused the road to appear dropped it as the rider fell, the road lost its stability and vanished. It was as if the men, all four of them, and their combined efforts pulled the road into existence. And they did not seem like they wanted it to vanish, and thus did not release it by choice.

When the redhead fired her arrow, it sailed straight and true to the men who were arguing. They were not looking for outside intervention, but instead seemed more relaxed because of the state of the downed rider - prone and unmoving. Eosi's arrow lodged into the shoulder of the man closest to her and he jerked, cursing, and was knocked off his feet. The other three men turned to the man briefly then their heads snapped around sighting Eosi across the distance. The man on the ground struggled, trying to get up, gripping the arrow in his shoulder. The strength in Eosi's bow lodged it deep in the bone and the shaft wouldn't budge in the man's hands.

The other three men gestured towards Eosi's position and started two started towards her while the third drew a sword and advanced on the horse, intent on putting it down. The horse reared and the man chopped off its foreleg. The beast went down with a cry, kicking out with its back legs and spraying blood all over the scene from its severed limb. The man fighting it advanced and with the superior reach of his sword darted in avoiding the front flailing hoof and cut the animal's throat. The horse died laying almost side by side with its fallen rider in a fountain of blood that coated the front of The Red Diamond fashions, painting its walls the same color as its title.

Meanwhile the two men advanced on Eosi. They drew weapons as they ran, closing the gap. They had no ranged weapons, thankfully, but there was something that Eosi noticed right away. Faint, in the back of her mind, was a buzzing... a low thrum that originated from the the two men. It flooded her mind as a sort of distraction, and she felt slightly... slightly....disconnected from her Syna mark and those powers which were granted quiet in the dark anyhow. But she really... didn't realize how connected to the Sun Goddess she felt until the the link was gone.

The men continued to advance. Within moments they'd be on her...

[Riaris Dovukalis]

Riaris moved through the streets of the city with Favchean at his side. He knew the strength of the green skinned Akalak and was glad to have him join their military forces. A fine addition he would make, and Riaris would and had spoke up for the man's talents in the art of fighting. Being a member of the Kuvay'Nas was an honor and one saw a lot of action, however sometimes patrols were the exact opposite.

It had seemed that this would be another quiet night for the city and other than a night storm, nothing was out of the ordinary. That was until they moved across the southern part of the city, near Red Diamond Fashions. Suddenly lightning lit the sky, seemingly carving it's way through Leth's darkness. "Hey do you see that?" he asked the other with him. If that wasn't strange enough, a rider upon horseback rode his way down this mysterious bolt of lighting that was now stuck in the air.

Riaris looked on in surprise as the scene played out, having no other thoughts at the moment other than to see it through. There was something wrong with the two, and before he could figure it out, the horse tripped and the rider was thrown off and sent to the ground hard. That was when he noticed the others, four men and the woman he had met before with the bright red hair. Riaris didn't have a problem with her, but Recoomas did. "Prepare yourself Favchean, we have trouble." he commanded and pulled his lakan free of his belt.

The Akalak was ready to defend, or fight, whatever was needed in this case. The four men seemed determined to cause harm to the one who had fell from the sky, and he couldn't allow this. However it was the fiery redhead who struck first and injured one of the four. When one of the remaining men turned on the horse, leaving the other two to attack Eosi, Riaris moved in to attack them. Turning his lakan in his palm as he ran, he aimed the weapon at the man's chest and throw it.

[Favchean Hronis]

Moving through the city, Favchean allowed his eyes to turn toward the streets and the buildings. There within this Akalak's heart was a place reserved for this city, and the citizens within. It was not something that he took special note of, for the green Akalak that is how he imagined all Akalak felt about Riverfall. It was normal, his father had instilled the pride of the city in him and he would instill the same within the breast of his sons.

This evening he was walking through the city with Riaris, a violet Akalak that he had recently made acquaintances with, more specifically had his tail handed to him on the sparring mat by the other. However Favchean reviewed the sparring match with a favorable light for much had been learned that day, and he held much respect for the other's fighting skills. His clothing was his normal flair, leathers upon leather nothing flashy purely serviceable attire. On his hips rode a pair of sheaths, the one his Lakan, the other a simple dagger.

When the lightening flashed across the sky, Favchean pulled up short, his blue eyes widening in consternation, strange as the event was. The lightening of the area was unneeded for his Akalak eyes to see the four men setting upon another, nor the strange red head that he had not met. "I am here." Was all he said in assurance that he had heard the other Akalak's warning, and he too slid his Lakan free.

Favchean closed the distance at a run, keeping mindful of Riaris and his Lakan not wishing to get in the way of the other. While Riaris deals with the throwing of his Lakan, and the strange red head fell upon another member of the quartet, Favchean inserted himself between the fallen man and the one with the sword, his Lakan held in his hand his body defensive, as he sized up the opponent.

[Leo Varniak]

Ever since his childhood, Leo Zaital had wondered where fire came from, and where it went once it had done its work. It couldn’t simply be gone, no. Nothing is ever “gone”, and what man thinks of as impossibly vast and distant, is merely around the corner on a cosmic scale. Thus, fire had to go somewhere. Young Leo had once imagined fire as a pillar dwelling far beneath the world. If reality was a flat surface, then fire would pierce it from below when summoned and sink once again afterwards.

The explanation had drawn blank looks from everyone around him, so he had learned to keep it to himself, but he had never really stopped thinking about this pet theory of his. Most of the time he wished he could follow the fire no matter where it disappeared to. He was certain he would feel right at home there. Some twenty years later, Leo Zaital would be returning to this old daydreaming with an addendum.

Careful what you wish for.

One day, he was gone. Gone, much like the object of his fascination, and leaving only a faint column of smoke where he had stood. Touching a little flame did it. There were no magic words. No divine incantations, although Leo should have seen it coming. Ivak had been teaching him how to draw coins out of the open fire for a while. Freaking gold mizas spilling out of a campfire, for gods’ sake! Leo found the entire thing quite silly, if the truth be told, but he had to admit he could use the hard currency. He may have survived on willpower alone, but he wasn’t going to thrive on it.

And so, little by little, he had opened his eyes to the pathways in the fire. For the first time, he was close to testing his childhood theories. You merely had to reach out and grab not the fire, but what was beyond the fire. The fire was the vessel, the change, that which constantly moved. You had to stare at it so very intently, the dancing tips seemed to freeze for an instant. Then, a flick of your fingers and the coin would be there, caught in your grasp, deliciously hot to the touch. In time, he would grow quite proficient at this, the amount of wealth only limited by Ivak’s own generosity and Leo’s natural frugality.

Then the nagging thought. What if you don’t reach out? What if you push instead? Could this work in the other direction? Did the door swing both ways? Leo didn’t mention this desire to Eosi, but he couldn’t live without the answer. He had been thinking about it for too long. He must know, should it destroy him, for such was his nature. One day, he knelt by the fire and pushed like it was the most natural thing in the world. And just like that, he was on the other side of the fire.

He?

There was no Leo Zaital there. There was fire arranged in such a way that may have been Leo Zaital, give or take a few dimensions. He saw a little black window in an ocean of red, and knew it was where he had come from, and the black was everything that did not burn, and the black was receding as the fire died out. He walked with the fire and was the fire. The fire spoke to him also, and he spoke to it, and the fire showed him things and he showed it things. None of this bears direct significance to this tale, however. Another story for another day.

If asked, he could have sworn he walked as the fire for a day or two. He should have know better. He had gone through something of this sort before, en route to Ivak’s prison, and the seasons had stretched around him. Time had no meaning here except as a little nasty footnote to the contract. The world could have crumbled and he would not have known, because he was beneath and above it. He considered his theory to have been successfully tested. He had been right on all counts, save for one.

For this was the Ukalas, and not even here was he home.

He stepped out just as suddenly as he had been taken in. A window opened in front of him and he walked out of the fire, his clothes miraculously safe. He blinked in utter silence and wondered where he was. It looked like… Riverfall. Could have been worse. Much worse. Fire broke out every day on a billion worlds. Were such things random, finding the right fire would be akin to the proverbial needle in the haystack. Leo turned around slowly, and noticed he was standing near the back of a building on fire. It looked strangely familiar. He looked up and saw lightning bend and twist like a path in the sky.

Well, business as usual.

Still enthralled by the flames, he circled the building as the escalating noises of battle reached his ears. That was when his knees suddenly gave out and he found himself on all fours, shaking. You do not simply take a stroll in the Ukalas, after all. The lack of burning alone was maddening here - he had to keep staring at the fire just to avoid having a seizure. Still, he crawled onwards and finally managed a peek around the corner. There was a battle raging on… a battle he was in no condition to join… and there was Eosi… fighting for her life. Leo’s temples were pounding. Every fiber in his body wanted for him to step back into the flames and forget about this nightmare, maybe emerge somewhere far away, centuries from now. It would be easy.

Standing was out of the question. Using his powers, unthinkable - the idea of parting with any of his fire essence could drive him insane. Eosi couldn’t see him like this, eyes bloodshot and cramps rocking his body. It was all he could to peek around the corner and let his other gnosis loose. Ssena, Xhyvas, Sylir, the day was theirs and for the first time in his life he felt so very, very cold here.

OOCThis post has been rewritten with Gossamer’s permission, so it would make much more sense. Nothing should change for anyone. I apologize for any inconvenience.

[Rosela]

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EDITOkay, I reeeally misunderstood what was going on, so my post below has been edited to reflect what's actually happening.

Rosela awoke with a small cry, immediately cringing from the abrupt noise in her home. For a moment, she wondered why the night so deeply obscured her intruders, until she realized the night was her intruder. Shadows seemed to pack the empty spaces of her room, shifting about in their queer way. Frowning, she instinctually lifted her hands to her ears as she tried to make sense of the chaos of voices.

”Calm-calm down, I…” They were beyond anxious, furiously commanding her, and making proclamations. ”Lightning, fire… Okay, what does she command…?” Four hands clenched irritably. Something was clearly wrong, but nothing was getting through in the chaos.

The message about her shop came through loud and clear though, and she jumped out of bed as though burnt herself. ”My shop?!” She all but screamed, and listened to the deepest of the voices with an open mouth and misting eyes. The Ruv’na, those horrible little boys from the fall, they were up to something again. But her shop, she couldn’t lose her shop. Take her home, her jewelry, even her makeup, but don’t take her shop. With a whimper, she slammed open the chest at the base of her bed and snatched out the stiletto. She barely knew how to use it, but if she needed it, at least she knew where to stab.

Pausing only to shove her feet into her boots, she flew out the door in her pajamas, a plain white shift, and her snow-white fur cloak fluttering behind her as she attempted to tie it on. Her breath came in heaves as she pounded down the street, her heeled boots rhythmically clattering against the stones. In her mind ran a litany of prayers to save her shop. As she neared the last corner before she would be able to see her shop, a deafening crack of thunder made her start so violently, she stumbled into the wall next to her. She rounded the corner on shaking knees to see a horse – a horse! – gallop down a path of lightning from the sky. The rider fell and as the horse leapt from the path, and whatever happened next, Rosela only had eyes for the shock of light that alit the side of her shop.

Only a high squeak made it out of her throat as four hands clutched at the edge of her cloak. Her shop, her livelihood, her life was on fire. An arrow sailed towards the men, and it seemed suddenly there was a fountain of blood. Instead of turning her stomach, it fed her anger like bread, and she wanted them to hurt, to die, if only it would save her precious shop. She realized she was running, approaching the frenzy like a couple others now. She saw a flash of green among them, a shade she now associated with Favchean, dealing with the men still in front of the shop. She knew better than to jump in next to him; she was no fighter and would only get in the way.

Skidding to a halt, she threw herself in between her shop and the building next door, stumbling as she crunched through the unplowed snow and looking up in fear at the flames licking along the roof. Shaking, she moved forward and thrust her hands into the snow. The cold was like needles into her fingertips as she hauled up a half-frozen chunk of it. Stumbling once on her cloak, she glanced back compulsively at the street where sounds of combat rang high. A whimper escaped in a high, manic voice as she hurled the snow at the flames eating away the wood above her workroom window. The snow broke apart with a dull shatter and while some of the flames were diminished, they did not vanish. Shadows danced around the flames and with a sniffle, Rosela hissed a plea out to them.

”Can’t you help?!”

Whipping around to gather more snow, she took one step towards the outside corner and leaned, trusting the shadows to hide her. She saw that it was indeed Favchean out there, though other faces also looked familiar. Her stiletto was still clutched under her cloak, and as she sunk down, her five other hands reached out for more snow.

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[Eosi]

Edging off to the side, she began to notch another arrow, eyes intent on the three men approaching her. They were all but at a run. She put her back toward the end of the alley where the two Akalak rushed toward the fray, putting her faith in the agents of Wysar. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t expose herself to the unknown in such a way, but it was evident she was quickly running out of time.

She drew again, the string growing taut, sighted at her cheek. Eosi allowed the mysterious Akalak to engage the men before she loosed another arrow, this time aiming for the hip of the man furthest, in an attempt to put some distance between her and the group. If she could take the one in the back down, she could either help the man, or she could flank around to help save the other, who’d dropped what she’d been charged to collect.

Torn between two options, she hesitated for a split second. If the arrow struck true, she’d break from Riaris, allowing the man to handle both opponents at once in favor of retrieving the item the rider had lost. Her eyes desperately scanned the ground for it, while still sighting her enemies.

Which is when she caught a glimpse of Rosela, running down the street. Eosi had a pang of regret for not being able to break off and help her. The woman loved her shop more than her life. Under normal circumstances, she’d stop to help her, but this time, she couldn’t. She simply couldn’t.

So she didn’t.

If the arrow veered off course, she'd scramble for another arrow while continuing to back off, still trying to sight the item in her periphery.

[Gossamer]

One of the men advancing on Eosi went down. A gleaming Laken lodged in the area of his liver. He was unfortunate that he wore no armor in that area, not having planned on having need of a full set. The operation was supposed to take place in the dead of night with no one around. They had timed it perfectly, not sure why the city seemed to be so busy when everyone should have been in bed in the bitter cold and storm. The man that went down with the Lakan in his liver looked to see where the lakan had come from and grasped it, pulling it free of his body. Blood flowed freely down his side, but he was not dead. His hand glowed with an strange almost green light as it wrapped around the Lakan. Riaris felt his body flare with light as well and it began to burn his flesh like acid though leaving no mark. His whole body was infused with pain suddenly, helplessly as the man stared at him and grasped the weapon that was forged with a piece of his soul.

The man smiled, slowly, even as his face grayed out with the loss of blood. He whispered furiously, eyes boring into Riaris, and the magic flared, bringing Riaris to his knees in the pain.

Anyone observing would see the green glow that surrounded Riaris was the same as the glow that surrounded the man’s hand on Riaris’ Lakan. It continued on, long chimes, until the man’s grey pallor turned white and he pitched forward, loosing the fight between blood loss and consciousness. Raris’ Lakan hit the cobbles with an audible clatter.

Riaris' burning pain stopped, but his Lakan still lay out in the open, vulnerable.

The man that had murdered the horse was standing covered in blood. The horse itself was still twitching and the whole of the area around it was stained with blood. The cobbles were sticky because of the cold temperatures were freezing the blood as it rapidly cooled on the frozen ground. Steam rose from both the corpse and the spilled blood, and also too from the man who had worked up a sweat killing the creature. He faced Favchean as the green Akalak got between him and his prize. He pulled a lip up in a sneer as he sized up the Lakan and the far superior reach of his already bloody sword. Dancing forward, mindful of the slippery blood, the man launched an uppercut at the deep green Akalak and followed through with a disarming move he hoped to catch Favchean’s dagger with if the man was so foolish as to try and block the uppercut thus setting himself up for a disarming.

The man laying prone on the ground suddenly lifted his head. He screamed, almost retroactively, in an inhuman and horrified manner… only he didn’t have his full voice. There was a muted quality about it… as if the whole scene around the area was muted.

When Leo stepped out of the fire, he was right on the side of the Red Diamond Fashions that was burning from the lightening strike. The first thing that would effect him would be the profound cold of the Rivarian night. It was no colder than the usual cold of the season, but for someone who had been dwelling in Ivak’s realm the cold was profound, even crippling. The fire that licked up the side of the building suddenly seemed to pause. It reversed course and swarmed the Champion, absorbing into him as if it could warm him enough to raise his temperatures to avoid the shock of the sudden relocation that mortal forms were not designed to withstand.

When he peeked around the corner, letting his other gnosis’ range free, he ran into an absolutely silence that was utterly profound. No information fed back to him. Ssena’s gnosis was a particular one that normally gave great insight. But it was silent, as if it didn’t exist. Sylir might as well have not been reborn… and Xhyvas was as if lost in history again, hiding in someone’s mortal blood. All he could feel was the fire, the emotions, and even those were muted.

Near him, but far enough a way, a lone man stood. There was nothing remotely striking about the man. He was almost stunning in his absolute plainness. He reached up, stroked his chin, and shook his head. His words were soft, muted, though it seemed he spoke at full strength by the breath he used in his lungs. “Even someone such as I feel a sort of sorrow at a Champion on his knees. Do you feel it, Priest?” The man said, his eyes boring into Leo’s. “Do you feel that feeling that something isn’t right? It’s not. It never can be. You should not let the Gods ride your soul as they do. We mortals should be in charge of our own lives.” He said firmly, then paused, as if waiting to make sure Leo got back on his feet or at least got the strength to respond.

Others would notice the strange quality of sound in the air… the movement of weapons and armor, the shuffling of feet, it was all muted. None of it translated into the sound that it should be and certainly none of it carried more than a few feet.

Rosela was a first hand witness to the Champion of Ivak stepping out of the flames, collapsing, and then eating the flames from her home with his body like a sponge would absorb water when dried. The cold struck her then, the flames warming the air around the burning building seemed to instantly cool. Her hurled snow fell on blackened walls but no flames, having helped a bit even before the man stepped out of the fire. The gesture wasn’t empty though – the cry for help - because it alerted the Champion to her presence and the man who faced him as well.

The shadows gathered closer to her. They whispered a name over and over and over and over again to her. “Carvex. Carvex.” And as soon as the man’s attention fell on her, the shadows seemed to vanish. They uttered not a word, not a sound, and it was like they never existed for her. Rosela could see them all around, but not as she could have a moment ago… as living breathing moving things. Now they were simply shadow, much like they’d been to her all her life before she’d been marked in the city council meeting.

The man smiled slowly at her, a crooked grin of slow soft amusement. He was so very plain, so nondescript in his humanity, but it was almost as if it was an aura of illusion he wore about himself. “You should look your fill, woman. It is not often one sees a God’s Champion on his knees.” The man said, taking a slow and measured step forward. It was obviously a deliberate move, but didn’t seem like an attack.

Eosi’s arrow went wide. It was too hastily drawn shot under too much duress in close quarters. But the man was already busy with Riaris’ situation… and the third one further back was looking around, as if seeking someone who wasn’t engaged in the immediate fray. He broke off, circling, heading back towards Red Diamond Fashions, as if there was something there to protect more interesting than Eosi.

Riaris had the man Eosi had been aiming at down on his knees with a bleeding wound in his body. He held a glowing Lakan in his hands causing Riaris to glow. The first man Eosi had taken out was already down… so everyone was accounted for and busy, leaving her time to search.

The redhead could continue to fight… but everyone was occupied. She could also start searching… and if she scanned the fresh fallen snow, she’d see a trail where something had been released, skittered on top of the snow, then lodged deep in it. Above where the entry into the snow bank must be, the snow glowed a blue color very reminiscent of the road that had dropped the rider at their feet.

Meanwhile everyone close to Rosela, Leo, and the stranger with a gnosis mark would feel it got numb, dead, or in Leo's case with his Ivak Marks, go muted.

[Leo Varniak]

Breathe. Just breathe. Easy does it.

Cold fingers caressed the wall, pulling in the fire without so much as a conscious thought. The flames gave themselves over to Leo, willing sacrifices to their embodiment on Mizahar. The feast came unbidden, but not unappreciated. The fire poured into his guts, at once saving the building from destruction and the Champion from hypothermic shock. With every dancing tip of red he grew just a little stronger, just a little more aware; just a little more like himself.

His first thought was that the journey must have broken him in some fundamental way. Not only did he feel strangely disconnected from his divine powers, but his other marks were also silent. Leo almost panicked as he wondered if Ivak had perhaps demoted him - and gods knew he would have good reason to - but then something else kicked in. He realized he was feeling fear, and it had been a long time. So, Ssena's grip on him was  truly nowhere to be seen. He was as alone as he'd ever be.

He crawled back from the corner of the building in confusion. A yell behind him drew his attention, forcing him to turn his head. The Eypharian seamstress, Rosela, stood there in what looked like a redundant attempt at quenching the fire. But of course. It explained why the building had looked so familiar. Leo had worried about burning down her shop before; turned out he'd save it from the same fate. Irony at work there.

He did not get an opportunity to talk to the woman. Someone emerged from around the corner (how was Eosi? Was the battle over? Would she be all right?), looking entirely human and entirely too smug about himself. The stranger managed to annoy Leo within the first five words he spoke; by the end of his little speech the Champion was positively boiling. It was too much to take at once; the waning of his powers, the dizziness, the mute quality of everything around him.

But one thing above all riled him up. This man could easily have been a Leo Varniak from five years before. Leo had given a pretty similar speech upon confronting Akajia and shooting the famed fire bolt in her direction. Now, there's nothing more infuriating than to hear your own stupidity tossed right back at you, especially with a face like that. He slowly lifted himself up, using the wall as support, his entire face a grimace.

"This is the price I pay for seeing things you can't even dream of," he rasped, his throat yearning for some water. He wanted to attack the man with every fiber of his being, but this seemingly effortless ability to block his gnosis kind of paralyzed Leo. There was danger in taking power for granted, and it had made him weak. Scarcity would make him strong again. "We who serve the gods do so willingly, and if it brings us to our knees we'll just rise again... and again."

He noticed the man's step forward with increasing alarm, and began to prepare himself. There was no telling what else this stranger might have up his sleeve, and Leo knew he was more vulnerable than he'd ever been since the Black Hand. The opponent was advancing on a Champion with no apparent worry. How did he even know Leo's rank? Then again, maybe he didn't know which god he belonged to. The Azenth wasn't going to feed him any more information unless it was learned the hard way. "That's close enough."

Inhaling deeply, Leo reached out for every ounce of his available Azenth strength and sent it forth in the form of a raw emotional storm to keep the enemy at bay, doing his best to spare Rosela from the brunt of it. He needed to know how much he had left, and how well he could control it. He needed it so badly, just as he had needed the flames to banish the cold. Ivak seemed so distant now. Leo Zaital was on withdrawal, and like all addicts in need of a fix, no choice was too dangerous for him to make.