The Beginning

[Silence Sei]

(This thread is closed to two members of The Nine. The first two to post get it.)

It started with that tablet. That ten foot tall, five foot wide, brown tablet stnading in front of the wall. When Sei had intially made this cave in a local Radasanth park his home, he had explored every door. Every hallway and every exit were etched into the mute's mind. He could literally explore all the mile long tunnels in his home with his eyes closed. That tablet, however, was a mystery even to the Hero of Radasanth.

The tablet in question had many strange markings on it. Sei could never figure out the native language of the markings. Even after hiring some of the best linguists Corone had to offer, none could come up with the definition behind the words. It eluded Sei, and the mute had forgotten about it.

And then Sei brought Anita home.

The girl had noticed the tablet all of her ten years of living with her foster father. It called out to her at night, and drew her toward it during the day. The girl would spend several minutes each day tryoing to figure out what the texts were. The minutes slowly turned to accumulated hours, which then became days. Finally after a few years of collecting data, Anita ran to her father with urgency.

Holding a notepad, Anita shouted, "It's a prophecy! The tablet in the Unused room is a prophecy, Papa!" Sei had to calm his daughter down and get her to breathe before she continued. "It foretells of nine warriors coming together and saving Corone. You know how we had that civil war several months back?" Sei could not forget such a thing, the horrors of it were still etched upon his mind.

"Imagine that on a massive scale. Someone is going to unite -all- the other countries against Corone, with Radasanth being Ground Zero for the primary attacks!" Sei stood in disbelief at his daughter. Not only had she deciphered what scholars spent years studying, but she spoke about it as if she knew the language fluently. The second shock was from the thought of Radasanth being attacked by every other nation.

What or who could unite bitter enemies against one nation? What kind of power could everyone else have when against a common foe? Sei didn't want to think about such things, so he motioned for Anita to continue.

"The propphecy states that unless the other eight warriors are found and unite, Corone is doomed." Sei blinked for a moment, and finally spoke. "Eight? did you not say that there were nine warriors earlier?" Sei began to doubt the legitimacy of his daughters claims. "That's the thing, Papa," she said enthusiastically, "the first one, the leader, is you!"

Sei looked at his daughter with awkwardness, which she felt. Before Sei could ask, Anita began to quote the text. "The first of the nine shall have a sound intelligence. He shall hide a mark of beauty within his back. The first shall also inherit this Tomb, along with all of it's possesions. He shall be the one to unite the Nine, and from them save Corone."

Now, Sei began to believe his daughter. For the tablet to be so descriptive as to tell of the butterfly wings he hid through his sheer magical force. It also described his strategic mind and his finding of the tomb. This was surely too much to be a coincidence. "What does it say about the others?"

Anita smiled, and began to flip through the pages of her small notepad, reading each deciphered text one by one.

"The Second is a man of the blade. His heart is tainted, but shall be cleansed by the virtues he performs. He shall be the most ruthless of the nine. He is a masterless wanderer whose eyes bear the mark of a thousand restless nights."

"The third is two that have become one. Neither a commoner, nor a demon, he is a new being entirely. Finding his place will be a difficult journey. His hands are like that of an animal, and the scent of char is always upon his form. The Nine shall help him realize how to be a new person when once there were two."

"The Fourth is an ally of the First. He is an honor bound warrior that owes a great deal to his friend. He is well known in the world. His mind was once a prison, but now it is one of his greatest weapons. His obligation to his friend will allow his recruitment to be the easiest of the Nine."

"The Fifth is a human with the form of a beast. He seeks justice and virtue, if only to redeem himself for where he once failed. the light that seeps through the darkness of his scalp is a constant reminder to those around him that appearences can be decieving."

"The Sixth will have the foundation for the Nine. He is a man of evil, and wears the scent of the non-living. While he is the most likely to stab the others in the back, he will never do so. His ability with the flame will be required if the Nine are to save Corone."

"The Seventh is withdrawn normally. She is the only female in the group of Nine. She will have a frame of someone ill, though she is perfectly healthy. Her eyes will be as cold as the water itself in color. Her intelligence will be what leads the Nine to victory."

"The Eighth is a performer. He sings the tales of others with amazing accuracy. He will entertertain the group with his stories. Despite his soft persona, he will be just as deadly with real fighting as he is with simply acting a fight out."

"The ninth participates in the pleasures of man. He searches for an adeventure and a time when he can brandish his sword skills. He is very laid back, and will prove himself a great warrior indeed on this quest."

"When the Nine are united, Corone shall be saved and a new era of prosperity shall begin." Anita finished as she looked up at her father. "What do you think, should we trust it?" Anita asked him, to which Sei nodded. "If you're translating is correct, we would be fools not to trust it. We should find the other eight as quickly as possible."

"Papa, didn't a couple of descriptions sound kinda familiar to you?" Anita asked with a wry grin, which provoked one from Sei. "Indeed they did, Anita. I will send out letters to the two of whom I think fit that description aptly. I am sure they will meet me whenever they can. In the meantime, I want you to go out tonight and try to find anybody else who meets the tablets descriptions."

"And what do I tell them if I do find somebody?" Sei smiled to her.

"Tell them that the Hero of Radasanth would like to meet with them, and will reward them handsomely for their troubles. Tell them to meet me outside the Tomb. By then I should be prepared." Anita nodded and put her notepad in her backpack and ran out of the tomb. She would do what she could to not only save Corone, but prove to her father she was right.

[Ataraxis]

The benighted roof of the Wisteria Building was a lacy landscape, full in bloom with thousands of its namesakes. It was a veritable garden of amethyst petals, clustered here and there on the trellis like winter grapes, wafting with the slow summer breeze in violet garlands of nature’s confetti. Then, a strong wind pulled at the flowery cascades, carrying hundreds of broken blossoms in its spiraling wake. They spun and spun, caught in a whirlwind that blew the dust from the terracotta flagstones, coalescing at the eye of the strangest of storms.

The cyclone petered out, petals and dirt hanging midair in frozen stillness. A sudden shockwave scattered them like the splashing of a puddle, and the stone tiles were pulled apart and sucked into a gaping sinkhole. Darkness whirled inside, crackling like the belly of a thundercloud. Arcs of power streamed out akin to the billowing tendrils of a passion flower, exhaling brilliant spores of light by the million. Piece by piece, they congregated into one distinct shape, a ghostly silhouette wreathed in a shimmering halo.

Its preternatural glow quickly faded away, revealing the form of a girl, no more than sixteen years of age and donning a simple summer dress. She lifted her head in excitement, and after breathing in the pervasive perfume of wisterias, the teenager let a long sigh escape her lips: it held a faint peppery tinge and spicy notes of vanilla cream that she simply adored.

The hole in the ground vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving no trace of it behind save a spot of sparkling clean ceramic tiles. The young girl gave it no further thought, finding no strangeness in the fact that she had just materialized from an apparent rift in space. Instead, she marveled at this familiar scene, wandering between weeping clusters with an upturned nose and a lungful of the fragrant air.

“Nothing’s changed at all,” she said after a gleeful sigh, twirling about the floral rooftop as if it were a field of wildflowers. Like most buildings in Radasanth, the building had its story, and this one had enthralled her heart completely. Before there ever was a building, there had been a garden. Before there ever was a garden, there had been a woman who loved wisterias, and man who never quite knew of how many flowers a bouquet should consist. No one ever quite forgot that historical marriage proposal.

Decades later, the city had chosen to preserve the memory of this garden that had become a touristic attraction to countless lovebirds. Even as they built the complex, the garden had been kept intact upon the roof from the largest trellis down to the smallest petal, and pedestrians had access to it via the outer stairwell from dawn to dusk. Lillian had found herself uncharacteristically moved by this background when she first moved here, and had since nurtured quite a soft spot for everything that symbolized the mushy and the romantic.

She finally broke off from the hanging wisterias, and not without a moment of reluctance; while she was not quite ready to admit it, she had begun to wish for a similar story. The girl was now slowly heading for the cast-iron door that lead to the stairwell, and it wailed with rust as she yanked it open. It slammed behind her in an ear-splitting boom, and she was now submerged in the half-light of distant oil lamps.

“Ah, Lillian! I’ve been wondering about you,” came a hoary old voice from the creaking staircase. “Back from your trip to that library in Raiaera, I take it?” her wizened landlord continued with a sweet smile.

“Good evening, mister Melquart!” Lillian answered cheerily, punctuating her enthusiasm with a slight bow. “And yes, I have… business as usual.”

“Oh? I thought you liked libraries,” the old man continued, accompanying her on the last few feet toward her apartment. “Isn’t that why you accepted this, mmh… this Logan person’s invitation in the first place?”

“Ah, what I like about libraries are the books, the atmosphere, the silence and the smell – in that order,” Lillian said gruffly as they reached a door with a brass number six nailed into the wood. Producing a key, she reached for the knob, unlocking it in one conditioned motion. She then turned to face her landlord with an amused grin, one he answered in kind. “Filth and poor hygiene are not on that list,” she finished with a mixture of humor and apathy.

“Hah, then you must be thankful we have warm water running,” the old man said in between hearty chortles, his salt and pepper beard bristling with the cheery motion. “In that case, I shan’t bother you longer: you look quite eager for that shower!”

Lillian waved as the old man vanished down the hallway while tiptoeing with the sluggish steps of someone afraid to exacerbate his lumbago. With that, she walked into her quarters and disappeared behind the closing door. Though she did not feel very fresh, the girl was in no way tired: once her ablution was done, she considered a promenade in the city, under the starry sky. The thought made her blush, but she laughed at her silliness.

‘Wandering in the dark, exchanging glances,’ she thought to herself whimsically. ‘That’s how they meet, isn’t it? Strangers in the night.’

[Revenant]

A light breeze wove through the branches in Concordia Forest, the wind caressing entwined leaves with leaving only a sound like a sigh escaping a gentle lover’s lips. That sigh danced outward, catching from branch to branch until the entire forest rocked back and forth in a gentle embrace. The ecstasy of the trees built ever towards an unbroken, momentous crescendo, until the rhythmic crack of steel on wood dispersed the sound.

“Almost there,” William Arcus panted heavily, encouraging himself to continue as he swung his axe again and again.

Seen from above, the small clearing William had hollowed out was only a blip in the verdant sea of green that was Concordia. The clearing’s previous occupants sat shorn and unmoving in a pile at the clearing’s northern edge. Strong, supple trunks that would never again drink in the warmth of the sun’s light. William, unmoved by the plight of the wood, worked his simple logging axe in a frantic, measured beat.

“Hruh,” the bare-chested revenant grunted, sending the last swing biting through the log’s wooden flesh. Two hours of heavy, intensive work had left him not covered with a sheen of sweat, but with a fine dusting of grey ash. Proof of the revenant’s true nature as a creature more than human.

Sizing work finished, William buried his axe in the ground and heaved against the bulk of the log still resting on the carving stand. Corded muscles bulged, straining to roll the log into its resting place just inside the tamped earth of the square he had cleared. Finally, unable to resist the revenant’s might, the log rolled off the stand, landing in the dirt like the pounding of a massive fist.

“Damn,” William muttered, glad that he was finally finished with the last of the logs that would make up the base of the cabin he was erecting. The wood still required fine maneuvering to set it with the remaining logs, and then would need fine shaping and shaving to clean it up, but the toughest part was over.

At least until I need to start work on the next set of logs, he reminded himself.

“Until then,” he walked to his break area and reached with eager anticipation for the heavy water skin sitting there, “break time.”

William drained half of the skin in one heavy pull, enjoying the feel of the warm liquid flowing over his dry, ashen tongue and throat. Radiating waves of heat pulsed from William like a blast furnace, proof that his wood work had roused the molten, demonic power in his veins. Using one of the nearby tree stumps as a seat, William plopped down and took another mouthful of water.

“Whew,” William poured the remainder of his water skin’s contents over his head, feeling the water quickly dry as it washed over his burning skin. “How’s this for a hobby, Sei?”

Sei Orlouge, the mute mystic known as the ‘Hero of Radasanth’, had suggested the William take up a hobby to help him channel some of his murderous desires. William, whose spirit had been bonded with the essence of a demonic being, honestly hated creating anything, but even he could not argue against the effectiveness of the exercise.

Besides, he urged, looking over his work-in-progress, I need to learn self-denial if I’m ever going to reconcile the human and demon sides of me. Still, what I would give to have something else to do.

In an act of sheer coincidence, it was at that exact moment that a man stumbled into the clearing. He was dressed in the style of a courier, though his choice of clothes had obviously been influenced by his need to travel off the beaten path for this particular delivery. The look of annoyance on his face had no doubt also been influenced by his need to travel off the beaten path for this particular delivery. But the scowl brightened immensely when he spotted the bare-chested woodsman resting across the clearing.

“You are William Arcus?”

Overcoming his momentary surprise as the courier’s arrival, William nodded warily. As a precaution, he concentrated on the excited power even now fading back into his veins and mentally tugged on it, holding it close to the surface. If this man thought to challenge him believing that he was unarmed, then he would certainly face the greatest shock of what little life he had left.

But the man made no hostile motions, merely taking his pack from off his back to rummage through it. “Wonderful! You have no idea how hard it was to find you out here. We had, of course, received excellent directions, but didn’t know just how close they would bring us to you.”

“Huh?” William was again caught off guard. It was true that his choice of location for a cabin wasn’t exactly a secret, but he hadn’t yet told anyone else where it was. That meant that he was either followed as he came out or, more likely, someone had used magic to discern his location.

Damned magic, William cursed.

“And here it is,” the courier smiled, producing a thick crème colored envelope from his pack. William took the letter, turning it back and forth to see if there was any indication of who had sent it. There wasn’t.

“And if you would be kind as to sign the ledger indicating receipt,” the man held a small notepad out for William to initial, which he did so.

“Thank you very much. And remember that no matter what your need, Corone Courier Deliveries is there for you,” the courier nodded to William and then, scowl adorning his face once more, set back into the woods.

What on Althanas was that? William wondered, still turning the envelope in his hands. The Corone Courier Delivery was known to him, and true to their word, they almost never failed to make a delivery on time.

They’re also expensive to hire, William mused, meaning that someone really wanted to get in touch with me.

Intrigued, William finally opened the envelope, pulling out the quality parchment within. The letter inside was addressed to him from Sei, and the revenant could almost hear the mute’s words speaking in his mind with Sei’s clear command.

The message was simple. Sei had helped William, and was now in need of William’s help.

Looking around the clearing at the start of a long, tedious project, William instantly made up his mind. Gathering his supplies, the revenant began his journey back to Radasanth.

[Silence Sei]

“How am I supposed to find six other people in all of Radasanth?”

Anita sat at The Brewding Thinker Drink Shop with a mug full of Haidian Pep (1 cup of energy drink, a shot of espresso and a red Haidia pepper for an ‘evil’ kick!). The girl had been eager to please her father and go search for the others, but the problem seemed to be a harder task than originally thought.

All the girl had to go by was her notepad, and it gave only a little bit of a description to some of these warriors. When Anita had thought she found one, there would be one or two features off from what her notes dictated. The search was becoming futile, and the night wind was starting to send chills down every part of Anita’s frame.

The smell of Radasanth coffee beans always filled Anita with a sense of wonder. The rich mix of the grounds as they brewed was something that made Anita a recurring customer. Taking a small sip of her brew, Anita let the spice of the pepper and the tart of the other mixes kick in before she swallowed. This was Anita’s favorite kind of energy drink, one that made you angry from the sheer heat of the pepper, but made you want to go do something about it thanks to the espresso and energy. It was Anita’s way of staying awake tonight.

As the girl began to sigh at the futility of her ill-made plan, she momentarily glanced up. A look of awe appeared in Anita’s face as she briefly came eye-to eye with ‘eyes as cold as water itself’. The form quickly passed, which caused Anita to turn around to examine the other features.

The eyes… the ill frame… the whole ‘being a woman’… I found one!

Anita jumped for joy and by doing so caused her table to topple over. The girl also forgot about the mug in her hand, which found itself a home in the hair of a couple trying to enjoy a romantic coffee date. Anita’s face went to pure embarrassment as she took some gold from her backpack and slammed it down on the couple’s table. “My bad!” Anita shouted as she ran towards the direction of her target. She was not going to let this one get away.

“Excuse me, Miss! Excuse me! Hey! Listen to me! I need you to help save Radasanth!” Anita was unsure as to whether or not the girl could hear her shouting, it was a romantic evening in Radasanth after all. The mutter and whispers of people almost could drown out the sound of someone yelling, even someone as naturally loud as Anita Orlouge.

[Ataraxis]

Lillian reveled in the nipping freshness of the night life, a most welcomed change of pace to the days she had spent breathing centennial dust in a lost bibliotheca. The knowledge she had gained there was without price, and she did not regret a single second perusing grimoires and manuscripts that no one had ever laid eyes on since the building had sunken miles deep underground, forgotten by the whole of Raiaera for eras past. For that, she truly did thank Logan McCloud, the man who had required her help in researching the library’s contents, the man who had found the location itself with the help of his organization. As a friend, however, she was not quite yet ready to forgive his terrible mistreatment of hygiene, and she would hold over his head so long he might never see the sun again.

For the moment, though, she would let the thought sink to the depths of her mind. The fresh breezes of a Radasanthian night, the hubbub of the city life, the lights of open markets and stores: all of this was her focus, and she delighted in them as best she could. The laughing bands of merry men that ambled down the thoroughfare raised their hands at everyone in passing, as if making a toast with invisible mugs, hooting and booing as the snotty coachman of a noble carriage drove them away with a trampling threat of his horse.

She wandered away from the hustling intersection, lured by the imported bouquet of roasted coffee beans. The brewed drink was a novelty, introduced only years back by traders from the Outlander’s Quarters in Fallien. The smell alone was enough to convey the high quality of its acidity, characteristic of beans harvested from higher grown plants in the east, and rather than an overwhelming tartness and acridity, she could make out the ashy aroma of a darker roast, and the wine-like tones of the best grounds. She approached the Brewding Thinker with a smile, always appreciative of amusing puns, and took a deeper whiff in delight.

The sense of smell was the greatest trigger of any memory, and the perfume was a blast of melancholy to the girl. Lillian was, after all, a native to Fallien and the Quarters, and she had grown up with these aromatic eddies. She smiled, somewhat sadly, before peeling off from the terrace, where the customers of the drink shop had begun to notice her loitering. Before she could walk away far enough, however, she heard the squeaky shout of a voice that reminded the girl too much of her own.

Curious, she turned to see what kind of person would cry out such inanities about saving a city, only to see a girl not much younger than herself. The girl’s eyes were blue as well, but they were warmer than Lillian’s, much more humane. What struck her as the oddest, however, was that this girl was heading straight for her.

Lillian tilted her head slightly to the side, a hook in her brow as she assessed the situation. “I’m sorry… were you talking to me?” She rubbed the side of her neck awkwardly, looking at the teenager before her obliquely. “Because I’m not really in the city-saving business… at least, not anymore.”

[Revenant]

“Radasanth,” William growled, “there’s no place like it.” The revenant’s gruff voice turned the heads of a few other travelers on the road to Corone’s capitol, but most of them ignored him. Beggars, castoffs, and the forgotten dregs of society were all too common a sight in Radasanth, and giving acknowledgement to their presence only served to draw more of them from the side-streets and alleys like rats scuttling from sewer drains. Though William was no beggar, his tattered clothes and rough, dirty appearance would have fooled even the street walkers themselves.

It was the exact effect that William was going for.

After all, it’s so much easier to be a predator if your prey willingly disregards you. The revenant smiled a lopsided smile as he walked among the press of Radasanth’s citizens. He hadn’t come here as a predator, in fact he hadn’t preyed on a human in quite some time, but it still felt good to let his mind wander to violent, blood soaked places from time to time. It made him feel alienated and alone, but it was a part of who he had become.

A city the size of Radasanth was never inactive. Bright lights and catcalls mixed with swirling parades of humanity to form a unique blend of interest and excitement that was impossible to find anywhere else. The sights and smells of the ‘big city’ never failed to make an impression on William, who had been born and raised in the woods outside a small village that had long since faded into nameless memory.

I wonder if every city is like this, William mused as he deftly wove his way through the Radasanth nightlife. In his early years, William had hoped for nothing more than the opportunity to live a simple life with his wife and children, but that had been mercilessly torn away from him. The irony was that for all the pain and misery his demonic transformation had caused him, it had also opened his eyes and created within him a desire to know more about the world around him. He paused for a moment to watch the exaggerated gestures of a fruit merchant, garishly dressed in the style of some unknown country, before continuing on. Was his plan to recreate his little cabin in the woods as a place to settle down really going satisfy him after all that he had seen and done? Sei had suggested that he take up a hobby, so perhaps it was a topic of conversation to bring up with the mute mystic once this whole ‘save Radasanth’ affair had settled down.

“Speaking of Sei,” he said, finally having made his way to the park that housed Sei’s own cavernous abode. “I guess it’s time to say hello.”

[Silence Sei]

(The first half of this post addresses A-minor, the other addresses Revenant)

"Nor should you be," a voice came out from the bustling Radasanth nightlife, "she's sending you on a fool’s errand." Anita looked around for the source of the voice. Who would dare question her in her mission to save Radasanth? Surely it was some fool who didn't know a thing about what he was talking ab---

Anita's eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw the speaker. The shaggy brown hair blew in the crisp wind and only the brown leather jacket and khaki cargo pants covered his flesh from the chill. The deep blue eyes and baby face were too easily recognizable. Now that she had thought about it, the almost teenage voice could have only belonged to one person, and only one person aside from Sei would know exactly what she was attempting to do.

"Andrew Octane..." Anita murmured in disbelief. The tongue terror blended in and out of Anita's vision as he ducked into the crowd. Soon, Octane had joined the two ladies, a slight smirk upon her face. The wind blew the scent of some elven cologne, used in just the right amount of moderation, towards their noses. His eyes focused on Lillian.

"She read an old prophecy describing the dooming of Corone, Radasanth specifically. It's nothing but a child's imagination running rampant, and I would advise against going with her." Anita stomped her foot at the slightly older one's comment. Who did he think he was to tell the Daughter of the Dragon what was and was not a 'child's imagination'? The sheer audacity of Andrew Octane...

...Is what made him so irresistibly charming...

Anita shook her head as she attempted to take Lillian's hand. "Sorry about this," she shouted abruptly, "but is he's telling you that, then the prophecy must be true! I can't give you details, but you have to trust me, please!"

Anita did not wait for Lillian's response, and did not even registered if she was still holding onto Lillian's hand. Octane was here and trying to convince Lillian that the prophecy wasn't true. If she stayed and listened then she might well believe him. After all, Octane was known for winning fights with just his words, and never a blade.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No..." A voice spoke in response to William. Now standing behind the Revenant was a man clad in full Radasanth guard armor. The massive chunk of metal covered his complete body, even his face. Judging from the rust all over his armament, it was obvious this man had been around for many a battle. "Sei... is wrong..."

Slowly, the giant of a man reached behind his back, unsheathing a six foot long, three foot wide sword that was almost as large as the knight himself. "If you.... don't believe... I'll defeat... Captain's orders..." The giant knight placed the tip of his blade to the cold dirt, sparking up a slight cloud of dust as well as a rumble from the ground. It was becoming more and more apparent that somebody was trying to stop the nine warriors from coming together...

Someone who could hold sway over beings such as Andrew Octane and Aquath...

[Ataraxis]

The night’s first sign of trouble had come in a breath of strong cologne. Lillian turned her back without a hurry, eyeing the newcomer askance as he approached the two girls with a careless swagger and a string of lazily-spoken words that belied their true significance. The teenager that had accosted her first had called him Andrew Octane – no doubt a codename or favored moniker of sorts, with the obscure chemical a likely reference to some notorious efficiency. Exactly what kind, however, she had yet to discover.

From his lax attire and general aloofness, added to his disarmingly innocent face and assuasive voice, she hazarded a guess that he worked as a silver-tongued charmer for the masses, inconspicuous to all until a job required the use of his natural charisma. Combining this hypothesis with the facts that he had walked in unannounced on a purely chance meeting, that he and the girl seemed to know each other, but that she clearly did not expect to see him, Lillian learned all she needed to know about this man. He had been stalking the flustered teenager, which was already a heinous act by itself, with the singular intent to dissuade anyone from taking her seemingly tall tales seriously. Moreover, he wore cologne. Though not quite certain why, she would never trust an outwardly juvenile man who felt the need to wear such a floral cologne – an elven brand at that, she could tell from its unusually aromatic strength.

This Andrew hardly seemed to realize his words and actions had made him the more suspicious of the two, but she imagined he was too accustomed to leading people by the nose, obfuscating common sense with only his charm and a list of sophistries. Those tactics were unlikely to work on her, however: her brain had a sometimes painful tendency to process each and every single detail that formed the bigger picture of any situation… a picture she often perceived with unwonted clarity. As such, she had no trouble understanding the girl’s reasoning as she took her by the hand and suddenly dragged her off in a mad dash through the busy streets of Radasanth. For the moment, she decided against protesting or asking questions; she had noticed the man give chase, weaving through the crowd with calm but purposeful strides. That seemed a more pressing matter to resolve.

“Head for the denser affluences in the boulevard,” Lillian whispered close into the girl’s ear as she pointed to the sea of shoppers and curious bystanders that had gathered near a great, glass window. It belonged to a new theme boutique that sold from the common household odds to the rarest collector’s ends, which happened to be one of the most well-marketed bric-a-brac store openings in decades; hence, the mob of thrifty customers. The girl did just that, and neither of them had any difficulty slipping in between the gaps, an ease of passage that Andrew Octane did not share.

He moved through the throng as best he could, searching for a pair of girls in hiding as he shot apologies left and right to those he bumped into or accidentally shoved. Of course, he would find nothing: Lillian had already taken the lead, dragging the girl out the sea of bobbing heads only a few seconds after entering it. Andrew had not seen them exit, but even if he had laid eyes on them, the man would have seen nothing more than small blurs scurrying away like ghostly shapes in a dark alley. Lillian had shrouded the girl and herself in a layer of sorcerous shadows; they had thus become hard to focus on and almost nondescript to the surrounding ragtag.

They had kept running quite a ways before Lillian deemed it safe to stop within a store – a bakery, she realized as an afterthought. She had taken every precaution: slinking from crowd to crowd, breaking off from the thoroughfare through narrower streets, only to reemerge in another endless flux of citizens enjoying the evening air. The cover and bustle of the night had been their greatest allies in this escape, and so Lillian was certain that their pursuer was nowhere in sight. Unlike him, she actually could make out each and every face and feature in a swarm of people with a single spied glance – in the dark. Though she often found this unusual aptitude borderline maddening, just for this evening, she was glad to have it.

“Even if he could somehow track us like a bloodhound, the smell of yeast here would be strong enough to hide our scents,” Lillian remarked with a humorous tone as she plopped down on one of the seats reserved to customers. Despite her easygoing demeanor, however, she was pacing her breaths to hide her fatigue, and she had taken a seat because her legs had been so strained they now felt wooden. “So, I guess this is as good a time as any to clear things up?”

“Yes… right,” the girl answered after a moment of pause. It seemed as if she had questions of her own, most notably queries on the sorcerous aspect of their escape, but her own answers were long overdue. “My name is Anita Orlouge, and I did read a prophecy that foretells the destruction of Radasanth, and then of all Corone.”

She seemed hesitant to go on, as if expecting a snort of disbelief. Lillian, however, remained unexpressive, almost unnervingly cool now that she had recovered her strength. “But please, believe me when I say this isn’t the hokum that doomsayers spew. I’m not doing this on a whim, either: once I told my father what I read, he sent me to look for the people described in it. He said he even recognized a couple of them without a doubt. Hells, I know one of them was my father himself!”

“Then you mean to say I’m one of these people?” Lillian asked in an even tone, and Anita could not make out any sign of either incredulity or belief in this wild claim.

“Yes, and this is what it says of you,” Anita began, rolling her eyes up as she grasped at fleeing strands of her memory. “The Seventh is withdrawn normally. She is the only female in the group of Nine. She will have the frame of someone ill, though she is perfectly healthy. Her eyes will be as cold as the water itself in color. Her intelligence will be what leads the Nine to victory.”

Lillian blinked thrice at that, unsure whether to feel flattered or insulted. “I admit I’m a bit thin, but I’m not anorexic,” she muttered lowly, the glacial hue of her eyes growing even colder. “I’m sure there are other not-quite-sickly girls with pale blue eyes and a decent intellectual quotient out there. In fact, don’t you more or less fit the bill?”

She sighed as Anita mulled the question over, remembering the enthusiasm with which she had begun her promenade under the Radasanthian skyline. Her head had been full of thoughts of exploration and discoveries, perhaps even that a nascent kinship with romantic undertones she had so often read in her favored books. True, she had wished to be one of two ‘strangers in the night’, but Anita was hardly the fated counterpart she had in mind.

Lillian began to think she would never get to experience the smaller thrills of life – it had been but hours since her return to Radasanth, and already was she possibly entangled in a plot that threatened the national security of Corone. If this were somehow true, then it was her responsibility to help, but a major part of her dearly hoped that Anita had been mistaken. Whether she decided to see it as a duty or a game did not matter; in the end, the business of saving countries was always sordidly tiring.

[Silence Sei]

The ducking through the crowds to avoid Octane had not only tired Anita, but also made her slow to the response once Lillian asked her something. The prophecy had been pretty broad when describing it's only female hero, and Anita's new 'friend' used that to ccuse Anita herself of being the one it spoke of. The girl shook her head as the smell of fresh Corone baked donuts began to fill her nostrils.

"It couldn't be me. I've tried my hand at the whole intelligence thing. I was really, really bad in the Gisela Open." Anita shuddered as she thought of her poor first round performance the year she entered the strategic competition. "Besides, I think the prophecy would have caught something as important as one of the nine being a relative of another."

Anita's eyes were darting back and forth through the crowd. She was doing this partly to find Andrew Octane, and partly to find the sweet origin of those donuts. "It's a chance to help 'Silence' Sei Orlouge," Anita spoke as she began to slip in and out of the crowd, "who could say know to that opportunity?"

Anita was confident that Lillian had heard tales of Sei Orlouge, at least enough to know that he was revered as a hero in Radasanth. For years, people spoke of the winged avenger of the night who vanquished criminals as one man more than a normal battalion of guardsmen. He made the streets safe for people to walk in the middle of the night. Anita was sure that most of the couples here would not be here were it not for the val;iant efforts of her father.

"I'm detecting reluctance on your part," Anita's eyes fixed themselves back to Lillian, "so I'll make a deal with you. Please, just escort me back to Sei's Tomb. You can't miss it, it's the giant cave sitting in the middle of Radasanth Park. Anybody who's been in Corone for at least a week knows of it. If you still don't believe you're here to help after talking to Papa, then we'll let you go. Nobody will force you to stay."

Anita was now playing the role of manipulator. If Lillian met Sei, Anita knew her father's natural charisma and features would make her agree to help. She may have been putting too much faith in the rather plain looking Sei, but something about the former vampire caused people to flock to him. Anita was counting on this ability to cause Lillian to help. After all, who could say no to someone as famous as 'The Hero of Radasanth'?

[Ataraxis]

Lillian felt terrible when Anita mentioned the name of Sei Orlouge… because she had no idea who the man was. She could tell from the girl’s tone how proud she was to be this man’s daughter, and this made her feel even more uncomfortable. Frankly, she was surprised the name had elicited no reaction from her brain, when it could, quite literally, remember everything. In her own defense, however, she had mostly been a shut-in since moving to Radasanth, and while she could recite the menus of the best restaurants in town verbatim and knew the optimal route to more or less any destination in the city, she rarely went out of her way to learn about topical issues, fashion bellwethers or the current figureheads of stardom.

If anything, however, she did remember rumors of vigilante work in the past, and Anita’s father had likely been the one spearheading that movement at the time. Moreover, she did know of a cave in Radasanth Park, though she had never bothered to enquire much about its nature or ownership, since the girl rarely ever felt the urge to go for a picnic in the outdoors – she wasn’t all too fond of the sun.

“Oh, sure,” Lillian answered the girl’s proposition, shrugging her shoulders as she drew to her feet. “Because I always trust kind strangers who invite me back to their cave.” She could sense Anita’s rising outrage at the insinuation, but she was quick to diffuse it with an apologetic pat on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’m sure your father is really nice. I’ll talk to him and hear what he has to say. I’d actually like to take a look at that prophecy, too.”

Without saying anything, Lillian made her way to the bakery’s counter. The clerk there greeted her with a smile, glad that she actually was a customer rather than a selfish teenager taking up one of their precious seats. She mouthed a few words, handing him a handful of copper coins, and the clerk went to fish in the glass displays with a pair of sugar tongs. He wrapped four doughnuts in two separate wraps of manila paper that he handed to her with his words of thanks.

“Here,” Lillian said with a smile, inching the redolent wrap under Anita’s nose. “Those doughnuts on the other side of the street might smell nice from here, but it’s actually because they’re overcooked in oil. The ones here are actually the best in town, in my opinion – especially these caramel apple fritters.”

“Oh… thank you.” Anita took the gift with wide eyes, but a closer whiff of the goods confirmed all that Lillian had said.

“Let’s eat while we walk. Two birds with one stone, you know?” Lillian said with a laugh, though she was genuinely anxious about it. While far less oily, these were still fried goods, and while she was not one to go mad over her figure – especially since some believed she needed a few extra pounds – she was concerned about clogged arteries. Anita nodded, leading the way as they left the store and stepped into the bustling city life.

It was less than a half hour when they reached the outskirts of Radasanth Park, satiated by an exquisite snack and invigorated by a good workout. Lillian had often seen the park in passing, but she had never been compelled to explore vague simulacrums of nature like it. The past months of her life had been spent smack dab in the middle of real forests, endless tracts of snowy tundra and craggy ravines, usually struggling to stay alive against all odds. In truth, nature was never as peaceful as these artificial reproductions made it out to be.

Now that she was here, however, Lillian realized she could appreciate a peaceful corner of paradise like this in such an urbanized city – Ettermire, for one, could fare far better with more of these. They were surrounded by Douglas firs, Aspen birches and a variety of pine trees, all punctuating the wavy landscape like sylvan towers, providing cover from the sun during the day, and shelter from prying eyes at night. The grass was finely cut, far too short and even to emulate the real wilds, but she did not mind the looks of it all.

As they wandered deeper into the park, Lillian could finally make out the maw of a cavern inside a sloping hill, wreathed with shrubs sunset roses. “This is it,” the girl said with a contented sigh. “I doubt Papa wandered out while I was gone, unless he finished those letters he had to send.” Anita pondered the possibility, but was quick to dismiss it. With a wave back to Lillian, she led the way inside, and Lillian followed suit without a fuss.

None of this seemed to be a trap. She would still keep her guard up, but she was otherwise more interested in meeting this Sei Orlouge, if only to witness firsthand the very object of a citywide hero hype. ‘Well, 'allegedly' citywide…’

[Silence Sei]

As Anita stepped into the cavern with Lillian, a voice came from the shadows. "I assume you have found somebody, Anita?" Anita looked around for a moment before focusing back on Lillian.

"The 'Silence' in Papa's name comes from the fact that, physically, he's a mute. He can still 'talk' through ways of telepathy, so don't feel strange if you start hearing voices in your head while you're here. Also, he doesn't read people's thoughts unless there's a good reason for it, so you aren’t going to have your memories picked apart or anything."

Anita had spoken those lines as if they had been spoken over and over again. This was due in part to the fact that they had been. There had been many a wary traveler uncomfortable with the fact that the noble 'hero' was a telepath who could read their mind at any second. Anita began to stuff her second donut into her mouth as the smell began to waft throughout the cavern.

Almost as if following the scent, Sei stepped into the light. The torch hanging from the wall illuminated the mute's blue, almost vampyric eyes. His skin was somewhat pale and his orange hair stood out thanks to the flames. Looking at his daughter as she continued to chew on the donut, the mute shook his head in disbelief. He had raised the girl better than to not introduce a guest she brought home to her father, even if she had food.

After a rather loud swallowing sound, Anita began to speak.

"Papa, this is ..." Anita paused for a time before turning to look at Lillian. "Come to think of it, I don't think we actually introduced ourselves to one another formally." The girl stepped back and performed a curtsey for her visitor. "My name is Anita Orlouge, 'Daughter of the Dragon', and this is Sei Orlouge. Known to many as 'Silence' Sei Orlouge, 'The Hero of Radasanth', 'The Dragon of Drantrak', I could go on forever with these but you get the idea."

"A pleasure", the calm voice entered Lillian's mind. Sei's tone was, as usual, non-threatening and rather inviting. Whether or not this was in fact due to his former vampyric charm had remained to be seen, but the mute bowed as politely as he could to the stranger. "I must ask that you forgive the rather poor lighting in the entrance. Most characters who venture upon this cave at night are rather shady individuals. You will find there to be must better lighting in the other rooms."

The scent of mold filled this room as if someone were intentionally trying to keep people out. Sei reached for the torch and took it off of its resting place, bringing it closer to him to further illuminate his gray fighting gi. Turning around, Sei motioned towards a large brown door several feet from where the trio was standing. It blended in well to where the naked eye would assume that it were just a dead end. A more cautious observer would find that one of the 'rocks' on the wall stood out suspiciously like a door handle.

Sei ventured towards the door, reaching for the handle and pushing it open. The light from the next room seemed to invade the entrance like a foreign army. The scent of fresh burning firewood quickly overtook Anita's donut. From where they were standing, Anita could make out the carpet just beyond the door, cut out to be shaped like a blue butterfly. The front room was lined with bookshelves stretching down several different hallways, each shelf packed to the brim with books. This was the single room that connected all the tunnels within Sei's tomb, which was so massive that there were tunnels leading as far as Concordia and Akashima.

Anita turned to Lillian once more, a bright smile on her young face. "I know this still seems odd to you, but once I show you the tablet, maybe you'll feel something. I promise, I won't try to waste your time much longer, ok?"

[Revenant]

The sudden appearance of the massive, plate clad figure behind William elicited a number of reactions from the revenant. The part of him that was a stalking hunter was suitably impressed that someone decked out in so much armor could move quickly and quietly enough to approach him unaware. The part of him that had had his life needlessly complicated by a plethora of people wearing a guard’s armor was pissed and frustrated. The part of him that was completely caught off guard was intrigued, given the Corone Courier’s famed reputation, that anyone aside from Sei would be expecting William’s arrival in Radasanth Park.

But despite William’s varied reactions, the two that stood head and shoulders above the rest were the conflicting emotions roused by the unsheathing of the metal giant’s sword. The demon’s red tide flowing behind William’s eyes surged with the excitement of impending battle, igniting the flame of his violent power in the marrow of his bones. Tempering that reaction was the understanding, with no uncertainty, that it would be a really bad idea to square off in melee with anyone that could wield a sword as large as he was with no apparent effort.

The split second decision William was forced to make between his instincts to destroy whatever stood in his way and his common sense was agonizing. Though the essence of creation bound to his body would repair and restore damage done to his flesh, being hacked to pieces by this abomination would certainly put a damper on his ability to assist Sei in whatever cockamamie scheme the mute had cooked up. Knowing this, William painfully made his choice, willfully loosing the barriers that kept his demonic essence in check and welcoming the searing pain that heralded his transformation. Wisps of smoke flowed freely from the erupting veins of blackened char that flowed over the surface of his skin like cracks in a pane of shattered glass as the revenant made his opening move.

“Fucking guards,” William spat a snarl as he tore his cloak from his shoulders and threw it at the knight. It was a basic trick that the revenant often used to draw an opponent’s attention away from him for the split second that it took to close the reactionary gap between him and his prey. Simple a trick as it was, the raw effectiveness of the move had left more than a few opponents bloody and lifeless at his feet, continually amazing the revenant at how many opponents, even seasoned veterans, allowed themselves to be lulled into focusing on his blackened claws as his only weapons. Many never let it cross their mind that William might do anything more than howl and charge like a mindless beast in a bloodthirsty rage.

This time however, instead of following his temporary visual screen as it flew forward and fanned out in front of him, William used the split second of distraction to propel himself deeper into the park and away from the giant armored monstrosity. To stand and fight that man with nothing more than his bare hands enticed his destructive side, even though it was sheer lunacy, and as much as it pained him to run from a fight, the fact that he could even think about doing so was a testament to the aid Sei had given him in coming to terms with his dualistic nature. He owed Sei, big time, and the mute had made it clear that he needed William’s assistance.

And so William ran, dodging around the dark silhouettes of the park’s foliage while fervently praying that his distraction had given him enough of a head start to outrun the massive knight. Though William had never been to the heart of Radasanth Park where Sei’s cavernous home supposedly lay, the mute’s direction gave him hope that he could find it before his armored opponent found him.

[Silence Sei]

The Revenant's act upon the knight surprised him. The armor clad warrior wrestled with the garment for a minute before throwing it down to the ground. He only had a moment to catch a glimpse of his target's heel before he sped off through the park. The large man began pursuit with half the speed of William. Though his skill with the sword was rather quick, his own movement speed was hindered by so much of his protection.

After several minutes of just barely following William's trail, a voice spoke to the stalker. "You didn't kill him?! The Boss is going to be furious!"

The knight stopped and turned to find the one who approached Anita earlier standing behind him. "Really Aquath," Andrew Octane said, "I'm not going to be the one to explain that you lost your foe."

A loud growl could be heard from beneath the man's helmet as he turned his head around. "Lost.... him. Did you.... have better....luck?"

Octane was taken aback by the question. His eyes clearly told the truth before his comrade. "They escaped me," he said, "You just had one person to take care of. I had two. You were in an uninhabitable park. I was at Radasanth during date night. At least I have an excuse."

Octane grew angry as he could feel Aquath's smile from within his headgear. "Anyways, they're up ahead in Sei's tomb. I know the way. Come on, before the Boss has both of our heads." Aquath nodded as he followed Octane, mumbling something about how this 'Boss' was not -his- master...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, back at the cave, Anita froze in fear. Anita had the uncanny ability of being able to sense any undead person within a distance from her. Her ability also allowed her to know who the undead in particular was, since her and her father had encountered them before. "Papa, Aquath's coming. Not only that, but he's got somebody with him, and they're heading this way!"

Sei looked to Lillian and then back to Anita. "Very well," the mute said as he stepped past his daughter. Looking towards the stranger, the mute let out a smile and another bow. "If you will excuse me for a second, I have guests arriving. From the way my daughter is talking it is as if these people are a threat to us. If we could hold off on showing you the rest of the tomb, I will be back to give you the grand tour..."

Sei walked past Lillian without ever looking back to see if she followed. As the mute exited his cave he saw a familiar face rushing towards him. This man was William Arcus, the Revenant. Sei had put this man to a combat test to see if he could redeem his humanity weeks ago. William had passed Sei's test and now the mute had called on him to take arms against Radasanth's threat. Sei could judge by the way his 'friend' was rushing that something was following him, something bad.

Sei waved towards William as he reached behind his back. The mute withdrew an s-shaped sword as well as a three foot steel-looking blue blade. These were the Gemini Blades, and they were Sei's greatest weapon. If something was provoking William into running, then perhaps making the fight three-or-four on two would be better odds of survival.

[Ataraxis]

From the maw of the cave came a giant of a man, clad in thick plates of worn steel and armed with a sword so immense it had no trouble dwarfing Lillian in size. The flat of the blade was a map of scars and grooves that retraced countless battles over decades, while the edges had almost gone dull, worn and dented as they were. Though the weapon seemed as unwieldy as its master, the girl was quick to calculate that the cavern’s vestibule was spacious and lofty enough for the warrior to swing it unimpeded. As if this were not unfortunate enough, she also noticed the second intruder Anita had sensed beforehand, realizing with a tinge of revulsion that it was none other than that unpleasant Octane fellow. ‘Should have realized,’ Lillian thought to herself with a cringe of her nose. ‘You could smell that toilet water from a mile away.’

“So we meet again,” the young man began in his lazy demeanor as he walked into the foyer, fiddling absently with the balls and jacks in his open hand. “It’s rather rude to leave present company without excusing yourself, Anita,” Octane drawled on in facetious resentment, before training his languid blue eyes on Sei. “It seems your deadbeat father skimped on teaching you manners, among other things.”

“Why you–” Anita began to say as she seethed, before a tilt in her mind had cut her short. The teenager grit her teeth, taking a step back in reluctant withdrawal.

“Do not answer to his taunts,” came the telepath’s voice in Lillian’s mind, and she understood now what had doused Anita’s smoldering outrage.“He is a dangerous man. His weapons, his words, are venom. Do not let your guard down, as words can kill… he has proven this time and time again.”

Lillian turned to the telepathic mute, meeting his clear blue eyes with a matching gaze. Sei’s expression seemed troubled by her mental reply, but the cold conviction in her unyielding stare was enough to convince him. He nodded ever so slightly, before returning his eyes to the behemoth that was Aquath, bringing his odd set of swords to bear.

“What… now?” the hulk that had been referred to as Aquath asked, his dry and raspy voice a resonant whisper from under his slatted helmet. His arm tensed and the colossal sword lifted from the ground, rounding back to his right side as he held the hilt with both hands, in answer to Sei’s own battle-ready stance.

“I’m a pacifist,” Octane said with a shrug of his shoulders, lightly throwing and catching the toys in his hand. “I despise when things get messy. None of you four seem to have any understanding of the situation – of how this prophecy of yours is a trap. You believe you are gathering the tools to save this country, when you are actually being tricked into assembling the very weapons of its destruction.”

The lackadaisical glow in Octane’s eyes had vanished, and there was now a deep resolve within, a burning honesty. “Let me tell you just who left that tablet in this ancestral tomb of yours, Sei. Who we are trying to stop.” The young man looked over his shoulder to his comrade, staring into the darkness of his visor until the tattered knight nodded in agreement. “Aquath will put his sword away. Can you do the same, that we may talk?”

Lillian was but a shadow to the eyes of everyone in the moldy cavern, a passing presence barely worth acknowledging. As such, Octane did not notice how intently she was focusing on his eyes, the movement of his lips, every crease and stretch of his expression. She saw Sei nodding from the corner of her eye, saw him lowering his blades in a sign of truce.

And in the blink of a moment, she saw the look of triumph drawn ever so slightly upon Octane’s face. A mere micro-expression, charged with boundless vice and malice, that had slithered out from the cracks of his elegant lies.

The wind whisked inside the cavern, brewing up the staleness of the mold and incipient dankness into a cutting breeze. The sound of breaking stone came from the other end of the vestibule, and soon did Octane’s wail of pain as well. A deep, red gash had sliced his cheek, left behind by the jagged blue dagger that had only just missed impaling his skull. “You bitch!” he snarled viciously, glaring at Lillian with a wrath so focused that any mask of propriety had simply melted off. “Aquath!”

Before any of the three even saw the blade move, the earthquake had overwhelmed the cavern whole. A deep ringing coursed through their legs as they tried to keep balance, realizing too late that the hulking knight had struck the ground that separated them from Lillian. Octane grinned, watching as Lillian dashed away from the entrance hall and into one of the adjoining rooms through a door that had been seemingly carved into the stone walls. He followed suit, dashing with unwonted speed, mouthing a few furious words before vanishing out of sight.

“Butcher them, Aquath. I’ll take care of the stick.”

Lillian engages Octane in a one-on-one. Have fun with Aquath!

[Revenant]

Plumes of gritty dust leapt from the cave floor to fill the air between the armored giant Aquath and his opposing duo of Sei and William. Aquath’s two-handed downswing was impressively fast, and the strength with which he wielded his man-sized sword was enough to cow any normal person. William’s charred, corpse-like figure was proof enough that he was nothing close to normal, and taking only a fraction of a second to ensure that his legs were properly under him after the giant’s earth shattering strike, the revenant sprang at his attacker.

Any lingering hint of humanly fear or hesitance in the back of his mind was washed over and swept away by the surging tide of his demonic compulsion to destroy. William had denied his nature long enough to ensure that his presence had been made known to the mute mystic, but now that Sei had been engaged the time for self-restraint was over. Ignoring the likely threat of bodily mutilation at the heavy blade of a metal colossus, William allowed himself to revel in the molten power beating in his veins, relishing the freedom of being able to let his violence completely out.

Unsure if Sei were reacting the same, William ducked low into the intervening space between himself and Aquath. Each movement that he made brought sensuous pain as particles of dust settled abrasively into the raw cracks in his charred, broken flesh but the revenant gripped the pain, adding it to the searing agony of his own existence and using it to fuel his anger.

Roaring with a bloodthirsty laughter that reignited the fading echoes of Aquath’s crashing blade, William hurled himself bodily into the armored giant. Responding as if he fully expected the revenant’s charge, Aquath pulled up to wrench his blade from the grasping earth and in a bisecting arc. Unfortunately for Aquath, his own prodigious strength and massive blade worked against him and the extra split second that it took for him to pull his blade from the deep cut he had made in the cave floor was just enough for William to duck under Aquath’s swing and inside his guard.

It had been ages since William had last fought an opponent in full guard plate mail, but old memories flared to life like it was only yesterday. Knowing that it would take more force for his claws to penetrate the heavy plate, William never slowed as his sprint brought him in contact with Aquath, using his own weight and momentum to add force to his strike. Iron hard bone scratched along Aquath’s breastplate like fingernails on a chalkboard, but for all his power, William was dismayed to see that his attack had done little more than dig four long scratches along either side of Aquath’s breast.

“Thayne be damned,” William cursed as Aquath pulled his arms in and down, driving the fist-sized pommel of his ridiculously large sword into William’s shoulder with enough force to crack the bones and drive his shoulder out in a grotesque angle. The strike all but rendered the already nearly ineffectual revenant from being able to damage his golemesque opponent, but William was fortunate in that he didn’t have to beat Aquath alone. Maintaining his clinch inside Aquath’s guard, William heaved against the armored giant, screaming against the pain it caused but managing to keep Aquath off balance for Sei, who could hopefully do more significant damage with his oddly-shaped blades of his.

William just hoped that the mute would use his sacrifice well.

[Silence Sei]

Octane and Aquath. The pen and the sword. This was bad. This was really bad. Within mere moments, Octane had almost lured Sei into a truce, only to be freed by the girl who Anita recruited. Sei was almost sure now that the girl was one of the warriors in his daughter's prophecy. She seemed to be the only person who was not susceptible to the poison that spilled out of the mediator’s lips. That was her task, it seemed.

Not even a second later, the mountain known as Aquath slammed his sword on the ground, separating Sei and William from Octane and Lillian. The mute released a silent growl as William went into action against the best, Sei stood intent on see if the Revenant had what it took to take out the undead knight. Eventually, Sei's 'friend' mounted the beast of a man and held him. Aquath buckled and turned trying to reach for the man. Sei had only one chance to do this.

The sound was not unlike that of a boot in deep, wet mud. The eyes of the knight peered down towards the two swords that stuck out of each of his lungs. Looking back towards Sei, Aquath spewed water appeared to be water over the mute. The giant quickly reached behind him and grappled William by the nape of his neck like a mutt. He gently set the revenant down beside the man who had summoned him here. Leaning in towards the two, the knight whispered. "Octopus' Garden... will... fix..."

Sei nodded, knowing that Aquath was referring to the giant crack in the floor of his tomb. While Sei did not know what 'Octopus' Garden' meant, he was sure he would be able to figure it out. Without another word, Aquath's body became pure liquid and splashed to the floor, seeping down the cracks that he had formed. Sei's Gemini Blades now remained held in thin air as he looked to William Arcus.

"He's not dead" Sei answered the man's question before it was asked, "whatever he's doing with Octane, he doesn't -want- to do it. You felt his hand, saw how easily he grabbed you. He could have easily destroyed us both. We should count our blessings that whatever Aquath is up to, he wants no part of it..."

Sei looked into the entrance of his home. he knew Andrew Octane would not be one to destroy precious reading materials within, but as for Lillian....

Well, he could only hope for the best....

[Ataraxis]

“I know you, Lillian.” Octane’s voice was an assuasive murmur, now that he had regained his composure. Blood dripped from the gash on his cheek, a glimmering rivulet of crimson that trickled down his neck and stained the collar of his leather jacket, but the man no longer paid it heed. He was in a trance of sorts, pale blue eyes open wide, riveted on Lillian’s own as if peering into the windows of her soul.

Lillian did not flinch at the mention of her name, instead focusing on the surroundings. This was the hidden room Sei had revealed beforehand, illuminated by the smoldering waves of a golden hearth fire. The girl was standing in its center, right on top of the carpet that had been tailored into the likeness of a great, sapphire butterfly. She had been studying the area, taking note of the bookshelves near the entrance, as well as the countless tunnels that branched off from this common room.

“I know of your curse,” he continued, taking purposeful strides toward her. His eyes were unwontedly cold, even in the glow of the fire. “How many, Lillian?” Octane stopped a few feet short of the girl, hands in his pockets as he looked down on her, his juvenile face warped by disgust. “How many have died because of you?”

Lillian lunged forth without warning, the tip of her glass dirk like a spearhead to her body’s extension. She had aimed for his heart, but the man was sprightly on his feet: he had kicked away at the ground, avoiding the strike without breaking his stance or a sweat. “It all began with them, eight years ago, didn’t it?” he went on unfazed. “Your parents died in that desert because of you. If it were not for you…”

She slashed sideways, following up with another forward stab that he dodged to the right. In the fire’s gleam, her eyes seemed fraught with madness. He heard the shifting of her feet upon the stone floor, saw the flexion of her form, the shortening of her stance, making it that much easier to anticipate the next succession of slashes and jabs. “Then there was Rajani Aishwara, the man who saved you after you were exiled from Fallien. Do you remember what happened to him?”

The dirk flashed dangerously close to his eyes – she had aimed to blind him permanently. Octane grunted, backing away at a safer distance in the half-gloom of the chamber. He was given pause, no doubt wondering if he had miscalculated her speed. In that time, Lillian came at him again, but a slight readjustment of his own pace had left her hacking into thin air. Octane grinned, then resumed. “You gave him a tip, the coordinates of an island rumored to be fraught with untold riches. He listened to you. Trusted you.” His voice dropped as he advanced upon Lillian, who had stopped her onslaught. “They never did find his ship, did they?”

Lillian cringed her teeth, watched as he took delight in her suffering. “Do you remember Aiden? Do you remember his son, Chance?” Octane stood his ground, fiddling with some other toy in his jacket as he looked his nose down at the anguished teenager. “You could do nothing as he was murdered. You did nothing as his son was abducted by the very man that killed him… but did you know? His wife, Alaina… she took her own life, after taking her daughter’s. Poor little Fate… to think her entire family was destroyed by the meddling of an insignificant girl like you.”

He laughed. “Death follows the pale horse, indeed.”

It was just in time that he stepped out of the path of the thrown dirk. Octane finally saw it, the desperation. Lillian had fallen to her knees, shaking by the bookshelves that lined the entrance. Her hair had fallen, a dark screen to the self-hatred in her eyes. It was done. “For you to live on, when good people have died… is there no justice in this world?” She looked up to him, and he saw the damage done by the psychic slithering of his words into her mind. It was with inconsiderable satisfaction that he watched her reach for one of the steel knives sheathed at her belt with a shaking hand. He had no fear: the knife was not meant for him.

Her hand closed, but her fingers had curled around nothing. When she tugged at thin air, a sense of unease fell over him. He heard the clink of breaking stone from behind, as if the dagger she had previously thrown had come loose. Then, a great gust blew into the room from the fireplace; the flames died out, doused by the summoned winds, and it was too late when he saw the door leading to the vestibule close with a resounding finitude.

Utter darkness.

“So you read memories,” the girl’s voice came from the obscurity. He caught two sudden glimmers in the gloom, the faintest of lights reflected on the glassy eyes of a predator. “Thoughts, however, not so much.”

“Wha–” His thought was cut short by the sound of a crashing bookshelf… and the rapid reeling of countless lines. Something caught him by the heel, tripping it up as his body fell backward, but he never struck the ground. A taut line caught him beneath the armpit, another behind the knee. His midpoint and neck felt the tightening of nooses, and soon he was unable to move, hanging in midair as if caught in a spider’s web. “What is this?”

“You don’t know?” Lillian asked, her query laced with facetious surprise. “I thought you of all people could recognize a trap.”

Octane grew silent, but Lillian knew what was coursing through his mind. He was playing back each and every one of her moves, recalling her expressions whenever he taunted her, retracing his steps within the room whenever she attacked him. “You… planned all of this?” He clammed up, leaving one word unspoken. Impossible.

“When you thought I missed, I was weaving. When you thought you dodged, I was repositioning you. Whenever you thought your psychic intrusions broke me… I was only luring you.” Lillian tugged upon one of her sorcerous threads, and the door creaked open just enough for light to permeate. He could see it now: hundreds of threads were keeping him aloft, connected to the fallen bookshelf by a makeshift pulley on the ceiling. What surprised him most, however, was the look in her eyes. He had thought all of it had been acting, but he saw it now. That gleam of fledgling madness… it was not an act.

“It seems I made a mistake. Only a monster would have felt nothing.”

“You overestimate yourself,” Lillian said without emotion. “What can your words tell me that I don’t already know? What can they break that my memory hasn’t yet?” The girl approached her prey, the white summer dress she wore swaying in counterpoint to her every step.

“I’ve gathered that you like to talk?” Lillian said, more of a statement than a question. She passed a hand inches above his open mouth, and a thread was now tied about his tongue, connected to one of the many that now imprisoned him. Lillian picked at one of those as if she would the strings of a harp, sending a deep vibration through the taut thread. It cut through his pant leg, breaking skin and drawing blood. The girl moved her fingers back to the thread affixed to his tongue, pinching it with her thumb and index while drawing it back.

“Talk,” she commanded, tilting her head. The sudden dread in his eyes had become all too apparent.

She let go. Octane cried out in pain, his voice soon gurgling as a sheet of blood trickled down his throat. The string had only lightly cut into his tongue. Lillian looked him into the eye, oblivious to the crimson drops that had fallen on her cheek.

Pulling on the string once more, she reiterated. “Talk.”

:::::

Lillian reemerged from the inner chambers a few minutes later, her boots thumping lightly on the antechamber’s floor – most of it had been spent returning order to the mute’s room and fallen bookshelves. Still half-concealed by the gloom behind the open door, she peaked into the room to assess the situation.

Her eyes first fell on the crack in the floor, a rock-hewn signature left behind by the knight in deathly armor. “Where did mister Aquath go?” she asked with genuine concern. While she knew they were enemies, she was unable to feel any ill will toward the battered warrior. Every one of his actions had radiated reluctance, unwillingness and indescribable sorrow, like a man under a geas, forced to do a demon’s bidding. “You couldn’t have… disintegrated him, could you?”

“He escaped,” came Sei’s psychic reply, but even then she felt there was more to it than that. She could tell he was not retaining information from her, but rather still trying to process it himself before making wild claims. “What of Octane?”

“He didn’t.” Lillian cared not to elaborate any further than that. She took a few steps into the room, her figure lit by the torchlight along the walls. In the half-light, they could barely make out the fresh streaks of blood that had stained her face and summer dress. A closer inspection would reveal that none of it was hers.

“I would have interrogated him myself… but I thought you’d know better than me what questions to ask.”

[Revenant]

“Well then, isn’t that wonderful,” William grunted at Sei’s revelations. Aquath’s cryptic words meant nothing to William, and despite Sei’s reassurances about Aquath’s intent, the snarling resentment in the back of William’s mind coiled around an image of the armored giant like a snake, using every squeezed drop of hatred to nourish the furnace of his violent urges. “I thought it was just another well trained pain-in-the-ass, albeit a ridiculously large one, until you stabbed the bastard and he spit up water instead of blood.

“He’s obviously not human. So if what you say about his intentions is true and Aquath really is as strong as you say … AUGH!” A short, terse scream cut through William’s words as the revenant gripped the wrist of his ruined arm and pulled, forcing his shoulder back into socket where it could at least hang limply in the right place.

“Sorry,” he grunted shifting his smoldering gaze from his useless arm back to the silent mystic, “If he’s really as strong as you say he is, then I’m wondering who is powerful enough to pull his strings.”

Sensing that Sei’s attention was more focused on the disappearance of the young lady who had accompanied him out of the house and Aquath’s companion, William let his thoughts lie there. That was a conversation for a less hectic time and he knew it. He also knew that with the damage Aquath had done to his arm, he would be nearly useless in a brawl.

One of the perks of having the opposing essences of creation and destruction bound to his soul was the fact that his body, given enough time, would repair almost any damage done to it. Unfortunately, allowing his demonic power to transform him drastically increased the time it took him to recover from any injuries. Given that Aquath’s accomplice was still around, William was loathe to dismiss his power and render himself completely useless but did so anyway.

Closing his eyes so that he could focus, William began to calm the molten heat burning through his flesh. It was a slow and laborious process, and his violent urges fought him every step of the way, but by the time that the young girl reemerged from Sei’s home, William’s power had subsided and his skin once again looked like any other human’s.

“I’m impressed,” William congratulated the young woman after hearing about Octane’s capture. The dimly flickering wisps of light in the entryway didn’t illuminate the smears of blood on the girl, but William could sense them, like a kindred spirit calling out to its own. “You’re tougher than you look.”

[Silence Sei]

Sei looked to Lillian with a loss of even his mental words. The girl had single handedly defeated Andrew Octane. Not a lot of people in the world of Althanas could easily say that. This was a child who had placed third in one of the countries biggest and most unique tournaments and now he dangled from strings like a fly in a spider's web. The mute looked to William as he sung praises to the girl, and Sei nodded his response.

Clearing over the crack in the floor, Sei walked past Lillian and into his 'living room'. The mute looked back and forth in an attempt to find his daughter in his large home. "Tablet Room," Anita commented as if sensing her father's concern for her. Now that that had been settled, the mute walked to the bleeding Octane and stared him in the face.

"I suppose this is the part where I tell you my boss, what's going on and you go and stop anything bad from ever happening, right? Forget it Sei. She can cut at my tongue all day long, but I can't give you any of that information. I'm assuming since Aquath is gone that he abandoned me. We both know the two of you couldn't have handled that giant so fast." Sei nodded as Octane shut his trap, something the youth was not good at.

Sei turned to Lillian and William with a smile. "I believe I have this under control now. If the two of you would like to try and read the prophecy tablet for yourself, you are more than welcome to. Also, if you want to try and scour through these books and tell me exactly what 'Octopus' Garden' means, I'd love to know. I'll be fine here with young Octane."

Sei turned to the boy and closed his eyes. Octane stared at Sei as if the telepath was stupid for a moment. I'm not giving anything up, even in my mind Sei. I'll tell you that Aquath is working for Lucky, who's working under my boss. That was all Sei needed to know for now.

Victory 'Lucky' Raider. Leader of the Doom Raider Pirates. They were without a doubt the most famous pirates known to the Island Nations. They were notoriously known for raiding a village without rape death or maiming in any single way. Lucky Raider was a prime strategist, often managing to steal all the gold from under a town’s nose while he feigned the surrender of his men. If he was working under somebody that wanted Corone not to be safe, it meant that the seas of Corone wouldn't be.

Sei turned to his two allies with a smile. "It seems that Octane's boss also have employed pirates into his network. That means we're going to have to fortify the sea border as well as the land mass. In the meantime, lets get to finding out what those words meant, hm?" Sei turned over to one of his toppled bookshelves and picked one of the literatures up, completely ignoring the dangling boy in the middle of the room.

[Ataraxis]

Lillian smiled at the other man’s comment, but chose to say nothing and to simply nod in acknowledgment. She had seen him stumble into the cavern right before their foes, but only now did she truly become aware of his peculiar appearance. The man wore thick layers of sullen clothing, and she make out bandages wherever his garments failed to cover his skin. A scarf was wound about his neck, and the rim had been pulled over the bridge of his nose, leaving nothing but a pair of cold, unfeeling eyes as dark as inkwells. There was obviously something off about him, but while she ignored his particular circumstances, Lillian had no reason to judge: she knew better than anyone that certain things were better left alone.

Sei had moved to the venue of her battle against Octane, and he seemed delighted to see the youth in such a precarious position. They kept quiet for a moment, no doubt exchanging mental pleasantries, before he turned to assure them that all was well. At the mention of an octopus garden, however, Lillian had to admit that the mute had lost her. ‘Did I miss something while I was away?’

The mute seemed to have sensed her confusion, as he sent her a prompt, telepathic clarification. “A clue that Aquath left before he vanished. To what, I am unsure, but whatever it is, he seemed to imply that it could repair the unfortunate fissure in my residence’s vestibule.”

This answer had intrigued Lillian, and she looked back to the lofty shelves in wonder. She had assumed he had read all of these books before, but from what she had garnered, this whole network of underground tunnels was a family legacy of sorts. This meant that while the mute had inherited it, her was still oblivious to whatever secrets his ancestors had hidden here. ‘Until recently, that probably included this famous tablet they keep talking about.’

A quick perusal of the titles was enough for Lillian to catalogue which tomes were the likeliest to contain any relevant information. She handpicked two on aquatic wildlife, two others that implied arcane studies, and a third that could either have been a metaphoric combination of both topics, or a tale of a man and his white whale nemesis.

“Shall we take a look at that tablet in the meantime?” Lillian said, addressing the other man Sei had recruited. Her intention had been to take a cursory glance, see what the fuss was all about, then use the rest of her time to leaf through what could have been, to any other person, hours of mandatory reading.

Lillian walked to one of the adjoining paths to the left, remembering the directions to the tablet from what Sei had previously told her. Within the stone corridor were three doors on each side, and the girl made her way to the farthest one on the right. Anita greeted them on the other side, her smile lit by the golden torches that hung along the high ceiling. “Finally came to take a look, have you?”

“It only seemed fair, what with all the trouble it’s caused,” Lillian replied in jest, setting her books down on a nearby table before approaching the wondrous artifact.

She had expected something small and fragile that could be manipulated in her hands, but this monolithic prophecy was immense, much taller and broader than the battered knight had been and, in a way, much more imposing as well. A quick perusal of the engravings, however, was enough for the teenager to realize she had no knowledge of this language. Even so, she felt a knot in her stomach, like some primal, gut-wrenching sense of recognition.

“I’ve visited quite a few ancient ruins, but none of them even closely resemble the scripture here… and you can read this. Perhaps it’s an unusual case of genetic memory? Then again, you’ve told me your father couldn’t read this…”

Anita looked as if she were about to speak, but the girl clammed up at once, looking uneasy. Still, Lillian could guess what she had meant to say. Though father and daughter, they were not related. Granted, just from their physique, making that assumption would not have been farfetched. Sensing the mood, however, she decided not to pry, and instead took a seat at the table to begin her reading.

In truth, what she did could hardly be called reading. Her thumb was flipping through the pages of a book in a loud flutter, her eyes speeding across their inked lines and registering every word with the cold precision of a machine. Within a few dozen seconds, she had gone from title page to colophon, and a moment later she began work on a second volume. Three minutes later, and she was done.

Noting that the mood was still dark, Lillian decided to break the icy silence with a change of topic. “It seems that this Octopus’ Garden is an incantation of sorts… a rather odd one at that. Apparently, its mastery allows the caster to summon rocks, but it doesn’t quite say if they come as a hail or an inanimate scree. The odd part, though, is that it can also summon algae from the ground to act as either tripwires or restraints.”

“That’s a bit unusual,” Anita said at last, peeling her eyes from the tablet. With a sigh, she drew to a stand, and made her way to the chamber’s door. “In any case, we should report to my father. He might know what to make of this.”

[Revenant]

The sheer size and complexity of Sei’s winding, cavernous home stunned William. Having spent more than his fair share of time hunkered down in various caves and bolt holes throughout the years, the revenant knew just how deceptively large a cavern system could be once you got past the entryway. But Sei’s home dwarfed even the largest caverns that he had come across. To William’s mind, this was more akin to an underground fortress than a series of hollowed out rooms.

“Thaynes be damned,” his whispered words echoed through the winding passages, “who would have thought something like this was just sitting around in the center of Radasanth.”

“Damnation Sei, how did you say you ended up with this place?” William asked, turning to his host. But the mute, lost in his attempts to decipher the meaning of ‘Octopus Garden’ didn’t answer. Likewise, the young woman that had so delightfully strung up Aquath’s companion, seemed otherwise occupied with Sei’s voluminous library. William would have loved to have joined in, pouring through page after page in search of the answer to cryptic riddles, but reading and cross referencing mystic mumbo-jumbo had never been his thing. A glance as the still trounced up form of Octane gave him other, visceral thoughts on how to pass the time, but given Sei’s attitude towards such things and how gracious he had been in inviting William into his home, the revenant had to reluctantly pass on that as well.

He was just about to start wandering about when the young woman, Lillian, suggested that they take Sei’s advice and make their way to check out the prophetic tablet that was Sei’s reason for calling them all in.

It’s not as if I have anything better to do with my time until Sei’s finished here and tells me what the next step of his plan is, William thought with a shrug and followed the bookish young lady. It was a short journey, the tablet room located fairly close to the entrance, and William was surprised to find another guest already inside.

This new young woman was short and perky, quite the contrast to the cool, calculating demeanor of Lillian. It was apparent however, that the two of them knew each other and that the younger woman had been expecting them both. William’s eyes briefly scanned the massive tablet of prophecy filling one of the walls in the chamber but, seeing only scribbles and gibberish, brought his scrutiny back to the second woman. Soon enough, the two women’s conversation told William that this was Sei’s daughter, adopted daughter, and that she was apparently the only one who could read the tablet’s strange writing.

All interest in Anita extinguished by the fact that she was Sei’s daughter, William turned his attention back to Lillian and was amazed at the display of perfect memory recollection that he saw her go through and how quickly she deciphered the meaning behind ‘Octopus Garden.’

If she can do that, William wondered, maybe she knows something about how to decipher Kal’Necroth’s Tome. William’s thoughts turned to the ancient arcane tome that he kept wrapped and hidden in the bottom of his pack. Its magic was the foundation that the infernal sorcerer had used to bind the demonic essence with William’s soul and, though he could not understand any of it, William had kept the book with the hopes of one day being able to use its magic to free himself.

Still the thought of turning an item which held such power over him to someone he barely knew and who could readily memorize and recollect everything inside with only a few seconds of study was an unsettling prospect. But as he followed the two young women back to Sei’s library, William’s mind grasped another flash of insight.

If she could find the meaning of ‘Octopus Garden’ in Sei’s books, perhaps I can find some way of translating Kal’Necroth’s tome there as well.

Another thought crossed his mind as the three of them reported back to the mute mystic, I’m no professional scholar and it’s going to take quite a while for me to go through all these books. Looks like Sei has indirectly found another way to keep me at his side.

[Silence Sei]

"You know what I could do, right Octane? I could rip every last thought from your brain. I could make you think you were nothing but a dog." Sei knew the threats were probably going to get him nowhere. He still had to take the chance that he may scare the boy into giving something up that he did not want. Octane just smiled at the telepaths attempts to goad him into revealing a spoiler.

Nice Try Sei. I've been in a dog's body before. OR did you forget the finals of the Oxfordshire Open? Sei pondered back to the tournament in which contestants switched bodies with their opponents. In the third place bracket, Andrew Octane's opponent was nothing but a Salviarian Husky, a breed of dog that was known for its loyalty. Octane wound up somehow winning the bronze trophy for the tournament without ever harming his opponent.

It seemed as though Sei would get nowhere as far as to whom Octane's employer was. "Well then, maybe you can inform me what Octopus' Garden means, then?"

"The spell?" Octane said. Sei smiled at the boy, who tilted his head at his captor. "All it does is cause seaweed to rise up from the ground, and then hits the target with rocks for a few seconds. Nothing special." Sei looked at the boy in disbelief. How could something that sounds so odd be able to repair the damage done to his home?

Papa, Lillian found it! Sei's mind had picked up a thought Anita directly transferred to him. Octopus' Garden causes algae to form, and boulders to appear. Least, that's what Lillian said that it does. Sei looked back towards his hostage. Octane wore a wry grin now, almost certain that by this time the others had found what Sei was looking for. Nothing felt better to Andrew Octane than being right.

But something was still amiss. Octane and Aquath, while appearing sinister, were never one's who reveled in wanton destruction. Octane was pretty neutral towards any country. If they didn't bother him, he wouldn't bother them. Aquath was just a follower, listening to his beloved Captain Lucky and following his orders to a T. If Lucky Raider had truly wanted Sei and his party dead, they would be dead.

Suddenly it clicked in the mute's head. Whoever they were working for, Lucky Raider was playing them. The man would do anything to be the most well known pirate on Althanas, even manipulate a manipulator. The person who sent Octane and Aquath on their mission may have been charismatic enough to do stuff they normally wouldn't, but he had a mole in his ranks. This thought caused a smile to form around Sei's lips. Now if only he could somehow contact the pirate captain...

Around this time, Anita and the others joined Sei in the main room. Lillian was still holding the book she had found the incantation in. Sei politely opened his hands to the girl, who gave him the reading material. Sei began to flip through the pages of the text as he began to walk outside. IT was odd, Sei had read so many of the books in his cave before, but he did not recall this one even existing in his tomb.

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club of Spell Casting? Sei questioned the ridiculous name in his head. As he turned page after page, however, he began to realize that there were some really useful abilities from the sounds of things. Sei finally came across the spell in question and began to read the words within. Sei stood in the doorway lifting a hand towards Aquath's fissure with one hand, and continuing to hold the book in another.

"I ask my friends to come and see, an Octopus' Garden with me!" Sei shouted the words loudly with conviction. The text stated that he did not actually have to recite the passage, but it would be easier for him to learn the spell if one could attach a phrase to it. The words were a bit silly, but they were the first one's to come to the mute's head.

Slowly, long green tendrils began to rise up from the fissure. Sei moved his eyes from the book to witness the green seaweed spring up from nowhere and begin to lace together across the crack. It formed a makeshift bridge with the plant life. Then, Sei noticed that above the fissure, several volleyball sized rocks began to come down upon the newly formed walkway. The mute realized that the rocks would easily tear through the seaweed unless he concentrated his magical prowess better.

Closing his eyes, Sei used every bit of Mystic magic he had to cause the seaweed to soften the boulders. As he concentrated, the green of the algae started covering all the rocks that landed upon it, slowly crushing them into almost nothing. Anita watched in awe at her father's power. The seaweed was essentially becoming glue for the rocks to fill the gap back up once more. The rocks stopped raining after about eight seconds. Everything about the spell described an Octopus.

The rocks and the seaweed were actual materials in a real octopus' garden. The eight seconds represented the eight arms of the same beast. Even the fact that Anita could actually see the water dripping off of the newly formed seaweed indicated that even the plant itself thought it had been underwater. When Sei opened his eyes, the seaweed retracted back into the ground from wince it came. There were a few small cracks here and there, but they were miniscule and insignificant to the structure of the bridge. Sei looked to his daughter and handed her the book. The girl then put the spell book in her backpack, just in case the need should arise to use it again.

Sei turned back to William and Lillian now. "Well, now that that's settled there's something I wish to ask the two of you. You have seen the tablet now, no doubt. You each must have felt something inside you from that monstrosity. If I'm wrong, then you may be on your way. If I am correct in my accusation, I would ask the two of you stay here for the night, so that we may discuss plans to save Radasanth together. What do you say?"

[Silence Sei]

Sei watched his two friends as they each began to answer. Turning his gaze to William, Sei smiled when the Revenant began to nod his approval. It seemed as though the man still fancied himself indebted to the telepath. With that, Sei had found at least one of his Warriors Nine. It was a good way to start his quest.

"Lillian?" Anita asked, looking at the younger girl as she pondered on the question. It took Lillian longer to answer than William. Slowly, the girl's head shook itself to the left and right. "You're right," she said, "I did feel something, and perhaps I am destined to save Corone, but not here, and not now." Anita's face was plastered with sheer confusion as Lillian began to make her way out of the cave. She stopped at the doorway for a moment as she turned around towards Anita.

"I asked before why you did not consider yourself fit for the task. Yet I now know that I am not fit for it. Maybe we'll meet again someday, but for now, farewell." And just like that, the younger girl disappeared into the Radasanth park. Anita began to walk after her but was stopped by her father's pale hand. The mute shook his head as he looked to Octane.

"Yeah, I wanted you guys to figure out that she wasn't who the prophecy was talking about." The boy let out a little smile as his eyes shifted between his three captors. "Now that she's gone, Sei, I'll give you a name. I can guarantee you're not going to like who's planning all of this stuff. Even more so, I'll tell you who the girl is that your little tablet is talking about."

"Why?" Anita asked with a serious face as she turned to Octane, "Why have you decided to help us now? You seemed really quick to be all over the tight-lipped scenario. Why should we trust you? You're working with the enemy, remember?"

"Ever heard of a double-agent? I was pretending to work for him to get to you guys. You guys need information on your nine, and I can supply you with who seems most fit. Likewise, I can feed 'my side' false information and make it to where you aren’t hounded as badly. Sei, I tried to talk to you about it earlier, but the bitch stopped me from trying to tell you that me and Aquath want to save Corone too. Likewise, I couldn't outright tell Aquath what I was doing or he would tell Lucky the second he asked what happened to me."

It made sense. What better way to find who you're looking for than to side with an enemy. Sei was still not trusting enough of Andrew Octane to let him down from his position, but he would hear him out. The mute walked closer to the youth and leaned down. The boy whispered something into the telepath's ear that made him let out a mute gasp. Surely, the man going to destroy Corone wasn't that person.

"Well, now that I've got your attention," Octane said, "let's talk about the girl in your prophecy. You ever heard the name Cassandra Remi?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Failed....you." Aquath stood before the massive stairwell leading to a throne. The sounds of growls and roars could be heard throughout the palace. The reply to the comment was a massive fit of laughter that hinged on the edge of madness. Aquath kept his head bowed as his Master's Master began to speak.

"Actually, you did just what I needed. Good job, filth!" His voice came off as holier-than-though, with a hint of sarcasm to it. "I needed Octane in the cave to spy on Sei, and now he's there. I needed time in order to convince that Salvar Skavian chieftain that Letho Ravenheart killed his daughter a fortnight ago. I accomplished both of these tasks wonderfully thanks to you, Aquath."

It had not been easy to find a gun with bullets so similar to Letho Ravenhearts famous gunblade. When the man had gotten the supplied, however, he had no problem pulling the trigger of on the defenseless five year old. Getting to a village big enough to have a chieftain with power was the difficult part. Being able to communicate with the tribes enough to convince them to unite with the modern world for Ravenheart's head was an even more difficult feat. However, this man had caused the warring clans to unite with the modern people over this travesty. Finding a child brutally murdered and half-eaten would typically unite anyone for a single common goal.

"Now for the next step of my plan, I need to get to Raiaera. Those damn elves will be the death of me if I can't convince them of Corone's dirty dealings." The figure stepped out of the shadows covering his form and began to step into the light. Beams began to illuminate the purple vest, the black tight leather pants, and the slicked back white hair. As the man began to hush his growling and roaring children, he looked over to Aquath.

"I, Ciato Orlouge, shall construct the greatest memorial to my beloved Asterodeia! It's only fitting that the target of such anarchic destruction be solely centered on the melting pot of Althanas. The best part is, there's going to be nothing my brother or his Nine are going to do to stop me..."

[MetalDrago]

STORY

Continuity (7/10) ~ I got a really good feel for what this was all about, since it was the beginning of a new story in the lives of these people. The explanation of the history behind these characters, even Ataraxis not knowing about Sei at all was explained pretty well. I’d have liked to hear more about the history between Revenant and Sei, but there was enough for me to know basically what was going on. I had a good grasp for what this story was about, despite several questions that popped into my mind.

Setting (5/10) ~ The setting was pretty average, not too bad, but not stellar either. There was a bit of a lack in overall description of the entire area. Overall, a decent job, but nothing quite standout enough to earn a higher score. Ataraxis, as a side-note, did really well describing the setting during the fight with Octane.

Pacing (6/10) ~ The story pretty much kept me interested the entire time, even if the Pacing did jump a little from time to time a little too fast. Overall, a pretty good job, but I’d like to have seen more from Aquath before he bailed. That would have upped your score pretty decently.

CHARACTER ~.

Dialogue (7/10) ~ The dialogue was believable, and the NPC Andrew Octane really helped boost this one since his weapon is his words. He might be a pacifist, but using words to make people want to kill themselves… That’s beyond any evil I’ve ever experienced in a thread. Overall a really good job, though I’d have liked to see more dialogue coming from the PCs that described their personality, such as Sei and Revenant, but still, I got a pretty good feel for what was going on in their heads.

Action (7/10) ~ The fight between Ataraxis and Octane was the highlight of this thread, to me, as far as action goes, and it played out like a well-rehearsed play. I’d have liked to see a little bit more random activity in the fight, and something to more highlight the way Lillian thinks when she fights, but that’s about it. Sei and Revenant’s actions were believable when they did act, especially Revenant’s dual nature being shown through not only his thoughts and words, but also through the reactions his body has when he is accessing that duality.

Persona (6/10) ~ Overall, I got a good feel for where each character stood in this thread, if not a stellar one. You guys kept your characters pretty much within their various personalities, and made sure to stick that way. The only thing that really tossed me for a loop was the fact that Sei decided to try a spell he had no experience with before testing it in a more controlled environment. The fact that he’s usually so careful did kinda throw me off concerning that.

WRITING STYLE ~

Mechanics (4/10) ~ I hate singling people out, but Sei, I have one suggestion for you. You know how to use your words very well, but I want you to go on Google and look up Commonly Misspelled Words. Look for a list that includes things Microsoft Word wouldn’t catch, and remember to proofread your posts before you post them up. I know it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but you have to proofread. I can think of at least two instances where you used the wrong homonym in this thread alone. I know you’re a good enough writer to find these mistakes if you take your time and proofread. Besides that, there were really no problems with Mechanics as far as I can see.

Technique (6/10) ~ A decent use of literary devices, some foreshadowing, and then a nice final post that wraps everything up while still leaving plenty of mysteries for the mind to explore. Overall, a good effort, though I’d have liked to see just a little bit more.

Clarity (5/10) ~ While the story, for the most part, remained clear, some mistakes along the way really made me have to take a second look at what I was reading. It brought me to a dead stop in some areas, while I tried to figure out what was actually going on. Just try and fix those little mistakes and watch this score skyrocket.

Wild Card (7/10) ~ I liked the thread, I liked it a lot. I can’t wait to see where this ends up going, because it’s a very interesting story, one that I’m looking forward to seeing more of in the future.

Total Score – 60

Silence Sei gains 2500 EXP and 250 GP
Ataraxis gains 2350 EXP and 200 GP
Revenant gains 1000 EXP and 150 GP

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added.

Ataraxis is now level 10!