The Depths of Death (closed to Qadira)

[Cards of Fate]

Crumbled towers loomed in the horizon as the sun began to sink beneath the Raiaeran horizon. A cloaked figure strove through the barren, plague stricken wastes alone. A quiet stream of hisses trailed behind him, as he labored each breath through a large metal mask strapped to his face. His eyes were obscured by tinted glass, his mouth covered in some strange filter. Every inch of skin and hair was hidden beneath black leather, or a tough vlince dyed to match. One his hands he wore iron gloves formed from segmented plates of metal held together by a leather mesh. His boots were a simple steel and leather mixture. Each step was laborious, each breath was shallow.

Vincent Cain was not having a pleasant trip.

To simply skirt the limits of the plague lands was already a torturously hard ordeal, but to traverse straight through its heart? That was suicide. The only thing keeping the scholar alive was the several pounds of protective gear, his unnatural predisposition to resisting death, and grit. Eluriand, the diseased heart of Raiaera, loomed in the distance. Beneath it ancient secrets lurked buried in massive catacombs, guarded by hordes of undead. Somewhere beneath this broken city, Vincent would search for answers.

His progress was slow, each step sinking into murky ground slightly. He would have to struggle for a moment to wrest his foot free to take another step, and repeat the process once more. Each a large slurp sounded out his foot was freed, and a squish would soon follow as it sank once more into the muck. He needed to race the sun, darkness would soon be upon him, and so would all manner of foul fiends. The derelict ruins of the city limits would offer some form of sanctuary, where he could possibly scavenge enough wood for a fire, or establish some form of camp.

An hour of tromping through sludge found Vincent standing right at the ruined western gates of the city as night truly fell upon the land. Ancient cobblestones seemed to stand some form of vanguard against the decay, offering a solid footing for the scholar as he scanned the wreckage before him. Several corpses wandered aimlessly along the promenade leading from the gate deeper into the city, but none seemed to have noticed the scholar yet. Either side of the road bore ornate buildings, in varying colors, all in different states of disrepair. The closest building to his left seemed to be a guardhouse of some sort, and most of the doors seemed to still be properly hanging on their hinges. Spurred on by hope of refuge, the scholar made his way to the nearest door as quietly as he could. Each step clanked slightly against the cobblestone. As he reached the dilapidated portal, he braced the handle with a gloved hand and dug his shoulder into the frame forcing it open.

Growling, the scholar scanned the building in the remaining light for any immediate threats. Satisfied for the moment, he crossed the boundary and pulled the door shut behind him, drowning any light left in an inky darkness. All was silent, save the slight hiss of his breath in and out of his mask. The scholar reached into thin air and snapped, a flash of teal sparks cascaded from his fingertips, illuminating the room for a moment. In his hand he know held a simple glass orb, drawn from seemingly nowhere.

“Illuminate.”

The command wheezed out of his mask, and the orb sputtered to life in response bathing the entire room in an eerie pale glow. Glancing around, the scholar spotted the ruins of several old pieces of furniture, and a fireplace. Noting nothing else of importance, he went about his work dragging the bits and pieces of whatever these guards had used to relax, into the fireplace. Then without ceremony, the scholar simply shot a jet of blue sparks from his hands and lit a rather large blaze.

It was going to be a long night, and he would have to resume in the morning…

[Qadira]

The sun was setting. She couldn't sit around idly, twiddling her thumbs until someone were to happen upon her. She didn't even know where she was. Qadira stood from where she had rest and took in her surroundings.

Qadira had been sitting at the edge of the graveyard, trying to avoid the remains of her earlier companion, and to sort everything out for herself. She knew nothing about herself except her name, nor anything about the power she had used to save her life. She didn't understand why she had not suffocated on the mud or why she had woken up in a coffin. She didn't even know the first thing about the strange land she was in. What she did know however, was that she needed to get moving. The sun had already made steady progress in it's decent and the woman had no interest in finding out what horrors lurked in the dark of these ruins.

Qadira took in her surroundings. She was on the outskirts of some sort of ruined town. From what she could gather the town seemed to have had some historical importance. The wreckage spread very far and there were remnants of what looked to be libraries, guard towers, and regular housing. She shivered as she felt the cold night's air begin to set in. She cursed under her breath and trudged towards the ruins. "I'll be damned if I can't find some sort of refuge".

The mangled woman roamed through the streets, things becoming quickly dark before stopping dead in her tracks. She noticed something walking from around the corner. Her first instinct urged her to call for help, but she resisted, knowing that whomever she met may not be friendly. From around the corner emerged a man. She would've considered calling out to him had his jaw not been detached. Qadira narrowed her eyes and muttered to herself. It was another undead, like the one she had apparently created, but this one didn't seem too friendly. She quickly changed direction and headed deeper into the ruined town.

"So now I have to watch for undead as well. What a great day I seem to be having." the girl scoffed under her breath. She looked up to the sky and saw the last remains of sunlight escape her. It was nearly dark now. It would be harder to navigate now without the sun and any threat would only be harder to detect. However before she even had a chance to begin her abyssal adventure she caught a glow of light from the corner of her eye. Some kind of hardy stone building seemed to have a pale glow seeping from the cracks of the walls. She inquisitively wandered closer, hesitant of the danger, and watched as the light suddenly disappeared, only to be replaced with what seemed to be a roaring flame. Qadira felt the warmth radiate through the walls of the building and saw the glow of the fire pour through every hole in the building.

Qadira decided this was her chance. Only something sentient could start a fire and she desperately needed help. The woman hoped against all hope that the person inside would be friendly and so she navigated around to the entrance. She very gingerly pushed the door in and called out in as helpless a voice as she could muster, hoping to lower whomever's guard she would be meeting.

[Cards of Fate]

The door creaked open, and in a quick motion the scholar was on his feet, sword drawn from a flash of blue light. He was pretty sure he’d heard her speak, which was almost impossible, seeing as normal undead couldn’t speak, and no normal living mortal could have made it this deep into the plague lands. Yet here she stood, like a marble stature with her cream colored skin. Her robes appeared to have been fine silk at one point, but now they seemed to be barely holding together and in tatters. Her eyes were an enchanting Violet, or so Vince assumed, his visor distorted the color of the world a little bit. Her hair was green, but disheveled and covered in mud as if she had been rolling around like a dog on a rainy day.

Vincent paused for several moments before speaking. “Hello?” Silence filled the air for a moment. She had not made any move to attack him yet, which was odd for any typical walker this deep in the plaguelands. “Are you hurt? Why are you out here?” He gazed past her and noticed a shambling form not three feet behind her. Acting quickly he dashed forward and pulled the woman into the door, dropping his blade in the process. In his hand, a bunch of sparks formed into a Tarot card. He held the teal projectile and willed a large amount of energy. Grunting he flung the card at the form’s head, watching it explode into concussive force and smash the fiends head like a watermelon.

He scanned the darkness, satisfied that there was no more danger he pulled the door closed and turned back to the woman. She hadn’t tried to bite or claw him, but maybe she was unable to talk do to trauma or an injury. Instead he pulled out a canteen of water and package of bread and offered it to her wordlessly.

[Qadira]

Qadira was frightened.

A lot happened in the short amount of time that she had opened the door. Before her stood what appeared to be a man, but that didn't seem like the correct word for it. Her mind wandered for a moment and settled on the term golem for the moment. She found this coinage appropriate because the man seemed to be connected to pounds of machinery that seemed to be keeping him alive. This alone was enough to shock her but the next few moments are what really put her off.

She had hesitated to respond for fear of what exactly she was speaking with, and as she was readying herself to reply the man, the man charged her. She was afraid he was going to end her life, being something of an executioner, but she noticed his sword drop. Instead of harming her she had been grabbed, and pulled into the doorway. She saw little of what happened behind her but the sound was something she would not soon forget. Roaring power and a concussive thud blasting from behind her while a simultaneous blue flash filled the area. Qadira was unsure of what had just happened but she was relatively sure that the mechanical soldier had protected her. In the ruckus that occurred she was thrown beside the campfire. As the tattered woman collected herself she looked up to her assumed savior and watched as it closed the door. He wordlessly offered her a canteen and bread.

The girl's stomach felt empty to her, but she felt no real desire to eat. Upon thinking about her condition she more so realized she was just uncomfortable than hungry. Her hand reached out and took the bread regardless, deciding to accept his kindness. More than anything she enjoyed the feeling of the fire. She realized just how cold she had felt before and was glad to be able to soak in the warmth of the flame beside her.

After indulging on the bland meal she looked to the man who still stood above her, seemingly watching her. Qadira figured some form of explanation was in order, even if she needed on herself. "Thank you for helping me" She paused and contemplated the best way to ask for help. "I'm not sure how I got out here. I don't have any memory and I had woken up buried alive." a chill went down her spine just thinking of the whole ordeal again. The girl decided she would leave out the undead who had saved her. "All I remember is my name." She looked up to him, her eyes pleading for solace "I'm Qadira"

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow behind his tinted glass mask, not that the woman could discern the gesture of course, but out of sheer force of habit. It appeared the woman could talk, which was a surprise given her current state. He watched as she ate and drank before she explained her situation. Suddenly the scholar had a myriad of questions on the tip of his tonge, but one look at the woman revealed that she most likely didn’t have any of the answers. Instead, Vincent opted for a different tactic. He rummaged through one of the many pockets of his protective suit and retrieved a simple circular device and tapped it several times. Slowly, it began to chirp ever so quietly. The scholar waited several minutes, scanning the device and monitoring the chirping. Satisfied, he replaced the object once more in his pocket.

In one fluid motion he reached up to his mask and raised it from his face, revealing tan, handsome facial features and sapphire eyes. His mane of blonde hair spilled out messily, somewhat stained brown from sweat and slicked to parts of his face.

“Hi, I’m Vincent Cain. Nice to meet you.” He offered the woman a hand to shake, and a warm smile. “Sounds like you’ve had one hell of a day so far. The place we’re at isn’t particularly safe, but if I stand guard you might be able to get some rest if you need too…” Her words ran through his head as he spoke. She’d been buried? That would explain her tattered clothes and pale skin, but that didn’t make any sense. Who would bury someone alive in a city that hadn’t seen habitation in years? Not to mention they were in the middle of a necrotic blight! His eyes ran up and down her figure looking for some sort of clue as to the origin of this woman. That’s when he saw the scar along her throat. ‘There’s no way she could have…survived a gash like that..’

[Qadira]

Qadira observed the man as he lifted his helmet. She mentally chastised herself for assuming the person before her was some sort of cyborg. She realized now it was a man wearing some sort of suit. For what purpose it served she was unsure, and the thought of not knowing made her uneasy. She was so unsure of so many thing and the list only seemed to grow; this fact frustrated her. Qadira pulled herself from the self-deprecating thought and turned her attention to the man. He seemed to be an attractive individual, around the same age as herself. Perhaps she would have found him more pleasing had he not been covering in pounds of material and didn't look like he just ran a few miles.

Vincent. She pondered the name for a moment. If she could recall the name meant something along the lines of a conqueror. She scowled to herself, why could she remember a useless fact like that but nothing of importance. The woman decided to move past it, taking the man's hand in hers and offering half the smile she was given. "I appreciate the offer, but I feel like I have slept for much too long." Qadira looked to the door, pondering the events that happened. "I can see what you mean by the area not being safe. It's practically crawling with corpses" the girl rolled her eyes and gave a despondent sigh "Of course I had to wake up in a place like this.

Qadira looked to the man and saw his eyes were focused. She soon realized he was focused on her, looking over her body as if he was captivated by something. She couldn't help but chuckle, even in as dreary as situation as this. "Vincent are you so captivated by my looks you can't help but stare?" She asked and turned away in a teasing fashion. "I probably look so horrid in these tatters though" her disposition quickly reset to dread. She wanted to know so desperately what was going on, and she feared the man had now answers for her.

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar chastised himself for being so forthright with his appraisal of her, even in the middle of ruins, there was always time for proper manners. The man blushed a bit and ran his left hand nervously through his sweaty hair.

“My apologies, I was making sure you weren’t hurt! With all of the undead out and about you could have gotten scratched or something…” he trailed off as he avoided her gaze. He was busy debating the most tactful way of asking about her throat, but couldn’t possible thing of a way to go about doing so. After several moments, the scholar decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

“Miss…Qadira you said?” He paused, “Lovely name by the way, what does that mean?” He stopped and shook his head for a moment, he was getting distracted. “What happened to your neck there? Were you hurt?” he asked raising an eyebrow. He kneeled before the woman and looked into her verdant gaze, searching for answers.

‘I think I know…but I need to be sure’ Silence hung in the air save for the gentle crackle of the fire and the occasional moan of the undead outside. Shadows danced across the room to some silent song, bathing the two in an eerie glow.

[Qadira]

Qadira rolled her eyes, finding it only coincidentally humorous that'd he'd ask the meaning of her name only after she just gave herself trouble for knowing such a random fact about his. She offered a feint smile at his initial question. "It means 'able'. A more accurate definition would probably be capable. Which sort of feels ironic at the moment". She noticed something was troubling him and the young man wasted no time to tell her exactly what that was.

His question stung. Right in her chest where her heart was she felt an anxiousness. Qadira grasped at her own neck and felt along it desperately. "W-What do you mean what's wrong with my neck?" She stuttered out, looking into his sapphire eyes for an answer and conveyed her own confusion and terror with her own gaze. The confused woman couldn't feel exactly what the man was talking about and this only filled her with more concern. "Do you know anything about what's going on? Do you know who I am?" She leaned forward grabbing his shoulder, her eyes pleading for answers. "Why was I buried alive? Where am I? Why can I bring back the dead?!" the girl began to slip into a hysterical fit. She caught herself, placing a hand over her mouth for a moment. "I apologize" She resisted the urge to utter a sob. "I must be a nightmare to deal with".

Qadira took a moment to try and compose herself and looked to the man for a favor. "You wouldn't happen to have some sort of..." she failed to find a word to fit the description "thing... like you had before, but so that I can see myself?" she thought for a moment more and placed her head in her hand. "Or a mirror. That would work as well" She felt moronic for over complicating the situation. "I want to see what you're talking about" She plead.

[Cards of Fate]

Vince was caught off guard by the woman’s sudden panic attack. Her series of questions rattled him slightly as he tried to process all of the new information. With a snap of his fingers he pulled out a simple mirror and held it up to the woman and briefly tapped the scar on her throat.

“I’m talking about that…” The scholar murmured. “That looks like it hurt like hell, and was definitely something that could have caused you amnesia.” While the woman was distracted with the gash on her throat, the scholar discreetly placed his hand on her shoulder right where a major vein would be traveling. For a moment he could have sworn he’d missed it, but a cursory glance showed that his finger was right on the blue line that ran across her skin. His eyebrows furrowed, she could bring back the dead and she had no pulse. Something foul was afoot, and it had suddenly dragged Vincent into its clutches. Taking a simple step back, the scholar casually sat down and cracked his neck.

“I don’t have all the answers for you, but I can sure help you try to find them.” He nodded and shot her a caring glance. “Let’s start at the top. You said you woke up buried alive? Tell me about that? How far away have you traveled since then? How did you get out?”

While it seemed like these were simple questions, the more the scholar figured out, the more he could try to piece together the woman’s mysterious past.

[Qadira]

Qadira was mortified at the sight of the scar running along her neck. Her brow furrowed as something flashed through her mind. Images of a knife and blood. A lot of blood. Her head pounded as the images left her thoughts and she was left with nothing more than confusion. On closer inspection she realized she was unnaturally pale, and she looked like she had been dragged through hell and back. The woman found it unpleasant to continue looking at herself and quickly relinquished the mirror back to her company. "Thank you. I'm not sure I wanted to see all of that, but I needed to". She looked to the young man as he backed away and sat across from her. She thought carefully about the questions she had been asked before answering.

"I want to start with thank you" She said trailing off. It felt strange to her to have to rely on someone so much as she had been doing now, but right now this man was the only way for her to get answers. She recounted as much of her escaping escapade to her new companion as she could. Including every detail, including her near death experience with the mud. Qadira, realizing her slip of the tongue by asking about her necromantic power, decided she would tell him the whole truth including her undead savior. "After he dissolved I only traveled to the edge of the graveyard" the woman admitted "I was afraid to travel any further" She looked to the side, ashamed of her behavior "It was the fear of the night and the creatures that lurked within it that forced me to start traveling to find salvation". her eyes offered nothing but woe.

By the time she had finished her entire story, Vincent knew as much about her as she did.

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar turned over her tale in his mind with as much scrutiny as he’d given every word she’d spoken since they’d met. The scar, the lack of a pulse, her being buried, all these pieces led the scholar to the simple conclusion that she was undead. Yet, she was not the normal type of undead that usually was found in the plaguelands. Normal undead didn’t talk, or have panic attacks for that matter. The scholar furrowed a brow as he rocked back and forth slightly.

“Well…given my limited knowledge on the situation…” he paused. “I’d say it’s pretty safe to say that you had died, probably to that gash on your throat if I was a betting man.” The scholar paused to let his words sink in. This was going to be a lot for her to handle, so he needed to broach everything with care.

“The good news is, however, that you are now very much less dead.” The scholar stumbled over his words a bit, pausing to figure out how to continue. “I do not think you are truly alive however…” he trailed off. “You kinda don’t have a pulse…” he continued. “I just checked, so while you’re not dead I wouldn’t call you living either. I guess I’d call you undead…” he ran a hand through his hair nervously.

“But hey! You’re not like the guys out there!” He gestured to the doorway. “As far as I can tell you still have your sentience, and you’re not hungry for brains either. So that’s the closest thing we have to plus so far.” He mused further on the details, cracking his neck as he turned over the facts in his head. “As for the rest though…that’s something I can’t really seem to get my head around. I’ve only seen undead creating more undead in very limited circumstances, and as far as I can tell, you don’t fit any of those cases…”

[Qadira]

Qadira sat and tried to process the information her new acquaintance has given her. She put her fingers to her temples and gently rubbed her head, as though this new information was hurting her, although it wasn't. She felt the urge to slip back into hysteria but fought it. Everything the young man had told her made sense. All the pieces fit together and were a very sound explanation as to what kind of state she was in, regardless of how she felt about it. She stopped suddenly and looked to him, a confused and intrigued expression painted across her face.

"What do you mean by you've seen undead creating more undead before?" she inquired, wanting to know as much as he did "You've met others like me? Can I meet them? And for that matter, how did you meet these people. What do you even do?" She had been so focused on herself she didn't even think to inquire about her strange companion.

"What sort of magic was that earlier when you pulled me into this building. And why are you wearing such strange equipment?" The tables had been turned now, her curiosity had taken a hold of her and she felt the craving to learn as much about the handsome young man as she could manage.

[Cards of Fate]

Vince waited as the woman shotgunned her questions at him rapidly. He sat patiently as she spoke and waited until silence had filled the air once more before turning over her questions in his head. Instinctively his left hand went to his chin and began to rub it, his brow furrowing. “That’s a lot to ask.” He replied cracking his neck.

“Where to start…” He mused. He tutted slightly and began. “I’m wearing this gear because if I don’t the taint of this plague will try to turn me into a zombie.” He gestured to all his heavy gear. “The magic from earlier was a form of…kinetic manipulation. I take raw energy and fling it, causing a punching force.” He shrugged. “It’s complicated, I could sit and talk specifics until the sun rose, but you have more pressing questions that you’d like answered.” He paused and ran the rest of her questions over and over again. This was where he was getting into more sensitive territory.

“As for my job…I answer questions…” He mused rubbing his chin. “There’s more to it than that, but for the most part I look to answer questions, and when I run out of questions to answer I look for more. That’s what I do, I figure things out that no one else can or cares to.” He waited for a moment and went on.

“As for the other Undead doing what you do well…” He paused. “It’s a long story, but to make it short we want to pray we don’t meet any of them because they’re not friendly.” He paused. “In fact they might try to kill you again, and make it permanent.”

[Qadira]

Qadira furrowed her brow. She was not even remotely satisfied with the answers he had given her. Yes he had answered them in some way or another, but he intentionally left out a lot of details and she felt as though somewhere in those details was where the true answers she wanted lay. She pondered to herself and decided to settle for just one question. "Alright I can understand you're not wanting to elaborate on everything to someone you've just met" she cleared her throat, which felt horribly scratchy, as though she hadn't drank anything in months. Perhaps she hadn't. "Can you at least elaborate on these people like me, and/or why they would want to kill me again and make sure I stay down?" She asked raising an eyebrow to him.

The necromancer wanted desperately to know anything about subjects that may have any sort of relation to her. She usually prided herself on the knowledge she knew, but now that she was lacking in knowledge due to her amnesia, she felt vulnerable and weak. Knowledge was usually her weapon and without it she felt defenseless. Thinking of this she quickly pat herself down and realized she had no sort of weapon to protect herself. The young woman could, she imagined, reanimate another corpse if need be, but she decided her magic should probably be kept to a minimal use.

"And by the way" she mentioned to him. "If you could spare a weapon, or help me find some other sort of defense for myself I would highly appreciate it" She considered her options "perhaps just a simple dagger?"

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar furrowed his brow and reached into thin air pulling out a steel sword, sheathed in a simple leather hilt and tossed it to Qadira haphazardly, lost in thought to how to explain to her that undead necromancers were incredibly bad. He opted for the bluntest truth, figuring the sheer shock would probably put a hard stop to any inquiries she had further into the subject.

“A long ass time ago there was a man named Xem’Zund. He was a powerful necromancer, the strongest to ever exist. He flooded this country with an infinite horde of undead, and spread the same plague that I wear this suit to protect myself from.” He paused to let that sink in. “When he rose to power he created several Death Lords, his generals in battle. Powerful undead, each had an army of their own to command and wield with brutal efficiency. When he was finally felled, his unholy servants were left behind to rule over the blighted wasteland he once controlled.” He paused once more, this time for cliché dramatic effect, before continuing.

“So if we meet any of them, we turn one hundred and eighty degrees and run in the opposite direction.”

[Qadira]

The woman pondered the information that Vincent had given her. None of it seemed to trigger any memories, nor did she really know exactly what he was talking about. She wanted to ask so many more questions; pulling a sword out of thin air, the generals controlling the land, more about his job... There was too much for her to ask for the moment. She gave a hearty sigh and looked at him with a little more hope and less helplessness than before.

"You'll need to tell me more about..." She trailed off for only a moment "Well, everything, but for the moment we should focus on the problems at hand." She thought to herself and gestured around the room. "As much as I looove this scenery, I think we should find a safer place to be. I'd rather not have to worry about whether I'll wake up in the morning" The thought crossed her mind that maybe she couldn't even sleep but she pushed that aside for now. "Do you have a home or some other place we can go to safety nearby?" She paused realizing how considerably rude she was being "Oh, but i'm sure there's something else you need to do first. There has to be some reason you're out in the middle of poisonous undead land" she offered something of a smile trying to stay cheerful now

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow at the woman before glancing to the door. “If you feel like wandering around the darkness with the other not so friendly undead you can be my guest.” He paused for a moment to let the reality of everything sink in. “Because I have to get something from deeper in town, and there’s no way in hell I’m doing it without the light of the sun to help guide me.” His blue eyes shimmered in the firelight as he chewed his lips for a moment.

“Therefore, here is probably the best place to be for all intents and purposes. Four walls, once entrance, two of us to keep guard…” He counted off each reason on a gloved finger, “…not to mention how much work it would be to find a safer spot now that it’s dark, or how unsafe it is now that the hordes are moving about…”

[Qadira]

The necromancer took his words into consideration. She had been a bit too eager to want to move again. He was correct about their situation; this room was definitely the most safe without having to put themselves in more risk to explore and find another place. She decided to accept his truth and relaxed more where she sat.

"If you'd like I'll stay up and keep watch while you sleep. I'm not exactly tired after having been asleep for..." she thought for a moment about how long she may have actually been asleep. Considering everything the young adventurer had told her, it could have been a very long time seeing as how she had no idea of any of the events he had been describing. She continued her train of thought "Well, for who knows how long. The point being, I'm not really eager to sleep right now so I'll keep watch" She added on "And i'll be sure to wake you immediately if something were to appear.

She looked to her new companion to gauge his response. She wasn't entirely sure about the idea of watching over someone she had only just met, but he had made an effort to protect her. He seemed nice enough, and she felt it only right to at least try to repay the favor in some way or another.

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar glanced over the woman who he had just armed. He had no doubt about her sincerity in the offer, but he was pretty sure she was barely capable of fighting her way out of a wet paper bag. Instead he snapped his finger and pulled out a piece of chalk and rose to his feet.

“There shouldn’t be need to keep watch…” he mused as he knelt by the rickety door. With a few quick and practiced movements he scrawled several runes with pinpoint precision, muttering under his breath. His eyes began to glow softly as he did so, and soon the door began to shimmer. When his words stopped, so did the shimmer and silence filled the air.

“That should do the trick!” He exclaimed rubbing his hands together. He paused and then added a few more runes before turning back to Qadira. “Having studied this shit for three years, I am incredibly proficient in enchanting. I just laid down a barrier on the door, and a few alert wards to wake me up encase anything tries to break it.” Feeling smug, the scholar sank back down into a sitting position and poked the fire a bit.

[Qadira]

The woman's eyes lit up upon watching the process of this man setting up the runes. She felt a great urge to ask so many question and to inquire if he could teach her, but resisted, deciding to let the man relax as he had probably had a rough day. She bit her lip in concern, not entirely sure if she should trust this magic, but she knew as well as anyone that magic can be quite powerful. She looked to the young man and decided to trust it.

"That's quite a nifty trick you have there. I hope I can learn something as useful as that someday" She offered a genuine smile "But for now I suppose we should get some rest. In the morning we can go ahead and look around for whatever it is you're seeking, that is as long as i'm allowed to join you for the time being." Without waiting for a response she moved a decent distance away from the fire, lying on her side and simply watching the young man. A range of emotions welled up inside of her. Sadness, fear, anxiety, relief, happiness, and a bit of content. She wasn't sure which was the most appropriate and decided perhaps a mix of all of them. She let out a sigh to relax and held the sword close as she lay beside the warmth of the flame

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow as the woman went on. His skull ached slightly, and he wasn’t sure if it was fate trying to tell him something, or if he’d just well and truly had a shit day. He listened to her little spiel, slowly forming the image of an overexcited puppy who had just been thrown a tennis ball. A smile played across his lips as her words reminded himself of…him. Way back when he had first come to this world he’d been in the same boat as her, and he too had a million questions to ask.

“I’d be remiss to let you wander off alone…” he mused as he leaned against the wall. “Much too dangerous. If you want, you can stay with me until I find what I need and you can join me on my journey back, after all if you have nowhere to go you might as well accompany me to civilization.” He fidgeted with his hands for a moment before closing his eyes, “I can teach you too, after all I that’s my job. I answer questions…” He let out a deep breath as his heart began to slow and sleep began to take him.

...

Vince opened his eyes to find Qadira staring at him, her purple eyes peering into his soul. "HOLY FUCK" he yelped jolting awake. "Why the fuck are you just staring at me like that?"

[Qadira]

Qadira watched as the scholar opened his eyes; slowly at first, and then with sudden panic and a yell. She bolted upright at his sudden outburst and wore an apologetic look.

"Oh gosh i'm sorry vince!" She stated, quickly realizing how strange the situation may seem to him. "Like I said before, I wasn't really up for sleeping so I kinda just stayed up all night, thinking about all sorts of strange things. After a certain point, I sort of just entered a trance of just thinking and next thing I knew I noticed you were waking up." She had stood up during her explanation and stood sort of awkwardly, one hand holding her other arm looking to him for forgiveness for creating such an awkward situation.

She laughed nervously "My face must be so red right now" She noted, although in fact it was not! She was still as ever pale as before, as she had not thought of every effect her new condition would have on her. "How about we just move along with what you need to get done then okay?"

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar watched the young woman trip over her words, seeming so frazzled at her social mistake. The scholar raised a hand to calm her and shot her a warm smile, “It’s alright…” he muttered calmly. “I was just a little surprised…” He rose to his feet and stretched for a moment. He snapped his fingers and suddenly he had a flask or water and two rolls of bread. Tossing one to Qadira, he sank his teeth into the thick crusty bread and let the strong wheat flavor wash over him. “Eat,” he commanded between bites. “It’s going to be a long day…” his eyes shot to the door as he spoke, pale light seemed to be streaming in from the cracks, filling the dark room with sunlight.

When he was done eating he popped the tinted visor back on and double checked his gear to make sure he was as safe as he was going to be walking through the infested city. One small tear could mean death for him, or worse, he could become an unwitting carrier to the plague and bring it back to civilization. He eyed Qadira for a moment, her lack of gear meant that she would probably need to be quaranteened wherever she went, but he could worry about that later. First he would need to find the text he was after, buried somewhere deep within the catacombs beneath the town, all the while playing an escort mission. His head still ached slightly as his eyes adjusted to the slight tint of the world through his mask.

“Long story short,” he uttered through his mask. “We need to head to the center of town and go dig through some ruins that may or may not be filled with undead…”

[Qadira]

Qadira relaxed as the young man gave her the consolation she was seeking. She took the bread once again that he had offered, and focused a bit more on the flavor as she sank her teeth into its soft fluffy core. It was plain of course, as all bread was, but she couldn't help bet get the feeling that eating this bread was wrong. She couldn't quite place whether it was the fact that she wasn't truly alive that gave her this feeling, or if it was something else entirely. Perhaps something from her past?

'No matter' she thought, 'We have more important business'. As she finished her simple meal, feeling no more full than she had been before, she looked to her new travelling companion and took in what he told her.

"May or may not huh?" she chuckled lightly at this musing "Well I'm sure we'll be fine. These undead can't be too horrible, and who knows maybe we might me more like me?" she pondered this for a moment. How would she react if she did in fact meet other undead like her. How would she react if she met any undead at all. She had a close encounter with one, but it was already over before she knew it had started. The necromancer thought more on this; How would her magic work with living dead? She had so many questions, and none of the information needed to answer any of them.

"Well, lead the way Mr. Vince" She said pointing towards the door.

[Cards of Fate]

Vince couldn’t help but admire the woman’s optimism. This town was the heaviest hit during the Corpse War, and when it fell it more than likely became a hub for Xem’Xund’s zombie army. His death probably led to a collapse of order, but it was doubtless that hundreds, if not thousands of zombies were still milling about, if they were lucky. If they weren’t…

Vince didn’t want to think about that too much.

Instead he snapped his fingers and released the seal on the door, and carefully pushed it open with his foot. He drew his blade, and very carefully crept forward listening for the sound of any stray undead nearby. Gingerly he poked his head out and glanced to either side. Satisfied it was safe he gestured for Qadira to follow suit as they exited into the sunlight. The scholar had overslept, and it was almost midday. The streets seemed to be empty for the most part, the occasional stray ghoul milled about in the distance, but the outskirts seemed mostly clear. Blade clenched in hand, the scholar headed in towards the heart of the town.

“Stay close and keep an eye on our rear.” Vince commanded. “Tell me if anything gets within thirty feet of us…”

[Qadira]

The girl nodded at the young man's orders. Vincent would step out the door, holding his sword in hand, looking capable of taking on any kind of threat that would approach him. Qadira on the the other hand, meandered behind him carefully, holding her sword tightly with both hands. She wasn't very sure how she should handle using such a weapon, or if she ever had in the past, but she knew that carrying some sort of defense was important.

The necromancer pondered her powers as she followed close behind Vince. 'I know i'm capable of reanimating the dead, but to what extent?'. She had felt a sense of weariness the first and only time she had done so. This could've been from her exhausting ordeal of escaping her tomb, or as she was theorizing, may have had something to do with the exertion of her magic. Perhaps there was a limit to her power. She decided the best course of action would be to save it for near emergencies and to rely on Vince for the moment. She could probably take care of something stupid or slow enough with her sword, and she would leave more urgent threats to him.

[Cards of Fate]

The two went about their work slowly, moving street by street and observing the wreckage for anything useful. It seemed the city had been more or less left "preserved" in it's own festering carcass. Jewelry laid strewn out in the open, beautiful treasures locked away in a festering box free from the greedy hands of would be theives. Given the amount of time, the city in theory should have been picked clean, but only fools would venture this deep into the plaguelands for such petty reasons. Occasionally Vince would stoop over and pick up an odd bauble or trinket, cooing over it for a moment before either setting it back down or whisking it away into the nothingness that was the blue sparks at his disposal. Every now and again the duo would run into the stray undead, who would be quickly felled by the swift strikes of the scholar.

"This silence is fucking eerie..." Vince grunted from behind his mask after nearly three hours of their journey. They'd stopped for water, which Vince was carefully funneling through some strange hose system into his mask. "Nothing but the occasional moan and shuffling of our feet..."

[Qadira]

Qadira had followed Vince very closely the entire time. Only stepping away to make room as he took down the undead for her. She wasn't particularly keen on getting too close quarters with the creatures.

Her original optimism faded immediately after encountering their first undead. She had originally given them the thought to think of them as people with some sort of illness. She was very wrong. The creatures acted more like monsters than like people; Some even looked more like monsters. The way their flesh had either rotted or been torn away, she was reluctant to look at some of the creatures.

As the duo came to rest for a moment, Qadira watched the man drink through his strange apparatus.

"I want to know more about your suit" she asked plainly and unexpectedly. "Perhaps some conversation would make things less eerie?". She gestured a palm out towards him. "I know I don't remember much, but that suit is so foreign to me it feels almost like its from a different time period. How long have we had that kind of technology? And I know you said it protected you from this... plague; are you sure i'm going to be alright? I mean I don't feel anything at all so i'm not too worried". She borrowed his flask and drank after he had finished quenching his thirst.

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow, although it was masked behind his...mask.

"This sort of thing is cutting edge technology. A nice weave of magic and science to make something far beyond what you'd normally see." He paused for a moment and chuckled. She was inquisitive, just like he used to be when he'd first arrived on Althanas. "While I'm not one to normally blab on about simple stuff..." That's a dirty fucking lie... he thought to himself as he continued. "It works by isolating me from the outside entriely. The air I breathe is passed through a magic filter that strips all sorts of nastiness out, be it plagues, poisons, or just nastyness in the ear." He waved his hands as he spoke. "The magic strips it all out, and it collects in a filter here..." he tapped his mask right where his mouth should be. "When I'm done using it, I'll have to change the filter, but in the case I may just throw the whole thing out due to the danger the plague poses...

His mind flashed to the incident that had prompted this trip. An entire lab had been overrun by undead due to a careless mistake that had let the disease out of quarantine. Now that section of the harbor was a scorchmark on the ground where he was planning to build a memorial. "As for your predicament, if you haven't noticed any symptoms yet you SHOULD be in the clear. When we get back to civilization we will need to decontaminate you, but that shouldn't be too hard..."

[Qadira]

She nodded, taking in all of the knowledge he had given her. She looked down at her own hands, thinking of all the other undead that they had taken care of. She studied the lines and seemingly flawless paleness of her skin, curious as to her past and what kind of magic seemed to be preserving her. She looked to her companion and nodded, signaling that they should move on.

As they continued through the ruined city Vincent would slay more undead and Qadira kept close. 'This isn't going too badly' she thought to herself, perhaps too soon. They came upon an undead as they passed through an alleyway. Vincent moved forward and effortlessly plunged his sword into the creature's head, only to find his blade had lodged itself and would not loose free.

Qadira turned around, checking their backs just in time. She had noticed another undead coming straight for them, or more accurately, for her. She was behind Vince and so from that side the creature would be going straight for her. With her companion preoccupied she decided she'd have to take care of the monster herself. 'I don't have the time nor the resources to use my magic, I'll have to use the sword' she thought quickly, some sort of combat reflex kicking in. As the creature came close and started to lunge at her, Qadira instinctively plunged her sword into the undead's skull. The feel of the blade sinking into the rotting flesh and breaking through the bone was enough that it would make her vomit, but she resisted the urge and instead merely dropped the blade reeling backwards.

The undead fell limp as it's head was turned into a kabob, and Qadira fell back onto her rear end looking down towards it. Her sense of dread and disgust washed away as quickly as it appeared, and she was puzzled by her own emotion. She instead stood up and looked to Vince.

"That was close" she spoke to him and watched as he pulled his own sword out, as well as hers and handed it back to her. He was kind enough to console her and ask if she was alright, but she surprisingly didn't need it. She was unharmed and emotionally felt fine. They continued on through the streets. As they travled they came upon a large structure that seemed of some sort of importance.

"We're here" Vince spoke to her

[Cards of Fate]

The earlier fight had left Vince slightly rattled. How the fuck had his sword gotten caught? He should have been able to rip through any of these lesser undead like tissue. He glanced over his blade while he let the ruin of the Istien Academy sink in on Qadira. Long ago, during Raiaera's golden age, it had been referred to as the glass star of Eluriand. It had been the home to some of the greatest minds of the land, and some the of the most powerful spell singers had been trained right here. Now, it was mere ruins. Ornate silver arches that once held crystalline panes of glass lied in crumbled heaps, the glass shattered forming a shimmering crystal sea of menacing shards. It's roof had caved in, leaving the support beams and infrastructure to jut out into the sky like an exposed rib-cage of carrion left to rot. The air was filled with a deathly silence, sending shivers down the scholar's spine. In another world, or another lifetime, he would have come here to study as the Hierophant...

The scholar swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke. "Somewhere in here is a cache of research down by Elias T Sylvarious..." the words echoed softly through the ruins. "He had led the charge against Xem'zund during the war of the Tap, and his work could prove a fatal weapon against the remnants of this plague..."

[Qadira]

Qadira examined the library that stood before her and felt a slight sense of dread. Two days. Two days was the sum total of all of her memories and here she was, getting ready to delve into a dangerous library with undead horrors and who knows whatever else. She weighed her options having this realization.

'Should I really stay with this guy and risk my life beside him?' she thought solemnly. It was true that he was very capable in combat and was unlikely to falter in a way that would get himself killed, but would he be able to continue to protect her? What if they were to come across some untold horror inside this place and he was unable to keep both of them alive. Surely the young man would prioritize his own life before hers, especially considering her life may not even truly be considered living. 'Although, my other options aren't as good' she pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to calculate her chances of survival. The young man was probably unlikely to want to just leave after all this time, meaning she would have to either brave her way to some sort of sanctuary on her own, or wait for him to come out unharmed. People may not be as welcoming to her... condition, as Vince was, and she didn't want to have to take her chances protecting herself waiting on him for who knows how long.

"Alright" she spoke suddenly. During the course of her thinking a few minutes of thinking, the scholar would be inspecting the building and deciding their course of action, she decided to see this thing through to the end. "Although..." she took notice of all the shattered glass, and then her own feet. She hadn't been buried with any form of footwear, and she'd rather not have to remove a bunch of glass from her feet. "Would you mind helping me past all this glass?" she asked with a sort of chuckle

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar took a moment to notice Qadira’s feet for a moment. He’d been much too busy to notice her situation before. He raised an eyebrow behind his mask and let out a sigh.

“That would be an issue wouldn’t it?” He mused aloud. He debated how to go about doing this, but a group of soft moaning behind them drew the scholar’s attention to a crowd of ten or so undead shambling closer. Without second thought he scooped Qadira up bridal style and made his way across the sea of glass, his boots crunching with every step. Ignoring any complaints from his guest, he entered the shady library with ease.

Once in the shadows, the scholar scanned the interior carefully. Bookcases seemed scattered and shattered, leaving little in terms of the initial library. The odd text lay strewn about, but the scholar didn’t even need to stop and check to see that the books were far from usable. Years of being open to the elements had decimated the first floor of the library.

“Keep an eye out for a trap door, or maybe some stairs leading downwards.” The scholar mused glancing about.

[Qadira]

Qadira nodded in acknowledgement of the information the scholar had given her. She noticed large portions of the glass had been almost pushed aside as if to make pathways and looked to him so he would set her back down. The warmth of his skin had been pleasant against her own, but there was work to be done.


She scanned the room, exploring inquisitively and surveying some of the books as she went along. She had hoped to pick up some sort of momento for herself while she had been here, and perhaps learn a few things of her own, but all of the books were either too worn or completely torn apart from the elements. She sighed to herself and continued look on through the building, appreciating the architecture as she made her way to the back end. She noticed a staircase that lead higher into the building, and upon closer inspection saw a lot of rubble that seemed to be blocking passage to a staircase that would lead further down.


“Hey Vince?” she called out to him, turning to find him effortlessly lifting a particularly large bookcase that had fallen over. “Oh my” she gasped to herself “How can you even be that strong?” she asked a bit wide eyed. After a moment of distraction she shook her head, she was digressing. “Nevermind that. I found the way down, but there’s a bit of a problem over here.” She gestured towards the rubble near her.


The scholar turned his gaze to where the young woman was pointing and raised an eyebrow as he rubbed his chin. “That does look like a lot of rubble, but I think I can take a crack at it.” He cracked his knuckles and crossed the library, brushing aside glass with his feet to make a path for Qadira to follow. It seemed like the once grandiose center of knowledge had been shattered into a sea of diamond. When the arrived at the foot of the steps, he let out a soft tut before tapping his feet. The rubble was indeed blocking what appeared to be a stairway descending into the lower floors of the school, but it was a particularly large amount of rubble, and he didn’t necessarily have all day to move it.


“Any ideas?” he asked turning to his companion. “I could brute force my way through, but that would take a long time.”

[Cards of Fate]

”The woman thought for a moment and had a bit of an idea. “What if we had some help?” she said surveying the room once again. “Do you happen to see any particularly strong looking dead guys lying around?” Vince took a look around for a moment, chewing on his lower lip behind his mask.


“As far as I can tell, no…” he paused. “I can kinda see where you’re going, but I doubt any zombie will have enough strength to perform a feat of that magnitude.” he tapped his toes and glanced about for a little longer. “Maybe there’s another stairway? I doubt this is the only one…”


The two scanned around for once more, trying to file every detail away to be used for future reference before Vince piped up.


“The Library is a Star!”


“ A star?” She replied, curious to his meaning.


“A star!” He said once more. “As in it is a geometric shape with five points, which are the five wings of the library.” He paused once more, to try and clue her in. “So if there are five wings, and five entrances, then there must be…”


She shook her head in response “Five ways to go lower in the building. You know I may basically be as old as the two days I have memory of, but that doesn’t mean you should treat me like a kid!” She huffed at him and put her hands on her hips sassily.


“Well excuuuuse me princess.” Vince said rolling his eyes. “I was trying to help you make the discovery for yourself.” he paused and without looking pointed to the right at another pile of rubble. “By my calculation the nearest other staircase should be over there.”


She nodded and walked up behind him. Without warning she jumped up and onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. “Well! Sounds like that’s the way to go then!” She said chuckling a bit.


“Since when did I become a horse?” Vincent asked as he began walking through the sea of broken glass, each step a cacophony of crunches. When they reached the next staircase they found that both passages were impassable, prompting him to begin progress to the next one.


“You’re super light, did you know that?” Vincent asked over his shoulder. “Like...you weigh almost nothing at all. It’s like you’re not even there.”


She shrugged leaning forward against him without thinking. “Well after seeing the way you lifted that bookcase that’s not surprising to me at all. I mean I’m pretty thin anyways, besides my obvious curves of course” she thought on the matter a bit more “Perhaps it would be better to find me shoes anyways, incase you need your hands to fight?” The scholar thought for a moment on the issue, tutting softly under his breath.


“You have a good point.” He muttered as they reached the third staircase, both piles of impassable rubble. “But I don’t know where we’d even find shoes your size in a literal ghost town such as this.” He started walking to the fourth staircase, still deep in thought. “Perhaps the librarians had a living quarters down below? Or maybe we might luck out and find a felled corpse with your shoe size…”

[Qadira]

She nodded in agreement with this idea “The corpse will probably be our best bet. I know there’s some pretty die hard fanatics of knowledge, but I can’t see people wanting to live at a library every day. Who knows though, i’ve been surprised by much less likely things” she chuckled and starting poking Vincent’s mask, sort of like a fish in a bowl, out of boredom. “Vince this is taking forever” she muttered.


“I’m sorry but I can’t control the fucking stairs.” He replied chuckling. “We better hope we find a way down soon, or we may have to commit to me digging through the rubble and forcing our way down.” He kicked a bookcase sending it clattering to the ground and scrambled over it, approaching the fourth stairway only to find it blocked once more. “For fuck’s sake.” He growled. “If this next one works, we just wasted our time walking a lap around the library for nothing.”


Qadira shook her head and laughed “At least we had a chance to socialize a little bit during this time. Too much stress isn’t good for you I hear. Although I’m unsure how that would even affect my body” she thought about this for a moment more. “As a matter of fact i’m not sure how a lot of stuff affects my body. I should perform some tests with some undead once we’re done here.”


The scholar rolled his eyes behind his mask and kept going for several moments before stopping. Before him was a rather “pristine” looking clearing. Several fallen bookcases seemed to form a circular barrier, and in the center was a perfectly preserved table. Sitting in a chair, but slumped over the table, was the corpse of a young woman. Beneath each of her dangling arms were crimson stains, which could lead Vincent to one conclusion.


“She slit her wrists to avoid becoming undead…” he muttered shaking his head. Normally that wouldn’t work, for such magics had a way of taking people without infecting them during their life, but it seemed in this case it had worked. He paused for a moment, his eyes scanning over the decayed corpse of a fellow knowledge lover. “She has some nice shoes…”


Qadira rolled her eyes at the comment and gestured towards the table. “Mind setting me down so I can try them on?” She waited for her valiant steed to lead her to the table and loosened her grip so as to sit with her legs dangling above the ground. “I wonder who she was. This seems like a strange place for a woman her age to dawdle about”.


“Elves tend to look younger than they actually are.” Vincent replied stretching. “There were a great deal of magic schools associated with this place a long time ago. She could have been a student, or maybe a member of the nobility seeking asylum in the one place she thought would never fall. I have no clue…”


The necromantress looked to Vince with an idea. “We could always ask, if you think it’s worth the trouble. I don’t want to over exert myself when it comes to my power, considering i’m not a hundred percent sure how it even works” she thought about the possibilities whilst kicking her legs playfully beneath the table. “Either way, I’d appreciate if you could help me with those shoes she’s wearing”

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow at her assumption and simply walked to the corpse, pressing his left thumb and index fingers on her chin and pinched. As he opened her mouth, a stream of dust flowed freely from her jaw.


“I doubt she could tell us with no tongue.” He quipped. “She’s probably been dead for several years, and whatever foul rot has taken this place seems to have advanced the rate of decay here.” He crouched down and began to fiddle with the woman's shoes, eventually prying them free while still leaving the foot attached to the body. Once he had both boots, he rose and handed them off to Qadira. “They sure look like they’ll make a good fit…”


She carefully slipped them onto her feet, trying not to tear apart the old looking material holding the shoe together. It wasn’t much, and it felt a bit loose, but it was enough to let her walk around without having to worry about pieces of glass in her feet. “Thanks” she said scooting off the table and onto her feet. “Well I suppose we should find that staircase?”


“I suppose so…” Vince muttered looking back to where they had been heading. “Stay close though…” With that they were off once more. With both of his hands free, Vince drew a sword from a flash of blue and lead while Qadira followed behind carefully. When the reached the final staircase Vince was surprised to see that both staircases seemed to be in borderline perfect condition. As he stared into the darkness below he felt a strange sense of dread wash over him. He felt goosebumps start to form along his arms, and a cold sweat began to drip down his neck.


“Suddenly...I’m not too sure about this Qadira…”


She raised an eyebrow at his sudden reservations. “What’s the matter? We came all this way and you were so confident before” she replied to him. “Afraid of the dark?” she teased not grasping just how perturbed Vincent was.


“I have seen some shit.” Vince muttered between clenched teeth. “But whatever is down there...is a whole new level of fucked up.” He shivered and took a step forward. “I'm gonna stab it to death.”

[Qadira]

She chuckled at his choice of words and nodded. “Whatever you say Mr. Hero” she muttered following behind him as he took his first step into the abyss that lay before them. She went step by step into the stairs, following close behind Vincent.




Each step made the temperature drop dramatically. They went from a moderately sauna like temperature to a frigid cold. The light seemed to almost be...supernaturally dimmed. Hissing, Vincent snapped his fingers and in a flash of blue light pulled out a crystal orb. He grabbed Qadira and pulled her closer, pressing her against his chest.


“Close your eyes.” He commanded. When she had done so, he hissed under his breath. “Ignite.” The crystal sparked, and a massive blue flame ignited inside bathing the catacomb with a brilliant blue light. Just as the scholar suspected, it seemed that the darkness was so thick it was an actual presence, an inky black mist swathing all that existed in the depths of this temple of death into a bottomless abyss. “This is worse than I thought…”


Before them lay a barely illuminated hall that seemed to fall off into a pitch black void. Vincent, with sword drawn, stepped forward and gingerly pressed the orb into the woman’s hands. “Carry the light, and whatever you do, don’t drop it.”


The woman took the crystal ball gingerly in her hands, almost afraid to hold it. She could feel the gentle warmth radiate through the glass and into her hands. It issued a sense of ease to her, but wasn’t enough to distract her from the eerie and unsettling setting that surrounded them.


“So” she trailed off, looking around the narrow hall “What’s the plan, because this is starting to get really creepy really quickly” She followed close behind the scholar, hoping nothing would leap from the shadows.


“Well…” Vince half whispered. “This is the part where we hunt down a giant undead monster that is a literal walking library. He’s a behemoth with a veritable shitton of the notes and works of the dark god who created this plague.” The scholar paused and held his hand up to Qadira to shush her and then brought it to his ear to strain his hearing. “I think we might be close...but I can’t tell for the fucking life of me with all this echo…”

[Cards of Fate]

Qadira strained her ear as well, listening to the silence with all her might. After what felt like an eternity, she heard a sound.


Thump.


Vincent’s pulse quickened as he heard it too. He brought both hands to his blade and dropped into a half crouch, brandishing his blade at the ready over his head. “Whatever happens…” he whispered. “Don’t panic.”


Thump…..


Thump…


Thump..


Thump Thump Thump


The steps began to pick up speed, but Vincent couldn’t tell if it was his heart of whatever was coming at him.


Thum Thump thump thump thump


The scholar’s breathing quickened.


ThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThump ThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThump ThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThump


The apparent footsteps seemed to grow faster and ever louder with every passing second. Vincent’s heart raced to keep tempo when suddenly….


Thump….Thump….Thump.


The footsteps seemed to fade to a stop, or perhaps even disappear alltogether. As if the beast had vanished, or headed in the other direction.


“I...think…” Qadira managed to squeak out of her clenched teeth. “I think it’-”


“MOVE!” Vincent roared tackling the young lich to the ground. A massive claw of flesh and bone smashed through the wall to their right, exactly where Qadira had been standing. The orb flew from her hands and clacked noisily away, into the darkness, leaving the area the two in to fade into darkness. “Fuck.” The scholar spat scooping Qadira into his arms. He looked up to see his foe step into the light, the orb behind him casting a sinister silhouette over. Or, it would have, if it could fit…


The thing before them could only be described as an abomination. Several corpses seened to be crudely stiched, shackled, and sewn together to form some bastardization of an arm. Jutting from the elbow seemed to be a singular figure with glowing red eyes, staring at them. The grotesque appendage turned one hundred and eighty degrees, crunching and snapping as the corpses broke and reform to accommodate the unnatural abominations movement. Five “fingers” seemed to loom towards them, singular bodies jutting from a meaty “hand” each with two arms and crimson red eyes. Each “finger” crooked it’s head at the duo, as if it too was having a hard time seeing in this abyss.


Or maybe it was trying to figure out why one of their sisters was with a member of the living.


Without speak the scholar scrambled to his feet and set Qadira on hers. “RUN.” He bellowed, pointing back at where they had come from. “AND DON’T LOOK BACK. GET TO WHERE THAT WOMAN WAS.” With that he was charging forward, swinging his blade with deadly intent.

[Qadira]

As the woman was helped to her feet she scrambled trying to find the way from which they came. She quickly replayed the events that had just transpired back in her head and managed to reverse engineer the direction they came from. She hesitated, looking towards the scholar. She felt a tugging in her gut, saying that she should help in some way, but in her mind she knew there was currently nothing she could do. She turned her back to him and ran. She bolted into the darkness, scared she might run into some other unholy abomination, but kept running. Her body screamed a burning pain to her, she obviously wasn’t meant to exert her undead physique quite this much, but she kept on. As she found the stairs she scrambled to climb them, and after a few moments, found herself bathed in the familiar warmth of the library, and the light coming through where glass
once was.


She fell to her hands and knees, instinctively she gasped for air, and it offered some slight respite, but ultimately the toll of being so active was taken on her body. “I hope Vince is okay” she trailed off, looking back at the staircase, and waited for his return…

[Cards of Fate]

Vince swung his sword with all the fury and grace of his predecessors in combatting this ancient beast. His blade glinted in the dim light of his orb as he hacked and slashed at the unyielding beast before him. Each strike dug into the corpses like a warm knife through butter, but after each brutal blow no blood was spilt, and not a single gash remained on the foul horror before him. Each wound seemed to seal behind his blade, causing each strike to be more futile than the last. The red eyed undead seemed to cackle with each strike, as if they were ammused by the amature flailing of the young man before him.


Grunting, Vince took a step back and evaluated his options. It seemed like he would have to run, not a single strike was sounding true, and it seemed like this beast was nigh invulnerable.


That’s when the second hand smashed through the wall behind him, blocking his way back.


“FUCKING LOVELY.” Vincent roared. The two meaty appendages seemed to be closing in on him, tearing up the wall as they did so. Vincent’s sapphire eyes darted from danger to danger, looking for a way out, and that’s when he did something incredibly stupid.


Roaring, he charged into the first hand blocking his path to the orb. His blade danced with incredible speed, and with dexterity he thought he could never obtain, he sliced his way through the hand. He pushed through the dreadful mirk and mire that was the creatures essence, but Vince pushed through. As he took his first step past the hand, he made a mad dash for his orb. Scooping it up in one hand, he turned back to face the beast. The “lead” tendril jutting from the elbow turned and cocked its head to the side, it’s jaw hanging open agast. Grinning, Vincent dropped his blade, watching as it flashed from existence once it clattered to the ground.


“Guess we’ll have to leave this up for round two!” Vince grunted. The “leadr” cackled and the arm swung at him. Without hesitating, Vincent barreled right into the blow, and the moment it seemed like it would hit him, he vanished into a cloud of sparks, only to reappear well out of the reach of the other hand, sprinting towards the exit. He closed his eye and began to mutter under his breath. He imagined the soft crackling of the eternal fire in his hearth back home. He could feel the plush carpet beneath his toes, he could feel the soft leather of his favorite chair. He could taste the sweet burn of his favorite brandy. He cleared the stairs and leapt over Qadira, the loud thump thump thumping of his foe behind him. He wrenched his eyes open and splayed his free hand out, shooting a spark of energy out before him, tearing a rift in reality. He snapped and the orb vanished from his fingers, and his free hand scooped Qadira into the air. The two flew through the air, and into the portal. The beast roaring behind them as they did so. The two found themselves flung into a dimly lit room. The soft crackle of a fire filled the air.


They were safe…


“You know you should really ask before picking someone off the ground!” Qadira huffed. Vince stared at the young woman lying on the floor next to him and rolled his eyes, a deep sigh escaping his lips.


“Well Excuuuuuse me, Princess.”

[Rayleigh]

Thread: The Depths of Death
Participants: Cards of Fate & Qadira
Type: Workshop

Congratulations!

Cards of Fate receives 2,635 EXP and 255 GP.
Qadira receives 1,430 EXP and 145 GP.

Qadira receives the following spoils: A pair of worn and weathered magim beast boots seemingly lost to time. The knee high boots fit well, but the leather is peeling in various places and it's well worn. It's style was all the rage way back when in the courts of Eluriand.

[Rayleigh]

All rewards have been added!