An Unlikely Trip. ((Closed))

[Mutant_Lorenor]

((Moderator note this quest takes place approximately two months after Refugee Camp (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=6278) ))


A papyrus parchment lurked in the boy's hand. Completed with the night's training in the central educational building of the Gol'bron, the boy find himself with time on his hand. With the weight of eternity before him and after him at all times, the boy read the parchment once again. The key details made him frown for a moment. Another assassin mission. This time, he needed to invade a certain Noble's fort. The Corone Civil War lurked ahead of them all and the boy was anxious. Making its bid to become the Corone Empire, people from all walks of life were affected by this sudden act. Having healed his bruises, the boy walked outside watching the night workers for a time. He marveled at how stalwart humans were when they wanted to be. He still thought they were very dangerous however.

Walking away from the town a cloaked individual awaited the boy in the exact spot that the parchment specified. The boy sighed. He knew he would have help again for this mission and that The Endless might guide him to his help as well. The boy spoke very little about The Endless these nights. As a matter of practicality more than anything else. When there were voices that only one could hear, it was wise not to mention the matter. Walking towards the stranger, the boy kept a grim expression on his face. He saw the marks of the Church of Ethereal sway on the lad's person. Once he arrived a few paces before him, the stranger handed the boy a small package. Nodding after that the mystery man simply up and left without another word.

That act alone spoke volumes of the severity of his next Cathedral mission.

^Enter here.

[Tenki]

Tenki made his way among the people of the outpost. Tenki blended in oddly well amongst the quiet workers, his person covered in his long black duster, complete with the hood over his face, despite the dead of night. Tenki tilted his head from left to right, comparing what he was now seeing to the crude map on the paper he had tucked into an inside pocket of the duster.

This job, like one of his previous jobs, involved a pub. However, where as last time he had pulled a notice off the alley behind the pub, this one had literally come to him. A gentleman had come up into the pub, and with a direct and purposeful stride, sat in a table next to him only to lean back and slip the paper currently in his cloak over onto the table Tenki himself was sitting at. Tenki had begun to reach for it when the man spoke in controlled, if not rehearsed, even tones. "What you see in front of you has all the details you will need. We have heard your name before, and believe you both willing and able to help us. Who we are isn't important, only what we'll give you in return, and who you'll be able to help by doing this deed. Take a moment to look it over, then either nod approval or lack of. If you agree, we may come to you for more help in the future. Decline, and you will never hear from us again. Your choice."

Tenki sat there for a while, trying his best not to look slack jawed. He had only been on this world for about a month, or what body was used to as a month, and in that time, had done and seen a measure of rather amazing things. He bent his neck down to look, taking in the information on the paper in a few seconds and processed it. He'd been able to pick up the written language of Tradespeak after a few marathon practice sessions with Luin helping him, but was still often grateful that Luin could do real time translating on the spoken word, or he would probably be dead long before now. He hit the part on the paper about taking out one assisting the newly forming Corone Empire and he was set to accept it. Leaning back into his chair, he gave a fairly firm affirmatively nod and began reaching into his pocket to pay the barman when the stranger grabbed his arm lightly. "This one is on us. As a thanks for acceptance." The stranger then got up and, leaving enough to pay for both drinks, left. Tenki sat for a few minutes, going over the rest of the paper. Nothing much was really on it, the instructions nearly read like a simple grocery list, along with a rough map on the bottom. Go to following outpost, to this point. A partner will be waiting for you. He will have more information. Assassinate target who is providing aid to the newly formed Empire.

Still going over such an odd series of events in his head, as he had in the few days it took him to make it here, Tenki spotted an area similar to the place he was supposed to end up, according to the map. It appeared that a lot of man powered excavation had been going going on there, as there were a handful of people still pulling buckets of dirt away, even at this late hour. However, the place was still lightly packed enough that Tenki was able to recognize the outline of someone he not only recognized, but knew from the last time he had agreed to something like this. The form of Lorenor. Lorenor himself was looking over a package in his hands, turning it over and investigating it like a small child would a wrapped present. Walking up withing a few feet of the distracted fellow, Tenki cleared his throat and asked. "Guess you're my contact for this mission... so what's in the package." He looked directly at Lorenor now, believing he would recognize his face.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

So deep in his thoughts did the boy seem that he almost missed the approaching scent of the newcomer completely. All at once a familiar scent filled his nostrils, one from a previous adventure involving a Refugee Camp and the safety of it's denizens. Somehow, the boy's life became deeply entrenched in Corone's bid to attempt to transform into an Empire. Both a part of the tapestry himself, and a force acting against the wave of change, the boy had a terrifying presence in all of this. Looking up as he heard foot-steps and heard questions approach his ears, the boy blinked a few moments. His glowing purple eyes vanished briefly, and reappearing. The boy took a look at Tenki for a long moment as if absorbing the handsome young lad's appearance.

Feeling his heart racing at the lad's presence, the boy took a controlled deep breath. He'd gone through a lot since the last time he met. There was that thing with the Golems, and the adventure in Salvar. The package in his hand was light weighing roughly 10lbs or so. Whatever inside it seemed important because it was wrapped in officially marked parcels. The boy saw a now familiar seal, his latest benefactors. He swore loyalty only to Ranger Nailo and to the Church of Ethereal Sway. His shady dealings afforded him few allies and they were precious to him. Thinking on the skill of the lad before him, he remembered how easily he wielded the weapon around his neck. He almost wish he had such a thing himself. Somehow, the weapon reminded him of The Endless.

Remembering his manners just then, the boy nodded very politely to the lad and very deeply. Though not a man of considerable fame, in a previous incarnation he'd once managed to obtain lord-ship in Salvar. Those days however were seemingly gone like so many other good memories. Of the lad though, the boy had only nothing but positive memories. He was a disciplined warrior who could use a bit more refining and a good friend. He was also a very skilled tactician. The boy remembered all of this from his previous adventure with Tenki.

"What's in the package? Official Church of Ethereal Sway business I am afraid I cannot tell you. But I am assuming you got the original parchment for the mission yes? In that parchment should be the name of our target, and a map to his mansion. I have both of the information in my personal travel packs and I know the way there. Through the Gol'Bron I have arranged for our passage to this man's place. Our target is a local Duke who has been terrorizing people in Corone for a while now. It seems that with Corone's bid to become an Empire all the crazies have come out from hiding and commit open atrocities. I am to take care of our target officially. You need not bloody your hands in this matter. But I will need your help for other matters I am afraid. So there you have it friend." The boy said that word with a deeper voice than normal as if emphasizing the word. He truly meant it when he spoke of Tenki in such a way, the boy was an attractive charm.

[Tenki]

While he heard the word "friend" from time to time, coming from Lorenor after the previous outing that he had been involved in, Tenki couldn't help but feel this may well be one of the few people on Althanas that he himself would call the same thing. For pay or not, for anyone to go the the lengths they all had to protect that camp proved they had at least a bit of care for others in them, even if it was something that Lorenor himself might not admit to if questioned.

It also soothed Tenki a bit upon hearing that he would not have to be the one with blood on his hands. This indeed brought Tenki some solace, as it had been the one of the few things weighing on his mind since accepting this mission. While he could bring himself to kill in defense, acting as judge, jury, and executioner by himself left him in a much more gray, or worse, area. As a general rule, he would often prefer to bring people in unconscious, or in in the case back home, in binds or restrictive wear. He knew in the line of work he had been taking on this world, that nonlethal wouldn't always remain a viable option, especially since he'd never been good at the binding programs and could only hold one together for any length of time under the best of circumstances... the kind you can only get while practicing.

Reaching into his duster, he pulled out the paper with he near bare bones information on it and offered it to Lorenor. "I would doubt this it the original parchment, or if it is, whomever wrote it certainly doesn't like to mince words. In any case, it would appear that you have some more information on this than I, information it might be better for me to hear while we travel. Are there going to be others, or shall we prepare to leave? It would appear that the advantage dead of night bring us may soon fade."

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor liked Tenki a lot. There was a sort of green naivety to the boy that kept him pure. Perhaps the boy thought to slowly corrupt Tenkin and turn him into something much darker than he might be on his own. The boy liked the idea of playing such games with him. Still though, he did consider Tenki a friend and the recent actions at the Refugee Camp proved to the boy that Tenki was reliable. He followed orders, but most importantly, followed his own heart and personal judging. The boy thought back to the events of the Refugee Camp and realized he'd given quite a bit more than the initial contract stated. He saw friendship, he saw courage, and he saw a little spark of SOMETHING ELSE within himself taking fruit.

Somewhere down the line a seed began to plant itself in Lorenor's heart. This seed manifested in a number of different ways, a number of different branches, but the seeds were there none-the-less. They were the beginnings of a root that might one day form a magnificent tree filled with the Prime Darkness. The boy thought about Tenki's last comments. Nights on Althanas seemed to last much longer than on other worlds. They seemed to drag on as if having a life of their own. In some ways they did.

Hours of the night seemed to last an eternity especially for the night-kind like Lorenor. The boy carefully weighed in Tenki's words in his head. Absorbing them like a sponge. He looked up and saw that the sky was still dark, star-lit and filled with possibilities. His eyes moved to one particular star, the red one and he smiled to the Dark Mother. He knew that one night soon, the Dark Mother's reign on Althanas awaited. The fanciful thought left itself quickly and he focused on the task on hand.

"Come with me." The boy said and moved North-West in the Gol'bron settlement where he agreed to meet the man named Joshua. Joshua agreed to prepare the boy's transport for he and a companion days earlier.

[Tenki]

Tenki continued to gaze up at the sky, attempting to find what Lorenor had been staring at for several moments at last arriving at a bright, fiery red object among the sky, possibly another planet in the system or such, before turning to follow him amongst the outpost. It took Tenki a few moments to find Lorenor amongst the others still up and about at this hour, and he noticed exactly how shadowy he really looked. Nearly everything about Lorenor seemed to make him a part of the shadows themselves, something there was plenty of with nothing but soft moonlight to bring illumination down upon the world.

Managing to follow a few dozen feet behind his partner while stepping around the piles of construction materials scattered seemingly at random around the ground of the area, Tenki had to keep checking every so often to make sure he could still find Lorenor, who was moving about rather seamlessly, to make sure he didn't loose him outright. Making personal notes about all the things he saw going on, the kinds of things pretty much only seen on the fringes or heard about from history classes like wooden and mortar construction. Such things, even now seemed completely out of place, despite seeing them with his own eyes. Growing up, it was near exclusively concrete, metal, composites, and other high end materials that, other than some comparatively simple concretes, wouldn't yet be seen on this world for a very long time. Much longer than Tenki himself would have, that was for sure.

Finally able to catch up with Lorenor as they approached the other side of the outpost, Tenki gave another long look at his features. Lorenor had definitely changed from last time, to the point that other than some basic traits like coloring, he'd be hard pressed to call him anything but human. Even tho Tenki himself had seen enough to know better from the last time the two had worked together. The questions about this world and its seemingly widely varied populace swirled in his head for a bit before he finally, simply asked. "I don't think I've ever seen one quite like you before, Lorenor. What race are you from?" Hoping it would be taken more like a question from a young adventurer than someone completely unaware of the basic of the world around him.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Moving towards where their saddled horses awaited, the boy forgot that he sometimes moved very quietly. He paused from time to time to allow Tenki the chance to catch up with him. Keeping his thoughts to himself, the boy never noticed Tenki searching for the Dark Mother. All around them the newly re-formed Pandemonium's Fist built itself up again like a rising phoenix. At some point, the other boy caught up with Lorenor and he paused once more giving him ample time to catch up to the speedier small warrior. He moved with a supernatural grace as if one with the shadows. The boy turned around slightly annoyed at the hesitation on Tenki's part but keeping that part of the scenario to himself. He didn't want to worry him any further. They already needed to partake in a very dangerous mission. When Tenki asked him the faithful question, the boy was caught off guard. Nobody had ever asked him that question before. He closed his eyes for a moment, though to an observer, all that might appear is the vanishing of the glowing purple energy. Deeply empty eye sockets might replace the glowing form for a moment.

Thinking up a suitable answer for the lad was hard. On the one hand, the boy might simply call himself a Vampire. But would that be appropriate? In the legends vampires fed upon the blood of their victims. The boy fed upon the FLESH of his victims so he was more like a Flesh Eater. But did that make him a Zombie or a Ghoul instead? The boy crossed his arms before his chest as he stood there for a moment deep in thought. He wanted to give the lad a suitable answer. Thinking about the racial attributes that characterized him as a unique amalgamation that he was, the boy thought about everything he did. Everything he was. There was no clearly defined answer for him and the Golems never even provided him with one. The boy simply thought about it as best as he could. After about ten minutes passed the boy had a suitable answer. He looked at his friend for a long moment with a grave expression on his face. Many races were native to Althanas including his own. But was it appropriate to say what he was? He figured that they wouldn't object.

"I'm what the researchers like to call a Hybrid. I am the carrier of The Endless. In some ways one might call me a Zombie or a Ghoul. But I fit neither category effectively. The best way to describe me I suppose then would be to call me a Hybrid. It is considered impolite to ask people what race they belong to but I know you didn't know this so I'm telling you now my friend. It doesn't bother me to know that I am a mixture of several different races. It's all right. Everybody has their crosses to bear I guess. Come now, we have to keep moving as you said, the night grows short and I have to get underground at some point before sun-up. I hope that answers your question in some ways. In a lot of ways there's much I don't know about myself so your guess is as good as mine." The boy said eager to get a move on, but he amused the lad's questions.

[Tenki]

Tenki couldn't help but wear a bit of a scowl on his face while listening to Lorenor's little exposition about himself. In his mind, Tenki could sympathize with the notion of being one of a kind in the world, as he often considered himself such as well, as despite being amongst many other humans, they were not the same as him. It was hard to pin down in an explanation, as he really couldn't arguing being smarter, just educated in different fields, and he couldn't argue being stronger, as without Luin there wouldn't be much he could do other than some basic exercises which we was sure wouldn't account for a lot here. But what truly cause the scowl was, for some reason, the way Lorenor talked about being a hybrid forced Tenki to recall the Artificial Human experiments once conducted on his home world.

For a short time in the past, the government had attempted to create humans in a lab, born and grown for the sole purpose of being excellent front line mages in times of combat. As soon as real progress began however, the project was officially shut down and dragged into the spotlight due to ethical concerns, concerns which closed the project forever. The problem was that some of the scientists involved didn't want to end the research and had gone on in private to continue the work they had been ordered to abandon. They had all been arrested and brought in eventually, but not before some had managed to actually create a final product. There had been no official record of what happened to those created, under the government's ruling that it didn't matter about created or not, people were people and they were left alone to live their lives as they wanted. The whole revelation that such a thing had happened had shocked Tenki when he had first read about it all in the news and history archives in the academy, but it used it as evidence that some people would not care about any boundaries to obtain their goals and that those were often the most dangerous.

Almost subconsciously Tenki reached up and put his hand up to his chest, where Luin sat under the robe, hanging around his neck. He refused to think of Luin as anything other than a partner, as a friend that backed him up at all times... the notion that someone, anyone, could ever see those with sentience as a lesser being, or even as tools, troubled him dearly and always would.

Picking up on a down to business tone underlying the whole thing, Tenki kept all this to himself, as even tho Lorenor insisted it didn't bother him, the way it was delivered indicated that it was at least something he wouldn't wish to expound upon. Recalling the earlier bits of conversation as the two entered an area with a large stable, Tenki had prepared another question about the mission, but stopped just short of asking it as he saw themelves approaching not just a stable, but several horses and a few figures tending to them as well. The horses appeared to be very well taken care of, as they had healthy coats and silken manes along with saddles and other equipment seemingly necessary for a journey strapped to or near them. Despite having seen horses many times since he was little in zoos and even on other worlds, including the many, many seen here on Althanas since his arrival, he had to remark, if only to himself this pair seemed very nice indeed.

It also suddenly occured to him that he was expected to be able to ride one of these horses, and stopped dead in his tracks.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Earlier--

In general, Althanas was heading for a disaster and the populace knew it. First there was that business with Corone's bid to become an Empire. Then there was the situation in Salvar. Then there was Alerar's hostilities towards Raiera and finally, the destruction of a demonic army attempting to leave the confines of Haidia. All of these events seemed connected and most of the general populace believed in doom and gloom on the horizon. Still a few, like Josh Rivera, a local horseman working for the Gol'bron believed in the positive that came with every negative action.

A carefree, like-able sort of a guy, Joshua Rivera had a tall lanky build. His chest all though broad, didn't quite make him a warrior. He had the physique of a beast rider. The proper toning of someone who did a lot of aerobics and worked with animals. His eyes were dark brown and shown with a sort of light-hearted intensity. Tightly cropped, his auburn hair managed to retain a certain degree of waviness to it despite how often the man attempted to comb and brush it. Joshua appeared to be thirty-something and wore the rustic outfit of a frontiersman. A simple tunic with a trench-coat around his person, brown earth tones aplenty. His hands wore tightly bound leather gloves better suited for handling horse-reigns and ropes. He had a cigarette in his mouth and a plume of smoke trailed from the lit tip. He took a deep pull from the thing.

Earlier in the day, the order came down the pipe-line. The Gol'bron leaders had something big planned. They needed the help of the horse stables and that was the way things went. Since the masters provided free room and board, everyone who came was required to do their part. It was quite the socialistic society that the Gol'bron established in a time of great need. The leaders all did their part as well. The Thayne-hood provided for those who were loyal and those who weren't loyal. Joshua personally didn't believe in the Thaynes but with all the miracles revolving around the Gol'bron he was sure as Hell starting to.

So when the order came down to prepare some horse for two riders that was the least he could do. The man shifted his fedora hat for a briefly looking at the pair coming towards him. He'd seen Lorenor before hanging around that Ring thing they found a few months earlier. All though disturbed at first, the Man and the other workers quickly got used to having the hybrid around once they realized he meant them no harm. It was also revealed the lad was a hard worker in his own right. Lorenor walked up to him and nodded so Joshua nodded back shaking the small warrior's hand.

"As the Masters asked we prepared two horses for you friend. They will make great steeds for you and your pard'ner."

********************

With Tenki's questions fresh in his mind the boy nodded to Joshua. He noticed that his friend hesitated right then. It was clear to the boy that the lad never rode a horse before. This caused him to sigh audibly. They were pressed for time and needed to be in a safe-house before sun-up. The boy decided leading by example was the best way to go. So he carefully mounted the horse sitting himself on the saddle quickly. All though the boy wasn't an expert rider, he'd ridden horses before and knew the drill. He took the reins in his hand. His cloak flowing around him with the Gol'bron's symbol of the fist in emblazoned on it.

The boy looked down to his friend.

"Mount like I just mounted and you take the reins in your hands. You steer the horse like that. When you want the horse to speed up you give him a quick double-kick with your heels to the flanks. Normally spurs are used but I abhor their use since I consider myself more of an animal. We got a long way to go and have to rest the horses from time to time."

[Tenki]

Watching closely as Lorenor mounted one of the prepared horses and got settled in the saddle, Tenki couldn't help but be a tad intimidated by the horse itself and the rider now upon it, even though being tall himself, Lorenor atop the horse was still taller than him, forcing him to look up. Studying the saddle for a bit before walking over to the other prepared horse, a horse of near equal build to the other, only a different, light caramel color to the near solid black one the his partner now sat upon. He placed one foot in the stirrup on that side and hoisted himself up and over, rather ungracefully in such a way that his duster's hood, caught in the winds being brought upon it, slid back off his head as well as landing just hard enough in the saddle that the pair of sunglasses that under normal conditions rested firmly in his hair now slid down upon his face, landing perfectly into the position one is likely to find people wearing them in. The horse took a few steps to one side as if to argue about being given such a rookie rider, but just as soon settled down and let out a soft whinny that could be taken as a form of acceptance to the situation. Reaching up and grabbing the sunglasses off his face, and opting to put them away inside the duster instead of their normal resting place, finally stopped wiggling about long enough to up the reins for his horse.

"How about you lead the way, and I'll follow for a bit until I get the hang of this." taking the time to carefully adjust his feet into the stirrup and so forth so that he was sitting in the saddle the same way Lorenor did, and adjusted his duster and the layers of cloth underneath to get himself comfortable.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Living with the Gol'bron forced the boy to be adaptive. He likened Tenki to a student in the Gol'bron. Though not a member yet, he would eventually try to get Tenki into the fledge-ling Power Group. The boy maneuvered his horse, an all black stallion with a single white strip of coat down its main, so that he was in front of Tenki's horse. The boy looked carefully into the eyes of the horse for a moment from predator to prey. Something happened just then as beast stared at beast and the horse seemed to calm down. By then, Joshua went to work on other projects that needed doing, such as feeding horses that were kept in the stable.

The boy moved to flank Tenki now. An experienced rider by now, the boy admitted he was no expert neglecting his riding skills for the sakes of training himself in combat and black-smithing. Other talents that the Gol'bron needed caught the boy's eye. He looked at Tenki now with that glowing purple gaze narrowing his empty eye sockets creating. That seemed to create an eerie visage upon his face.

"You take control of the reigns like I showed you. You move the horse and don't let the horse move you. Show the horse that YOU are the one in charged. But remember its a partnership. You are not the master of the horse but merely his companion. The horse is ALLOWING you to ride upon him, never forget that."

Surprisingly, being a predator of monsters and beasts allowed for the boy to develop a great respect of life. The boy looked over at the mountain range that surrounded, nearly on all sides, the valley of the Gol'bron. The boy knew what direction they were heading from here, South-East past Serenti on horse-back. The mission might take a day or two to reach their target's Manor and from there the fun might begin. The boy awaited for Tenki before he commanded his horse to move forward.

[Tenki]

Feeling the horse relax a bit, Tenki reflected for a moment upon the most important word Lorenor had just said. Partnership. That word was something he had familiarity with, perhaps even one of the most highly respected words Tenki knew. As a part of the TSAB, and more importantly, as a partner to Luin, Tenki had spent a long time getting used to the idea that working alone was truly impossible. Upon first arriving here, he had gone through a short time where he suffered mentally, unsure of the future, and unsure if he would be able to even use Luin to it's full extent, since he had been damaged in the crash. But the belief of being alone and desperate had begun to fade and he now openly reconsidered the whole thing, as he had met some good people, and had been able to prove to himself that as long as he and Luin did their best in this situation, helping who they could and working to find a way to return, then he would be just fine, damaged or not, Luin was still able to function in combat and training, even if was in his most basic form. A grin spread across Tenki's face as he looked over to Lorenor, the odd youth around his age that was one of the few being on this world he had come to come across more than once. Perhaps there was more to it than luck they continued to meet, but for now, that was neither here nor there. for now, it was time to move forward.

Tenki leaned forward just enough to reach the side of the animal's face with his right hand, where he gave a light brushing to the side of the mare's head. "You'll go easy on me, at least for now, right?" The horse gave no verbal reply but seemed to relax further, finally ready to accept the person upon it as a rider. Tenki leaned back in the back into place on the saddle and took a firmer hold on the reins. "Alright, lets get to that safe house while we still can. You can fill me in on more of the details about this mission as we go. I'd especially like to hear what those other matter you spoke of might be." Tenki gave a short and firm kick into the sides of the horse from the stirrups, and the mare began forward at a light and modest pace the most could keep up with at a steady jog. For someone who less then a few minutes ago wrestled onto the horse's back Tenki certainly seemed a lot more comfortable there now than a few minutes ago.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

A strange sort of leadership trait began to emerge itself slowly but surely from within the boy. The boy found a new sense of confidence in his own ability to lead others from their path of unsureness and confusion. This, the boy noticed on his own but said very little about it he just continued to lead on his own. He knew that his leaders in the Gol'bron watched his every move. Not wanting to disappoint Ranger Nailo, the man who'd personally recruited Lorenor into the fold of the Gol'bron. The boy maneuvered his stallion so that position wise, he placed himself roughly right next to Tenki's horse looking forward now. They had a long way to go and could make a lot of progress on a reasonable gallop forward. There was no point in pushing the horses to their fullest just yet. The animals were proud, graceful beasts and needed skilled partners to ride upon them to use their full potential. The boy rubbed the flank of his stallion gently with his free hand to show appreciation for the allowed partnership. The boy carefully nodded to Tenki as if to say You are making good progress. But the boy also felt a verbal gesture was needed.

"Keep up the good work Tenki you're a quick study." Surprised at himself that he didn't feel nervous at all saying such a thing, the boy nodded to him once more. He didn't fashion himself a leader, but he tried to lead by example knowing that one night, the leaders of the Gol'bron might ask him to lead one of their houses. If that were the case, the boy needed to prove his worth as a not only a tactician, but a leader of others as well. The hands moved his hands across the reigns so that Tenki might see everything that he did. These movements were control movements. Once he showed the lad the proper sequence of movements, he took the reigns in both of his hands and gave a good HE-YA. to his stallion. The horse moved forward at a steady but quick gallop not utilizing his full speed. The boy knew that Tenki might follow him. He slowed the horse down considerably with proper movements of the reigns once he was about a yard forward, and awaited Tenki to catch up. These first few lessons needed to go as smoothly as possible. And just like that, the boy was teaching Tenki how to ride horses considering he had just enough knowledge (Thanks to the Gol'bron) to be a competent horse-rider himself.

[Tenki]

Appreciating Lorenor's instructor like attitude over this part with the horses, especially with his slow and careful movements in controlling his own horse, Tenki nodded back and followed suit giving a loose, light whipping motion forward on the reins, and a similar vocal "hee-yah" he pulled right back alongside and slightly ahead of Lorenor before giving a firm pull towards himself, causing the mare to slow back down, until he matched even with the other horse.

"Not nearly as bad as I was afraid it might be. However if I had my choice, I would much rather be flying at this speed than riding the horse I think. But since I'm still not too used to it, this nice girl will just have to do for long travel." He said, giving a pat to the crest of the animal to reinforce that idea.

Tenki went quiet for a while, listening to the two horse's hoof falls and the other ambient sounds of the area around them. If it wasn't for a circumstances around it, this trip would probably seem a lot more enjoyable. He mulled over the basic state of affairs in Corone, the nation of Althanas he had ended up an addition too, and the civil war it now faced itself to be under. No visible progress had really been made on either side for a while now, with the Empire and the inquisition taking down just about anyone they could get their hands on, and the Rangers in Underwood pulling in about as many as the inquisition killed to aid them in taking the Empire down and restoring a just government. Actions like the one he and Lorenor were now taking may end up playing a large role in all this, despite, if all goes well, no one ever knowing it was them. This brought his thoughts back to those other details we had asked Lorenor for before getting involved and decided to try and get them again as they began to get into the forest that had been just visible from the encampment.

"So, about those Other Matters you mentioned a while ago. Care to start filling me in?" His face turned towards the hybrid on the horse beside him, displaying a sudden and uncommon seriousness towards getting an answer this time.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Keeping a basic trot pace, the boy seemed pleased at his student's ability to learn and adapt quickly. Being a member of a Power Group meant that one had to be completely resourceful. The ability to learn and to teach seemed to be a critical part of that resume. The boy learned to ride horses from the stable-masters at the grounds of the Gol'bron. Since he knew the skill now, he could teach others how to ride effectively making use of the mode of transportation. Horse-riding as a sport seemed readily available all over Althanas and was a fairly cost-effective way to travel. The horses might feed themselves on grass found along the way without buying any expensive sort of feed. All though that was optional. Grooming the coats of the horse produced a finer quality shine on the animal making him happier. He saw that Tenki grew more comfortable with the horse as they traveled and even proceeded to ask some questions. The boy looked over at his friend holding the reigns in such a way as to let the horse know to keep moving. He did so. The boy thought about an appropriate answer.

"Where we are going security will be very tight. We have to infiltrate the enemy stronghold and make our way to our target. I will need you to creatively use your weapon in such a way that we can break into certain parts of the stronghold. Our target must be terminated. I have to recover a certain object belonging to that person. If we succeed in this we can greatly slow the growth of the Corone Empire as this man we are after is a High Duke about to become one of the new Parliament members. We cannot allow this to happen. Matters that affect Corone affect the whole world including Salvar." The boy hoped that might help him out. "Feel free to ask me whatever you need to Tenki."

[Tenki]

Taking a moment to let the information sink in and compose a few questions, Tenki finally let loose with a chain of inquires about their mission. "Don't suppose you have information on exactly how tight security will be, what kind of numbers to expect, or maybe even a map or floor plan? I'd really hate to think we're supposed to pull this completely out of thin air. Although I suppose if we must, we can take the the time to watch the place for a day or so before we go in for a take down."

Taking paused for a bit before unfastening the front of his duster, allowing the fabric to rest upon his shoulders while exposing the slightly odd by Althanas' standards outfit beneath as well as Luin, it's stand-by form around his neck reflecting the slivers of moonlight coming though the treetops. "But in any case, assuming we're not going to have to breach repeated heavy barriers I should be able to get us in without too much of an issue. Guess we're gong to have an interesting challenge ahead of us, right Luin?"

The familiar, metal-tinged voice piped up into the conversation immediately. "Please avoid being dangerously challenged, Sir." "I'll do my best, but just be ready for anything, alright?" "Confirmed."

Tenki went quiet for a moment again, looking around the forest as if half-expecting something to pop out. He had been learning more about Althanas each day and had heard rumors of those who would kill people even suspected of having magic abilities. Even if what he did was substantially different than the Althanas Magics, as he had termed it, the fact that it was visually similar gave him enough reason to worry from time to time. Brushing such thoughts aside, he returned his focus to Lorenor. "How long of a trip do you think we're in for, anyways?"

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Once Tenki asked the valid question, the boy took his package out and removed some documentation. A particular piece of parchment was a newly created map of the edifice they currently targeted. Serenti, still a few nights away, lurked just beyond the horizon now. Riding side-by-side with his companion, the boy handed Tenki the document so he could examine it. It was a detailed floor-plan of the building. The document noted that four known floors existed in the building marking off several important structures. There was a grand library in the manor; a swimming pool/gymnasium area/a soldier's barracks/and other marked off structures of import. Anything a wealthy noble-man might have in his house. Several rooms were marked off as sleeping areas, most likely the bed-rooms of the lord's guests. The boy looked at his companion for a moment after attempting to hand him the map. Other questions were asked, but the existence of a map seemed like the most important one to answer at the moment. As they traveled onwards, the boy noticed something that bothered him greatly.

The temperature subtly rose as the Dark Mother's domain slowly began to wane. The boy frowned at this. Their safe-house was still at least an hour away from their position. The boy knew that if they rode at a full gallop they could just make it to the safe house. It was a secret Gol'bron site belonging to the old Red Hand. The boy knew about this from speaking to some of the locale workers at the new Pandemonium's Fist. A few of the other members of the work-force worked for the original Red Hand. So upon asking, and passing around a few ales, the boy got significant information about old safe-houses and storage houses available to them. The one they headed to now was used often by Adventure Parties to rest along the way to Serenti and the other major cities in that area. Lorenor signaled to Tenki that he was going to move into a full gallop and rubbed the flank of his stallion after he did that. Once the process of warning his companion was complete, he gave a loud, "KEE-YAH!" Using the reigns like a whip, the horse began to gallop forward at full speed. The boy felt the wind rushing past him and saw just the beginnings of the sky changing color--anymore time wasted might be a disaster for the boy.

[Tenki]

Able to take barely a moment to look over the floor plan before Lorenor gave notice they needed to hurry up, Tenki quickly shoved it into one of his duster's inner pockets before following suit and gave his horse the physical and verbal commands to pick up speed. As he followed just a few moments paces behind Lorenor, but unable to fully catch up alongside of him, it took about 10 minutes before it became obvious to him what was going on. The night sky had every so subtly lightened. Dawn was coming up soon. He knew of Lorenor's issues with sunlight, but had never seen it firsthand. He suspected he would never want to.

As they tore down the path in the woods, Tenki thought about the one thing he had put into memory before shoving the map away for now. The barracks on site. Sure, it wasn't physically connected to the house, but it still meant good odds this was going to get rough if they weren't VERY careful. Tenki began to think up some possibilities, but kept coming back to one simple fact: TSAB mages didn't operate on stealth, never had, never would. Despite Lorenor telling him just a bit ago he'd be needed or breaching the building wouldn't be possible, the odds were still real good anything he did would draw unwanted attention. He began to work through this limitation in his mind, determined to solve it before they got to their target. The papers, and Lorenor himself, indicated it was a few days away, so for Tenki, the question became, could he come up with a quiet way of getting them in and out. His mind raced on that challenge while the horses continued jockeying for position against the arrival of daylight itself.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Only a few things in this world terrified the young Immortal. The largest one was the great disc attempting to emerge from the night. Known as the enemy of all things with darkness in their heart, the sun crept up slowly across the mountain ranges of Corone. Slowly but surely the shadows receded towards their hiding places. Things of the night retreated towards their private sanctuaries and now Lorenor attempted to flee towards his. If luck was on his side, he had just enough time to make it to the store house. With the mission and his companion momentarily forgotten, the need to survive took over.

The boys' greatest strength was his desire for survival against all odds. It kept him alive across the eternity and allowed him to bond with The Endless. His stallion sensed the urgency of the rider, like a good steed, making his way towards the boys' final resting place. For ill or for good. As the shadow domain began to vanish bit by bit, the son rose from the West shining its damning light upon Althanas. Its rays purging the creatures of the night foolish enough to attempt to stick around and wait for The Sun.

Like a twisted Tarot card deck, The Sun played against The Moon, and The Fool (Lorenor) ran to his Tower. All the while, The World watched with a hushed whisper of terror. If The Fool couldn't make it to The Tower, The Sun might vanquish The Moon. Thusly the events predicted in the cards of that night might never come to pass if The Fool was struck down before his prime ever came.

The boy kept himself leaning forward on his stallion, riding hard towards their destination. The Tower lurked just beyond a hill now, his sanctuary from the darkness. The boy could see the Gol'bron safe-house now a small warehouse fortress in the middle of a forest clearing. With the shadows parting, the boy gave a hard swish of the reigns. He'd reward his chariot well with plenty of resting time after the hard ride. The horses' were well trained for such a task. When the building came closer, the boy waited until they were within reach. Feeling The Sun starting to beat down on his back and the heat gradually increasing, the boy raised his arch-enemy.

"KEEP UP!"

He commanded of his companion. The Stallion rode hard now and soon they were within half a yard of the building. Once he was ready, the boy took a final series of commands of the Stallion and leapt off in mid-movement. The horse came to a halt almost immediately afterwards. Moving quickly on his feet, the boy ran the rest of the way towards the safe-house on foot regardless of his companions' pursuit or not. The Sun rose now above the mountains turning the sky into morning. Its destructive rays of light touching the dark realms' final remnants. The shadows passed across the house giving the boy just enough darkness to avoid the light. Moving towards the safe-house door, the boy pulled out a set of keys and opened the doors for himself. He was grateful no windows lurked anywhere in the warehouse. He opened the doors and dived in, just as the remnants of the night passed into the sleeping domain. The boy did a roll across the floor as the light touched the shadows in the warehouse up until a point and then stopped. Just at the boy's feet glaring angrily at the creature of darkness. The boy gasped with exhaustion as he stared at his enemy. Receding further into the pitch black darkness.

It was only at that point that he heard another sound. An unwanted sound, the sound of unknown house guests--most likely bandits. The boy put himself on alert mode knowing that all the sudden eyes were on him.

"BOSS WE GOT US A STRAY!" Yelled one of the group of bandits.

The boy knew conflict was inevitable now.

[Tenki]

Unable to quite keep up with Lorenor due both to his minimum knowledge of horse handing and Lorenor's head start in the sprint. Tenki nonetheless managed to keep the lad in sight until just before he pulled into the clearing. Rectified soon enough when he himself made it around the last bend in the path and the clearing and warehouse came into view, Lorenor's horse standing nearby untied to anything, and content to feed itself on the nearby grass. Taking a look at the building, he could see the nearest door wide open, left by Lorenor in his rush to keep from being touched by the light.

No sooner had he entered the clearing however, than Tenki heard enraged shouts coming from the warehouse. Tenki pulled back on the reigns, bringing his mare to a stop at the edge of the woods. He hauled himself off the horse as carefully as he could. and walked it back into the woods, and tied it to a low tree branch just out of sight from the building. "I'll be back for you in just a bit." he said as he patted the side of horse and took towards the clearing once more. The shouts had become more of series of taunts and questions, and after listening for a moment it was pretty obvious that the building had found more recent occupants than whenever Lorenor's group had last looked in on it. Growing uneasy from the number of different voices echoing out through the doorway, there had to be at least 6 in there already. Tenki headed back into the woods for a moment, since they would act as a blind for what was next.

Stepping behind a large, ancient Oak, Tenki looked down at the metal arrowhead around his neck. "Luin." He queried the necklace itself like one might a sleeping child, in a soft voice. "Sir?"Came the simple, expected reply. "Set Up." "I'm on it. Lancer Form. Set Up." A soft glow a shade lighter than the dark purple as the jewel embedded in the arrowhead enveloped the whole object. The arrowhead pendant around his neck underwent a stunning and rapid change of it's own. As the glowing object disappeared, band and all, from around Tenki's neck and repositioned itself in his outstretched left hand. The glow stretched out as Luin took on it's weapon form of a 6 foot long, split pronged spear. Tenki took a firm grip to Luin as the glow faded and headed back for the building.

Being careful to make as little noise as possible, Tenki made it back for the building and quietly made his near to the door to listen in. The bunch inside was still belittling Lorenor as Tenki heard one of the inside doors open. Mentally checking over possibilities, Tenki listened carefully for a while to try and determine who was in charge inside, and about where he or she might be. He knew the two of them were severally outnumbered as it was, but if this idea worked, he might be able to end this without it getting bloody.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Rolling into the building and coming to a halt the boy noticed a matter that he didn't want to see--bandits. The ancient building had several rooms constructed into the main design following a simple concept in its construction; storage. The old Red Hand constructed this building many ages ago with only a few of the older members of the current group knowing of the original safe houses existence. Lit overhead by simple electricity powered lamps, the boy knew that such forms of light provided no threat to his person. Even better, they were all off meaning whatever power generator existed in the warehouse seemed like it's power was long ago cut off. Years of dis-service kept the warehouse at an uncharacteristically dirty appearance.

Dirt and cobwebs from spiders making their battleground inside the warehouse appeared everywhere. Many miles of crates organized in neatly formed stacks decorated the main floor of the warehouse. The bandits weren't after the contents of the crates. Naye, long ago, each of the safe-houses, by decree of the leaders of the original Red Hand, became the sole guardians for special objects called Artifacts. These objects remained in cold storage to this night. Rumor of the Red Hands' power spread quickly through the Underworld and thusly, bandits like these moved in to usurp power away from the original Red Hand.

In its time the Red Hand made many enemies some bold, and other cowards like these. Working within one of the many cryo-stasis chambers (After all the original Red Hand had many Alchemists and Engineers) attempting to figure the puzzle out. A big man with an escort of at least five skilled workers messed with the huge contraption in the room. The room was located at about six yards into the warehouse facing the west side of the room, built into a slab. The room had several windows into it and strange markings labeling its contents a Hazard. A primitive storage device for information lurked there, a proto-type for modern day computers.

Kept cold even with no power from the generator, the device in the room was managed by its own separate power source. Provided by some sort of archaic device. A strange thing the device, several large metal containers were connected together by large tubes. The cold in the room flowed from the containers themselves. The bandits needed to wear heavy jackets to protect themselves against the cold vapors. Called a "CLEAN ROOM" the air inside of the chamber hurt ones' lungs. So all of the bandits in that room wore face-masks to protect their precious organs. Hearing a call from outside, the one known as "The Boss" looked at his men. He was much larger than the rest of the bandits working on the containers. One of them analyzed the computer-like device attempting to crack a cypher of some sort required to open the containers. There five large containers in all. Each one standing at approximately seven feet in height and labeled with its own identification code. The symbols of the original Red Hand sprawled across the surface of the containers. Each one a warning of some sort.

In this environment many ancient secrets of the Red Hand lurked. Lorenor looked up at his opponent noticing that five, possibly six grown men dealt with the moment of surprise. The boy knew his attack of opportunity was lost by now. Preparing himself for combat, the boy went immediately into a fighting stance backed up slowly from the group. So far not a single order of combat came from The Boss, but a tension lurked thickly in the air now.

The gathered bandits wondered who this cretin was. The Boss showed himself, emerging from some back room and saw the small warrior. For a moment, the large man seemed confused as he stared with blue eyes sharp as a sword. His eyes wore a frown and he seemed like he suddenly recognized Lorenor from some previous encounter.

"I REMEMBER YOU!" The Boss of this group of bandits snarled briefly, but kept himself collected. The revelation signaled the promise of pain. The boy looked around and saw that his only back-up arrived late with Luin in hand. He nodded at this. Then turned to face the leader of the bandits.

"How do you know me!"

"From the second uprising, you're the one they call LORENOR aren't you?"

The Bandit asked and awaited a response.

[Tenki]

Tenki took a few deep breaths. He'd been listening for several minutes and had seemingly had his patience rewarded well. One of the people that had come through the door was indeed the boss of the bunch, and going off the heavy footfalls, he was larger than Tenki himself. Using that and a bit of guesswork about the inside, Tenki was sure had an opening to use. Tenki concentrated for a few moments to make ready the series of programs he was going to need to use. Taking a final breath, Tenki launched himself forward and into the doorway, taking a rapid look to verify his beliefs about who the boss was before activating the short sequence.

"Seidean." and Tenki became a blur of movement for but a moment, but that moment was all he would need, as he reappeared to the side of the boss, a few feet away and with Luin level to the side of the boss' head and about a foot away. Tenki had just barely manged to place himself close to a wall, so as to make it impossible for the other thieves in the room to sneak up behind him. "Lasair." As his momentary burst of speed began to die off, Tenki's focus circle appeared under his feet and spread along the ground about half a yard in any given direction, illuminating the room in a dark purple glow that served to make Tenki's stone serious face a series of menacing looking shadows. smaller copies of the outer ring of his circle appeared around Luin's split blade, and a point of solid energy brought itself into existence inches from the side of the Boss' skull.

"Actually, I think it would be best if you went and introduced yourself first." Tenki knew he'd taken a dangerously large gamble here, but it seemed to be paying off so far. If there was one thing no one liked, it was having a weapon that wasn't their own pointed at them. In his experience, such actions often led to the surrender of the one being pointed at. However, he was well aware that if this turned bad, he and Lorenor would still be vastly outnumbered.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

While Lorenor and the man talked, Tenki's actions suddenly created a dead chill within the room. Lorenor saw the man calling himself The Boss stop dead in his tracks after Tenki materialized practically out of thin air. Thinking back to the past, the boy attempted to recall something called The Second Uprising. He knew he participated in many wars and battles as his broken memories would often reveal. But something called the Second Uprising? He only vaguely recalled a battle with a powerful naked warrior carrying a diamond weapon.

He vaguely recalled defeating the warrior. But those memories came as fractured splinters, broken pieces off a much larger enigma. He tried to remember but found himself unable to. Lorenor paused and saw the dark purple energy flowing from Tenki's person. Such power he has! "Tch. Tenki wait, don't be so quick to action I'm sure we can talk our ways out of this one this time." Lorenor wanted to avoid a fight.

No matter what type of powers they had, the boy recognized mithril when he saw it. Most of the bandits at least carried weapons made of the powerful material. Lorenor's eyes moved from the bandits as most of the main forward attack group revealed itself. At least ten men now stood in various positions around The Boss. Lorenor saw that he regained his wits after the momentary shock of Tenki's appearance. Seeing the man frown and look in Tenki's general direction The Boss wore an angry expression.

"That's an interesting toy you have there lad. I wonder if its all for show. You would be wise to point that thing away from me." Lorenor heard the man say. Unlike the others, The Boss drew a powerful weapon made of Prevalida and whispered somethings that Lorenor couldn't hear. A powerful red energy suddenly burst from within the weapon's core. It crackled like fire around the blade of the weapon and Lorenor took several steps back.

"Back down Tenki!" Lorenor found himself saying, suddenly very afraid.

He saw that The Boss looked dead at him with a knowing expression on his face and then looked at Tenki. "I'd listen to your friend if I were you." The Boss warned. "Lower your guard."

[Tenki]

Tenki's grip on Luin's shaft tightened slightly as the bandits positioned themselves around himself and their Boss. The only good news about that was that, since Tenki already had his back to wall, none of them could get directly behind him. Lorenor however, seemed to recognize a greater level of threat out of the bunch, or maybe just the boss and this was enough to give Tenki pause. The scenario Tenki had hoped for in his hand had completely failed to materialize however, as the bandit's boss was much more battle hardened than he'd hoped, and, after a few moments of stunned quiet, the man recomposed himself and spoke to Tenki, his face turning towards him as he did so. "That's an interesting toy you have there lad. I wonder if its all for show. You would be wise to point that thing away from me." as he spoke he slowly drew his own weapon and quietly murmured a string of words Tenki didn't recognize as a language, but did vaguely recognize as part of the Althanas Magics just in time for the blade it seemingly ignite itself in a crimson blaze. The two mage warriors were physically ready for combat for all intents and purposes.

It was then that Lorenor again spoke up. "Back down Tenki!" the fear for his Tenki's safety was nearly palatable. However, the Boss and Tenki only broke their eye contact for a few moments. After a bit of awkward silence the Boss spoke again. "I'd listen to your friend if I were you." His tones turned from near playful in the last sentence to icy and cold in the next. "Lower your guard." To say you could cut the tension with a knife would be an understatement. You could hack at it with an icepick. Between Lorenor's obvious fear and the Boss' cold and hard attitude towards the whole affair it was pretty obvious the two would be outmatched in a fight if it truly went that far. However, they'd been given a bit of an out. One Tenki thought it best to exploit a tad to get some leverage.

"Alright, I'll yield. However, two things. First of all..." Tenki slowly and carefully pulled Luin back and away from the Boss' face, moving the tip, with the readied shot, to point towards the open door frame, luckily enough none of the bandits were in the way. "Concussive Shot. LAUNCH." Luin barked. The shot, slightly larger than a human fist, flung forward at high speed and out the doorway, traveling a short distance into the woods before impacting a tree and detonating with a grenade like force which shattered a large hole out of the trunk of the tree. The shock from the nearby impact rumbled against the building like nearby thunder would, and some dust shook loose from the ceiling rafters. Allowing the sounds to die down completely, hopefully to give the right effect. "...Luin is no toy." Tenki's own voice was cold and serious as the glow from his circle and the smaller ones that had been around Luin's shaft faded out. "Second." He walked slowly along the wall over to Lorenor to emphasize the fact the two were traveling together. "We'd rather talk."

[Mutant_Lorenor]

For a brief moment, The Boss was blinded and he thought all was lost. The flash of light before the released energy blast stunned The Boss and several other of the nearby bandits. Lorenor saw this moment. Once he heard the exchange between Tenki and The Boss, with his flaming sword, Lorenor took the moment of advantage. He'd been waiting for such an opening to exploit.

He saw Tenki heading towards him and he waved his hand in an attempt to motion to the warrior to stop. Taking advantage of the moment, Lorenor suddenly bounded forward towards The Boss' person. Running at full speed, the small warrior (Not weighed down by heavy armors of any sort) covered ground quickly as the bandits reacted with shock. They were all concerned for The Boss' safety and thusly took their eyes off of Lorenor's person. This was all that the creature needed to react.

One of the Bandits noticed Lorenor and reacted. He decided an attempt to intercept the warrior and ran towards Lorenor's side in a tackle position. As soon as he came within range of his sensory sphere, Lorenor felt the warrior coming towards him. He took this moment to LEAP the rest of the way with considerable forward momentum on his side. The bandit lunged at Lorenor just as he started the jump, and fell square on his face. He scrambled to get up but it was already too late. The Boss was just recovering from the bright flash of energy launched from Luin and turned after a few moments only to see the ghoul named Lorenor lunging dead at his person. The Boss screamed in range and attempted to bring his flaming sword up at the lass minute. In reaction, The Endless perceived that immediate thread to their host and surrounded the warrior's flesh with a living armor. Lorenor arched towards The Boss moving downward the rest of the way and finally landing on his person. He slowed down as he felt the flaming weapon pierce his flesh and completely impale him. Lorenor slid the full length down that majestic weapon, ending up against the hilt.

But it was too late. The energy seared Lorenor and started the process of burning his insides. As his insides burned, the warrior used his precious seconds to do what he'd set off to do. He suddenly BIT The Boss! Lunging forward, he opened up his deformed lower maxilla, stretching the mandibles down like a cobra ready to strike. He lunged forward right at the exposed neck of The Boss who suddenly cried out in terror. In an instinctive reaction, The Boss PULLED the sword out of Lorenor's person inflicting even more damage, but removing the fire from his insides. Lorenor felt a tear at his right side as the sword was removed from his person.

At the same time, his primary weapon, his jaws, made contact with The Boss neck. He bit down HARD and tore the flesh of the bandit leaders' neck. His insides were on fire. As the two danced, The Boss reacted by sending one more skilled strike into the right shoulder blade of the small warrior. He continued to bite The Boss, even as he felt the burning pain of the weapon pass through his person once more. Suddenly, another impact hit his person as he felt something pierce his left shoulder, jutting all the way through. The Endless served to slow the steel razor-tipped arrow down only slightly, but the impact. Something happened right at that moment, the impact point was so final that the arrow completely pierced through Lorenor's person and jutted itself right into the chest of The Boss. He screamed in terror as he had his throat ripped open.

Lorenor fed upon the flesh qucikly and felt gravity overwhelm them when The Boss fell to the ground dead. He held onto the sword with his death grip, but the majestic weapon's energies finally died down. Lorenor ate as the rest of the Bandits stared in complete shock at the terrifying moment. Once he ate his fill he felt the injuries of the past few moments beginning to heal themselves. The damage hadn't been as bad as Lorenor previously thought and he thanked his undead existence. Being a ghoul had benefits. The warrior stood up and saw his deed. The Boss' neck and trapezius were completely torn open. Bite marks tore at parts of the flesh where Lorenor ripped it open. He closed his deformed jaws, the strange scar sealing itself back up again. He looked at the bandits for a moment with a cruel smile on his face, drawing The Boss' weapon from his person. The arrow stayed jutting out from his shoulder.

"Tanki, be a good man and help me dispose of these cretins."

Lorenor suddenly said, having dispatched their leader, with style!

Already, the techno-virus did its thing.

[Tenki]

Tenki watched in stunned silence at Lorenor's sudden actions. Lorenor had truly surprised everyone, bandits and ally alike. As Lorenor tore into the boss' flesh, an arrow stuck his shoulder. Turning to look, Tenki could see one of the bandits still holding his bow, but in a very weak way. It had been an instinctive reaction. A reaction of training and fear. Looking around the room as Lorenor finished his meal, it was obvious that the bandits, having seen their strong leader fall so rapidly, had suffered a crushing blow to their will to even fight. Tenki strongly doubted they'd fight back, despite Lorenor's egging him join him in what would surely become a slaughter with the bandits in their current state. He didn't want that. He'd tried to avoid bloodshed, despite the aggressive stance he'd taken, he'd only done so to try and curtail what seemed like a dangerous situation. Now he'd seemingly given this people a quick trip to the afterlife. He wouldn't allow that.

Tenki marched straight to door of the building, none of the bandits moved against him. Most barely moved at all, the shock from their fallen leader had indeed taken a strong toll on them. Tenki stood to the side of the doorway, a few feet away at what would be out of range physically to anyone passing through it. "You all don't have to die here today. I fear I can't speak for my companion in his current bloodthirsty state." Tenki overstated a bit to try and scare them out, but not by much, he'd seen Lorenor do this before. "But if you leave now, I will take no action against you myself. Leave this building and never come back. This won't be a long standing offer, as soon as Lorenor recovers, and your boss reawakens under his control, they'll probably rip you apart. Limb. From. Limb." Tenki paused for a moment before recall their steeds outside. "Oh yea, and leave the horses alone... Now get the hell out."

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor ate at the warrior's flesh for a long moment taking his fill. He then did something strange. Instead of allowing the warrior to come back as one of his mysterious ghouls, the strange little man quickly snapped the neck of the fallen warrior to emphasize his point. Lorenor stood up, blood dripping from his mouth and an angry look on his face. Lorenor took his foot and to further emphasize his current state of anger, crushed the man's neck with his boot. He heard a satisfying crunching noise as he separated the man's head from the rest of his body. Blood flowed freely from the fallen warrior now. His men stared incredulously as what they'd just witnessed.

Lorenor pulled the arrow out of his injured shoulder and tossed it aside. He growled softly. Looking up at the nearest bandits the small warrior frowned. "Why are you still here, did you not hear what my companion said? Go now before I start ripping you all apart!" There was a genuine anger in his voice. Once they got the hint of what he was capable of, they dubbed him a Necromancer of sorts and made their way the hell out of the place. Some of the bandits called to bandits that were occupied with various tasks deeper in the warehouse. These made their way forward and calmly left with the group. They stared at Tenki and Lorenor as they walked passed them. Some with respect, others with fear.

Sitting down on the ground now, Lorenor helped himself to the warriors' enchanted sword. He noticed that the metal was a metal he'd never seen before and couldn't identify. He would have to take it back to the Gol'Bron's settlement later on in order to identify the strange color of the material. It was a black metal that he'd never seen before. It vibrated with the powers of Haidia. Lorenor took the scabbard of the man's sword and sheathed it once more. He placed the scabbard upon his person, attaching it to his utility belt and allowing his current arsenal to grow. He looked over to Tenki for a long moment and spoke.

"Thanks for the save, that was quick thinking." Lorenor said calmly feeling much better now that he's fed. "We have time, we can explore this place while we're here alone and see what trinkets we can find." At the thought of satiating his Greed further, the small warrior stood up and moved quickly towards Tenki. His eyes never removed from his friend's person as he approached. He wiped the blood off his face with the leather sleeves of his jacket. He'd taken way too many risks today.

[Tenki]

Tenki closed the door to the building after the last of the bandits filed out. Perhaps sensing the building calm Luin piped up. "Am I done?" "Yea, go ahead Luin." "Standing Down." Luin covered itself in a purple glow and disappeared from view momentarily before reappearing in Tenki's outstretched left hand as it's stand by form, which Tenki quickly put back around his neck.

"It was as much to save you as it was to save them. They didn't need to die here today." He looked over Lorenor's shoulder to see the mutilated carcass that had been the Boss. Despite his respect for Lorenor, that way the hybrid got things done never got easier to witness.

"First thing i want to find is a way to deal with that body. It'll smell worse than you in short order." He made his way around the room, eventually going down a short hallway looking for anything that would help with the clean up. He returned a few minutes later with a large burlap sack. and scraps of cloth to soak up the blood pooled around the body. "It won't be pretty, but if we stuff him in here I can take it one of the horses till I find a dumping spot for him. Give me a hand getting ready and you can look around inside while I take care of that."

[Mutant_Lorenor]

"Stand back."

Lorenor said as he took up the man's weapon in his hands. It felt a bit heavy cause of his shoulder injury, the warrior was able to lift it with some degree of effort. He remembered that the sword lit up with a glowing red energy halo signifying some sort of fire-energy that the weapon had. He remembered seeing how the warrior used the device and turned the hilt carefully to activate the power of the blade. A glowing burst of red light surrounded the blade after a moment of charging whatever stored energy it used. The small little man wasn't in such a funny mood right there. He placed the sword in the belly of the man's body not bothering to further check for valuables.

The man made Lorenor angry. Somehow, the bandit knew who Lorenor was and attempted to negotiate in order to save his own hide. Such cowardice irritated the ghoul to no end. He didn't have much power, but he was able to get the job done when he knew it had to GET done. When the going got tough, Lorenor got tougher. He saw the body burn up along with whatever secrets it held. The ghoul no longer cared. He would satiate his greed with whatever secrets lurked in this Gol'bron storehouse. The flame flared through the body quickly eating away at the flesh until nothing was left, only ashes of the bandit's leader. The flame died down after a while staying within the same spot it was mentally commanded. Somehow, the energy obeyed Lorenor's desires. The ghoul took the scabbard of the weapon and sheathed his new toy after turning the weapon's fire off.

"There that's taken care of let's go." With annoyance in his step, the ghoul moved deeper into the hallway leaving the ashes of the bandit behind.

[Tenki]

Tenki watch in an odd, calm horror as Lorenor performed a hasty cremation of the leader's body. The flames used on the blade were not normal at all, burning in the area they existed only, not even the heat of the blaze could be felt as close as he had been. Even the blood that had been pooling had burned to the point of seeming to evaporate amongst the flames. After a few minutes, a small, contained pile of ash was all that remained behind as the flames died out. Tenki couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt over the beastly death the man had received in part, due to his involvement. He stood near the ashes, even as Lorenor wandered off into the building. He didn't want this. He didn't want death and destruction on his hands.

A small part of him deep down knew that because of where he was, being on this world, it was likely sooner or later lives would be lost due to his actions. But this was the first time it'd had been rather directly because of those actions. These people, these places, were not like home, and likely never would be. But maybe he could bring some of the values he held into this world on his own. Tenki pulled loose the scraps of cloth he'd been carrying in his arms and placed them over the ashen remains. He did so with care, layering the strips in a pattern of a spiral around the powder, building a sort of small grave marker over the remains. As sealed as the building was, it would likely be undisturbed for some time after he and Lorenor left.

Tenki stood back up, and appreciative of his small efforts, went down the hall to see wherever it was Lorenor had wandered off.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor never got to see his friend making the small grave marker. The event wouldn't have mattered much to Lorenor either way. Many other concerns raced across his troubled mind. Lorenor walked deeper into the darkness of the warehouse allowing the ambient shadows to surround his person. As he walked deeper in the warehouse he found a room that was recently being worked on by the intruders. Lorenor blinked several times as The Endless sang songs of investigation and commanded that the ghoul investigate the "cold room" he'd found.

Lorenor's foot fall made nary a sound as he walked towards one of the many office like rooms in the warehouse. The particular room that caught his interest had a flowing cloud of cold air flowing from it. Lorenor saw a room with several work tables in it extending for some distance. The ghoul sighed and entered the cold room. In the back of the room was a large room that held several containers marked with numbers. Five in all. A strange feeling penetrated the very core of Lorenor. Somehow he got the sensation not to bother with the investigation of these containers but the Endless insisted on finding its secrets.

Even Lorenor's greed had its limits. A distinctive sense of danger lurked in the pit of his stomach as he saw the numbered containers. They had contents that were clearly dangerous to the world in general. Lorenor knew that the original Red Hand had many secrets at their disposal and this was probably one of them. But at the cutting edge of science? How? Had their research gone that far? Lorenor stepped backwards despite the protest of The Endless and decided that Tenki should be there.

"Tenki! Come take a look at this." Lorenor said not sure what to make of the containers and the cold room.

[Tenki]

Tenki had taken only a short trip down the winding hallways before Lorenor's voice echoed down the hall to him. However, there was not a feel of fear or terror in his voice, so Tenki merely followed the voice at a fair walking pace. His boots made relatively heavy footfalls on the stone floor as he searched for the source. Finally happening upon the room the hybrid was in after a few minutes Tenki took a few steps into the room before pausing.

It was colder in here. notably so. In fact, he'd fathom at least a 15 degree drop just from getting a few steps into the room. This confused Tenki for a moment before he saw the other side of the room, and what it was that had presumedly made Lorenor call for him. There were capsules on the far side of the room, five total. Sealed without a window inside, but the rough tubing connected to the containers and other surrounding parts gave him a very good idea what this might be. Tenki's eyes went wide as he found the will to speak up.

"Lorenor, do you know what this is?" he asked of his partner, to see if the hybrid would know. If he did, it would rewrite some of what he thought of Althanas. If not, it would prove him more or less correct about what level of technology this world possessed as a standard.

Either way, the fact this was here... changed everything.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor observed strange devices in this "cold room". He'd never seen anything like them before. Cube like machines monitored the conditions within the tubes. He looked from the computers to the tubes. All of this seemed wrong somehow. Something was telling him that there was a prize waiting for him inside in the Pandora's Box. Panels in front of the cubes had many buttons with labels upon them. Lorenor had never seen such configurations of keys and symbols before. The entire discovery made the ghoul extremely uneasy.

A question stirred the air between Tenki and himself. Turning towards his friend's position, a part of the ghoul wanted to destroy this strange equipment and burn the entire warehouse down. But that part of him was against his rational judgment. He'd be burning down his sanctuary from the sunlight. "I have never seen anything like this before. I have no idea what these things are used for. Maybe you could have better success with this than me."

Lorenor looked upon the configuration of keys for a moment. A screen on the cubes had blinking symbols that matched the keys on the panel. All of this was written in an archaic language he'd never seen before. To say that the ghoul was confused was an understatement. The Endless sang songs of greed within his head. He looked at the tubes. A strong desire to obtain the secrets within the tubes filled the ghoul's heart.

However, he had no idea how to use the panels. He closed his eyes and visualized the mysterious symbols in his head, attempting to match them up with anything he knew from his time in Haidia. Nothing matched up. None of the old languages he knew were even close to this mysterious dialect. He looked at the symbols and they made his head hurt. Staring at them for a long moment, he finally turned his head away from them.

"These symbols are giving me a headache. I've never seen them before and I can't translate them. We need to figure out how to open the locks on those tubes if we want to reveal their secrets." Lorenor said. Against his better judgment, what little of it he had, the ghoul decided that he was going to discover these secrets of the Red Hand for himself. There was clearly something going on that the Bandits knew about. The Bandits had a men working on the cube like machines. This deeply concerned the ghoul when it came to wondering just what the hell the Aristocracy in Corone was working on?

Lorenor decided to wait and see what Tenki would say and do. "Take a look at this Tenki."

[Tenki]

Tenki honestly wasn't sure what to do with himself. It was obvious now form Lorenor's reaction that as a whole, the level of technology on this planet was primitive at best. Yet here he was, staring through the dust and dim light, at something much more apt to be found on his own world.

Even if it would have been in a history museum.

Computers. Judging from the looks of the cable and layout, very primitive computers indeed, but working ones. And to top it all off, they were monitoring and regulating a series of were quite possibly cryogenic pods. Stepping up to one of the terminals, Tenki closed up his duster in an attempt to keep warm. Looking over the input keyboards, Tenki was greeted by a series of symbol he himself did not recognize either. Tenki relief nearly had to be visible. If nothing else, it meant that while the technology might well be alien backwards engineered in source, it wasn't his own peoples. However this did bring to Tenki the sudden realization that he might not be the only "alien" on this world. This was both comforting and non comforting as his world, however it might try, wasn't always on the best of terms with everything out there in space.

Getting back to the task at hand, Tenki again stared down at the keyboard, trying to make sense of the layout for a moment before giving up. "Pattern analyzing may by one thing, but languages is another. Luin, can you check this against your database for a match you can translate please." "I'm on it. Checking... no known match located. However patterns are evident, shall I attempt a translation? "Please do. And overlay a display of your work over the keyboard and monitor, so we can see when your done." "Working. Translation comes shortly."

Curious to see what had been worked back for it's source, Tenki bent over and began investigating the sides of the computers, which had been left uncovered to the elements. Very basic wiring, done with uninsulated copper ran inside the large boxes, their shapes holding them not to touch each other, the only reasons they hadn't shorted out otherwise. Very thick pathways, probably half an inch wide run on over sized boards easily two feet across. Tenki couldn't help but be amused with the whole setup. "I'm starting to wonder if they even realized what they were building as they made it." He commented to the open air as Luin quietly worked on the language puzzling them all.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Money funded power. Power was everything to the aristocracy and Lorenor knew that certain members of the current Corone Empire were extremely corrupted. Lorenor observed the interaction between Tenki and Luin for a long moment. He was deeply interested in the mysterious artifact that his friend wielded so skillfully. Could he have one some day? The ghoul wondered. The chilly temperatures in the room didn't bother Lorenor that much since his undead physiology was well suited for extreme environmental changes. He turned to look at the tubes pondering what mysteries awaited therein. Lorenor could see a faint glow around the tubes. Walking towards them, he placed a hand upon the objects and wanted to peer into the viewing portals to see the secrets lurking therein.

Grabbing a chair, due to his height, and placing it several paces before one of the nearest tubes, Lorenor stood up upon the chair and peered inside the glass imported directly from Fallien. The ghoul observed the inside of the object finding only a dark space inside, layers of frost, and an impossibility to see within. He couldn't make out any details past the layers of thick ice and so, the ghoul leaned closer to the thick sheet of glass. Lorenor needed to rely on his supernatural senses to interact with whatever was inside the tube on any sort of level. Concentrating for a moment, Lorenor felt his senses awaken to their fullest capacity and he allowed the world to become twisted in that strange way that occurred whenever he tapped his senses.

His hearing became more acute, his sense of touch was greatly magnified as well as every other one of his senses. The world seemed to slow down as his heart beat like a series of war drums in his throat. Lorenor felt an extreme sensation of excitement as he was feeling his curiosity get the better of him the whole time. He felt something within the tube, something extremely powerful and his greed made his eyes glow brightly. He could see his reflection on the glass staring back at him.

From his vantage point he could feel something very familiar trapped within the tube. It was an object that radiated with great power. A living power, generated from an all too familiar source. Lorenor felt himself narrow his eyes into thin slits with the realization of what he was seeing before him. The Red Hand was stashing objects of power that heralded from the Thaynes! This made the ghoul's stomach knot against itself as he realized what exactly was going on here. Feeling the powers of the Thayne trapped within the tubing, Lorenor began to desire the objects within them even more. Then question arose. How did the leaders of the Red Hand acquire such objects? Did the Thayne favor the old Red Hand? Is that how the Gol'bron actually got started in the first place? He admitted to himself he knew very little about the sect he was a part of. His war against the Thaynes would have to wait. He suddenly jumped off the chair and looked at Tenki with a serious expression on his face and he spoke a moment later. There was great concern in his voice.

"We have a serious problem here Tenki. This stuff is apparently artifacts of the Thaynehood. I only know a little bit about the Thaynes from my time spent with the Gol'bron. These objects are extremely powerful and shouldn't fall into the wrong hands. We should figure out how to remove them immediately and keep them for ourselves. We can't afford to keep things like this just lying around. How goes your translation Tenki?" Lorenor was frowning as he spoke. He clearly wanted the mystery of this new situation solved as quickly as possible.

[Tenki]

Tenki took in the news from Lorenor with a bit a shock. Whenever someone calls something an "object of power," Tenki worried. Generally when Tenki heard words along those lines, it was in published reports about how cities, or even whole planets had been put in danger from their misuse. Looking at the row of tubes, he couldn't help but wonder what is what he'd gotten involved in this time. He decided to bury that thought by changing the subject momentarily as fast as he could.

"You were curious what these are. The simplest explanation is that the tubes you see here are cold. Very cold. So cold that if you were to try and break those treated glass panes you're looking at, you could freeze the skin on your body to the point it'd snap off. It's great for storing items and..." Tenki was suddenly cut off. "Translation Completes. Overlaying Translation." Tenki walked back over the the monitor as Luin project a hologram over the top of the keyboard and monitor, changing the visible characters into...Mid-Childan rune. Tenki looked it over for a minute before realizing Lorenor would have no clue what he was looking at, and in essence, be at square one. "Luin, translate again, visible in tradespeak please." "I apologize...switching." Once more the hologram changed, this time into the requested tradespeak for all to read.

Tenki began looking over the readout in front of him. It was simple enough to understand. Each couple of line the screen gave a description of each container, it's contents, and status of the cryogenic unit. It was obvious the bandits that had been in here had simply poked the keys at random to try and achieve a response, as several gibberish lines of text on the screen showed a list of failed commands. The actual status windows on the screen each had a short blurb about relics and reported working as usual... except the last. The last held something unexpected in both fields. "Oh no..." his voice trailed off. The final entry read:

Chamber 5: Raid Victim

Status: Malfunction: Emergency Awakening Procedure Activated

Stepping back for a moment, Tenki could indeed tell, the flow of cryogenic liquid had stopped for chamber 5, the closest one to him. He brought his attention back to the terminal tried a few bad commands first himself, before getting lucky and bringing up the commands to thaw and release all chambers, which the screen, moments later followed by Luin's translation changed to reflect. Reflecting on the danger Lorenor's grave tones carried a moment ago Tenki glanced down at Luin once more. "Luin, it'd probably be best if you Set Up again, just to be safe." "Shall I continue translation?" "Please do. I may need to monitor the Chambers just in case." "Alright, holding translation as well as Set Up." The familiar spear pulled into existance and into Tenki's hand once again, while at the same time the holographic translation on the screen flickered away for a moment as Luin changed between it's forms before coming back. Tenki took a couple steps away as the machines began to hiss and hum louder as they disengaged their systems for the first time in several years as if in protest. The glass on Chambers 1 and 4 both cracked, but did not shatter as they went from cold to room temperature much faster than the glass used has been designed for. Lorenor and Tenki both waited for several minutes as this continued, until the room fell quiet. Then, with a sudden rush of air, Chambers 1 through 4 each opened up, one by one. Revealing their treasures to the world. Tenki payed them no attention for the moment, as his curiosity, and worry, was on Chamber 5's contents. Minutes passed and nothing happened. Tenki went back over the the monitor and looked it over once again. The screen showed successful release across the board. By it's account Chamber 5 should be as open as the rest of them were now. But it had not opened as the others had.

Tenki double checked the system as Lorenor made his way around the collecting the artifacts. As he passed in front of Chamber 5 however, Tenki heard faint words from inside the Chamber. "An...vida....up......" The glass front of Chamber 5 took an odd, silver colored hue. Tenki had the faintest idea on what was going on, but quickly put it together as the entire glass front of the chamber blew off as it shattered from on blow to the inside and a human woman dashed out of the Chamber, and directly at Lorenor with her weapon drawn, a sai that had an ivory white grip and main prong, while both knuckles, while going in different directions appeared as black as obsidian. As Tenki put it all together he reached out from the side he'd been standing on, and thus had gone unnoticed, almost in grabbing range of the girl. However, grabbing wasn't his intention as he gathered up as much focus as he could in that instant and threw it out in front of her, pushing the boundary of how far his defense program could go and hold solid. "Sciath" Luin called out, and a large version of Tenki's focus circle coalesced inches in front of the girl. With no time to react, she ran directly into the field, which bounced her off of it and onto the floor. Stunned and sprawled on the floor, the Girl looked at the field that had blocked her way and then over to Tenki, her eyes burning with hate, but just rational enough not to make a move.

Tenki waited for a moment for the shock to wear off a bit before speaking up. "Calm down, we're not going to hurt you. But I would like to know how you came into possession of the Intelligent Device you currently have in your hand there." The Girl's eyes went wide as Tenki uttered the words intelligent device, proving at once she knew exactly what she had in her possession. After a moment, she spoke up, her voice and eye now both showing relative calm. "Y....you're the Investigator, aren't you?" Tenki was taken aback and it showed. "How do you know how I am?" He asked back. The girl stood up and dropped the Device to the floor, standing rather shakily at first and then stumbling forward. Tenki rushed forward the few feet to catch her, only for her to start pounding at his chest as he did so. "Why didn't you save them.... why didn't you save my village.... why." She collapsed once more to the ground, this time in tears. Tenki took a few steps back, trying to grasp his head around what he was seeing, but finding himself completely unable to do so. Even looking over the Girl didn't offer any help to identifying her. If anything, unable to match her, grave Tenki the sure belief he'd never met her before. She was tall for a girl, but not as tall as Tenki himself, had coppery red hair short in the front but giving way to a medium length back going just past her shoulders and was built like one would expect an athlete or gymnast. Fit but not remarkably so he would say. She wore normal, Corone style villager clothes, plain brown leather pants, a pair of matching boots, a loose fitting long sleeve shirt and brown leather vest over it. The outfit of a worker. None of it made any sense to Tenki, but he felt himself both curious and compassionate for the plight the girl was going through, so he got on his knees and reached around her slowly to console her as best he could.

The answers would just have to come with time.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Not understanding the process; Lorenor observed what Tenki and Luin were doing with the strange device on the tables. Considering them to be magitech artifacts; the ghoul related the items to what he could. It was difficult to process what was going on. Symbols in tradespeak appeared on the screen made of Fallien's glass. That was one thing that Lorenor could recognize; glass from Fallien. The ghoul was astounded at the level of technology that was present here. It seemed that the device was used to somehow store vast amounts of information and at the same time; monitor the tubes that were present. The term cold storage was whispered into the back of his mind by the endless. It seemed that the weapons of N'Jal understood the severity of the situation much better than Lorenor could. He simply accepted everything as he was since there was nothing he could do but wait anyway. At some point; Tenki figured out how to unlock the tubes and the ghoul walked over to the first of the four chambers. His friend's explanation of the cold within the tubings served to keep the ghoul a fair distance away from the chambers once they were opened.

The ghoul observed the cold gray manufacturing of the technology. Looking at his own aegis bracer; Lorenor pondered the similarities of the devices and their general quality of make. Sighing; Tenki's explanation of the cold storage only served to confuse Lorenor more. All he knew was that the devices were used to contain the gifts of the Thayne. The former Red Hand had a play in the construction of these devices. Lorenor also guessed that the Golems were probably involved in the construction of these...machines, as the Golems called them. Lorenor wished he had Number 5,325 with him. The Golem; an outcast member of their society, was manufactured using Lorenor's own DNA. When the ghoul's traits were passed on to the unit; the Golem went renegade going against the prime directive of the Golem's ruling body. Lorenor thought of that just as the chambers started to open one by one. He missed his smith shop back in the Gol'Bron's town. He missed his friends back home. He liked adventuring with Tenki but a part of him was dreading the acquisition of what lurked within the chambers.

Lorenor began thinking about that adventure he had with the Golems so long ago. As the thoughts started to manifest themselves chamber number five began to have the difficulties opening up. Worried; Lorenor turned towards Tenki who was taking care of this entire process. "There seems to be something wrong with Chamber 5, is everything going all right Tenki? You and your friend seemed to have everything under control here." Lorenor was about to say something else when the fifth chamber finally opened up of its own volition. The ghoul turned his attention to the opening device expecting to see something within the chamber and instead...something popped out. The ghoul smelled the sudden scent of a female touching his sensory array. Hostility immediately entered the room. A moment earlier; the glass from the fifth chamber was exploded outward and the ghoul had to dodge to the side in order to evade the dangerous flying shrapnel. The sharp glass embedded itself on the table, the floor, and portions of the wall. The ghoul was looking at some of the larger portions of the glass and managed to take one of the pieces, placing it into his possessions when the girl suddenly attacked him!

Lorenor hissed; turning quickly towards the girl. He unsheathed his weapon, but the movement took too long to process. The girl was fast and closing in on the ghoul. Lorenor's short and pathetic life flashed before his eyes. Is this the end? I haven't done anything. Curse it all! Accepting his fate as ti was; the ghoul was prepared to bring his newly acquired sword up to combat position when something strange happened. A mystical barrier suddenly burst into the air bearing the same energy signature of the magic that Tenki had at his disposal. The magical barrier was fused with energies that the ghoul could not comprehend. Lorenor instinctively took several paces back as the energy field manifested. The girl ran right into the barrier and was knocked back several paces; skidding on the ground. The ghoul held his weapon with both of his hands and prepared for combat. Seeing that the barrier collapsed on itself; Lorenor shot a glance towards the girl. Tenki intercepted her. Lorenor prepared to back Tenki up in a fight when the two had an interesting conversation.

It seemed that the girl knew Tenki somehow! Lorenor pondered the revelations of this interesting bit of information. He rotated the flaming sword in his hand, then quickly sheathed it. The ghoul saw that chambers one through four were now completely open. The temperature in the room dropped a few more notches as the extra cold air touched the air all around them. Lorenor felt as though he were standing outside in Salvar. He wished he had some of those thick hides with him and was forced to endure the cold temperatures within the room. His skin was getting cold to the touch. He inspected the open chamber with shivering hands. The temporary warmth from the flaming sword served to add a buffer from the cold. The ghoul looked inside the open chambers and was astonished by he saw. They were indeed artifacts from the Thayne! It seemed that the Red Hand had acquired these objects long ago. The ghoul knew that the warehouse contained other basic provisions and would stock himself with those provisions as well. The important thing was ensuring that he safely acquired these objects.

Identifying the markings of the distinctive Thayne; Lorenor recognized the symbols of Lady Y'edda and Lord Draconus. Either Thayne ruled Gorandis (Corone) and Ruild (Concordia Forest). Lorenor knew the mythos of the Thayne because he was a member of the Gol'bron. Most importantly; he was a follower of the Thayne known as N'Jal. Lorenor felt his greed manifesting in such a way that he had never felt before. These were religious items to him and of severe import. He couldn't let it fall to any other hands other than a follower of the Thayne. Other than him. Lorenor took a glance at Tenki and the girl seeing that the situation seemed to be resolving itself for the time being. But he knew he would kill her if she attempted another stunt like that again. Turning his attention back to the artifacts; questions began to arise. These seemed like objects that were directly made by the hands of the Thayne themselves. Two of them were figurines made in the likenesses of Y'Edda The Wild and Lord Draconus. Lorenor immediately recognized the dragon-like image of Lord Draconus and hissed.

He recalled the many times that Lord Draconus violated him with psychic rape as some scars never healed. The statuette of Lord Draconus seemed to be staring at the ghoul. Lorenor's eyes narrowed somehow and the ghoul felt the taunt and tug of power. Each of the small statuettes were in the likeness of Y'Edda and Draconus. "By the Thayne." Lorenor said. "These figurines are built in the exact likeness of Lord Draconus and Lady Y'Edda!" Each of the four chambers contained two artifacts. One of them was a sword. Lorenor investigated the serpent like quality of the blade design and the eerie symbols etched upon the blade. The whole thing had a dragon motif to it. The handle and pommel sections were a dragon's tail and one of the winged beasts was dramatically etched into the blade. It was in a stylized image of Lord Draconus. Lorenor recognized the material of Titanium from his time spent training with the Golems. Lorenor was aspiring to become a great blacksmith using the technological no-how of the Golems and their superior intellect.

For the time being though; he studied the objects of the Thayne. The dragon figurine and the figurine representing Lady Y'Edda. Both of them had the same strange markings of the ancient runic symbols. It was a dialect that Lorenor hadn't seen up until this point and guessed that they were the symbols of the Thaynes' own native tongue. Written by the hands of the Thaynes themselves. Each of these objects represented a great deal of importance to the ghoul. He took all eight of the objects into his possession knowing that he would have to offer some of the power to Tenki. He placed the objects in his duffel bag. Touching the sacred talismans of power gave a jolting vibration of power. When Lorenor came in contact with each of the talismans; the air in the room began to grow slightly warmer and warmer until the temperature increased drastically when he came in contact with the artifact of Lord Draconus. Taking the sword in his hand; Lorenor took the scabbard of the weapon and carefully placed it inside his sack. The ghoul treated each object as if it were precious to him.

These artifacts were more than just the potential of power to Lorenor. They represented a faith. They represented the struggle of the Lady N'jal against her captors in the first place. There were two figurines representing Lady Y'Edda and Lord Draconus. One was the sword. One was a necklace made of some ore that Lorenor had never come across before. The entire necklace was in a dragon motif and emblazoned with the symbols of Lord Draconus in that same dialect Lorenor spotted on the other artifacts. Another one of the objects caught the ghoul's attention. It was a strange cube. Lorenor noticed that the same symbols were all over the cube; but most importantly there seemed to be repeating patterns. Circle like drawings were etched across the surface of the cube. The cube was a small box like object that was approximately six inches across on every side. The corners and the edges were cut the millimeter. Lorenor had only seen such precision of design with the Golems of the Ark. Immediately; Lorenor thought of Ranger Nailo and he knew that he needed to get this codex to the Prophet immediately. If they lived that long that was.

Lorenor also noticed a beautiful cloak and a couple of rings that were marked with either deities symbols. The ghoul looked at Tenki and the girl. The girl seemed somewhat cold and shaking; so he figured that he’d give her the cloak. Lorenor bagged the stuff he was going to take for himself. Then took the three remaining objects in his hand; throbbing with the promise of power, and walked over to Tenki. “I don’t want to interrupt you two. But I found these objects for you. I feel the need to give these gifts to you guys so that you can make proper use of them. The other stuff I’m keeping for myself. I have to give one of them to Ranger Nailo down the road. I discovered eight artifacts of the Thayne. We must make it a point to learn more about the Thaynes and their mysteries down the road. For now though these items are both a blessing and a curse.”

[Tenki]

After a few minutes of the two just crouched there, the girl in tears and Tenki doing his best to quietly console her, the girl finally looked up from her sobbing and wiped her face with her sleeve, trying to make herself a little more presentable. Not willing to make solid eye contact just yet, the girl looked down on purpose as she began talking. "I....I think I'm okay now. Can I get up?" Tenki stared down to her for a moment before letting go and standing up himself before reaching his arm down to offer her assistance. Assistance she didn't accept. Standing on her own the girl continued to avoid eye contact.

"So, you are him then. The Investigator." she continued back to her earlier line of questioning. Tenki did his best to put a stern and professional look on his face to emphasize his point. "I am AN Investigator. But without knowing more about the one you think I am, then I'm afraid I don't have a solid answer for you." The girl's face turned to one of frustration and as she responded, annoyance was key in her tone. "The one that was with my ancestors when they came to this world. The one that disappeared with them, and then from them when they ended up here. The one my PEOPLE expected to return one day.... and couldn't even do so when they needed him most."

Ancestors.... that word hit Tenki like a ton of bricks. It immediately confirmed his worst fear. That the ship he'd been a part of had indeed ended up on Althanas at a different point in the time line. But deeper than that, it meant those people had tried their best to survive on this world. And had apparently done so for a stretch of time. How many generations of refugees had he inadvertently been a part of creating. The weight felt crushing. Even as that tugged upon him he noticed something important... her choice of words. Afraid of the worst, but compelled to ask, Tenki responded. "You're talking in the past tense.... why?" At this the girl finally looked at him, not just right in the eyes but as far as Tenki could feel, down to his very soul. "Because they're all dead. Killed by sea-based raiders calling themselves the Black Sails. I saw them all. Slaughtered, chased down, killed for the things we had that set us apart from the rest of the world, our technology. And while they died, and screamed in pain, I heard many of them ask where you were. Why you didn't come. Known to our people as a legend... and never once coming to our aid, even at the cost of genocide." She didn't break her eye contact this time, determined to get his reaction.

If the revelation of the ship's survival had been bad enough, this second piece of news was all the more crushing. There had been survivors, and descendants. Now there was nothing. He wasn't sure what to do, how to react. Inside he felt like driving his own head into the closest wall, like it was his own fault the flux had caused this to happen. He could feel the tears that wanted to fall build up in his eyes, but he held fast in keeping contact to the icy gaze the girl was giving him. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help." He began. "Believe me, even if it would have cost my life, I would have done everything possible to help your town. I don't know what kind information you have heard about me but I can't be everywhere." The girl stepped back a bit and broke the stare down. "But. You're supposed to be some kind of top class Mage... one of the best. Able to cross space and time at will, to defend those like our ancestors, under your protective watch from the heavens... can't you?" Tenki stepped closer in the distance she pulled away to hold her attention to his response. "I don't know how many generations your people had on this world and thus I don't know how long a time I've been a legend. But you should know something about legends. They are often only loosely rooted in reality. I'm a competent mage, sure enough. But I have my weaknesses, and NO mage can do the kinds of things you're talking about under their own power. Like I said, if I had been there, with the survivors at that time. I would have done everything under my power to protect them. I would have attacked the ships and taken down raiders. But more than likely I could have just as easily been asleep at the time, and killed with my head on a pillow." He let those last words sink in to make his point across. He knew inside he'd just been a jerk, but for this very moment he didn't care. As much as he was going to have to deal with the reality here, so was she. He wasn't some kinda of legend or deity of protection. He wasn't even a high ranked Mage for that matter, Just barely squeaking by for a B- Rank at his last examination. He let out a long sigh as he got some of his own anger vented in that comment. "The name is Tenki Dougall by the way. From the sound of things I wouldn't want you to keep thinking I was this great Investigator legend your people has built up over the years, so I may as well have a real name."

The girl looked away for a moment, not sure sure she wanted to take it all in as truth. But for the moment, he seemed sincere and caring. And in many other ways, fit the description of the legend exactly. Especially the part about wanting to protect. "Alisa." She mumbled before finally speaking up once more. "Alisa Washburn." She stepped over to where she'd dropped her device to the ground and picked it up, twirling it in her fingers as she turned around to face Tenki once more. "And this is..."

"Andravida." Tenki finished for her. Alisa looked shocked at his foreknowledge of her device, to which Tenki decided to explain a bit. "Without getting too specific for now, I knew a previous owner... back in the day." Alisa gave a short nod. "Makes sense, the Devices had been passed down for generations for safe keeping amongst my people." Continuing the introductions, Tenki tapped Luin's shaft to the ground twice before speaking to it directly. "Hey Luin, you going to be shy to whole time now?" "Apologies. My greetings to Alisa. Andravida." Alisa let out a sudden, light giggle from Luin's curtailed introduction as Andravida spoke up as well. "It has been some time Luin, Tenki. Are you both well?" Just as Tenki recalled, Andravida has the programmed voice of a middle aged female, and was just as polite as ever. "We doing the best we can, considering it all."

It was at this time Lorenor re approached the two, bearing some items pulled out of the other containers. He offered Alisa a cloak that was a black color on the outside and appeared to have a red, velvety lining inside. She accepted the cloak and slipped it on without a word, staring rather obviously at Lorenor's unusual looks as he spoke to them about these item ans where they had come from. Tenki reached out and took the two rings, both were basic band style rings with odd designs on them. One was a white and black marbleized opal ring with the design of a bear and dragon locked in combat, while the other was semitransparent and milky white in color, seemingly quartz or some other stone and carried the engravings of many types of birds along it's length. For now, Tenki pocketed the rings from Lorenor as he introduced to two. "Alisa, this is Lorenor, a traveling companion of mine who has asked for my assistance with something. Lorenor, this is..." "Alisa Washburn" she cut him off. "Last Survivor of the Village of Childan."

[Mutant_Lorenor]

"Childan? Must've been a small province then cause I've never heard of it up until this point. I've been all over Corone; though admittedly not to every small town and village there is. I'm sure it's possible that your town was in one of the more isolated areas of Corone. There are plenty of those around."

Lorenor said thoughtfully. Attempting to understand what he had just learned; the ghoul realized it was futile. Tenki was an offworlder and these were offworlder problems. The ghoul only understood that she had assaulted him without prejudice and might do it again. So as she introduced herself; the ghoul simply nodded with a faked politeness without trying to seem rude. He had an uneasy air about him as he observed Alisa. She was a pretty girl and smelled like someone who lived in Corone for her entire life.

And yet; she somehow knew Tenki. With his enhanced senses; he couldn't help but hear the conversation that went on between the two individuals. There was something about an Investigator who was a promised savior to the people of Childan. Lorenor saw that his friend was tensed up about the situation.

Lorenor decided that this situation was not his to interfere with. Instead; he concentrated on all of the newly acquired toys. They would certainly be a help in the assassination project he was meant to undergo! The Church of Salvar was a patient employer and the ghoul knew that he could not afford any sort of failure. The objects from Draconus and Y'Edda were merely a blessing on the behalf of the Thaynes. Lorenor pondered exploring the rest of the warehouse but knew that this was probably the most important room within the warehouse. Despite that; Lorenor understood to some degree that he'd stumbled upon a treasure vault of sorts. A very advanced treasure vault that cost a ton of money to create; but a treasure vault nonetheless. The ghoul studied the mysterious tubes until they gave him a headache. He couldn't understand the technology behind it. He knew that there were magitech devices that were extremely rare and extremely powerful! But that's as far as his knowledge extended. His friend was able to somehow recognize the tubes and what they were for.

He was grateful for his friend's companionship during this adventure. It would've been a bitch to attempt to complete this trip on his own. The time and energy it would've taken could probably have overwhelmed the ghoul almost entirely. Glad for his friend Tenki; the ghoul decided to respect the fact that he had his female companion with him now. She was a pretty girl and was made even prettier by Lorenor's strange sensory array. His senses seemed to enhance the vital parts of female anatomy and twist them in just the right way to make them look even more enticing. Lorenor could see the blood flowing through her vessel and that predatory side of him wanted to feast upon her flesh! He kept himself under control for Tenki's sakes and pondered walking off towards the rest of the warehouse. With the artifacts in his possession; the best thing now would be to wait until nightfall so they could continue their trip. Lorenor was cursed with the inability to be out in the daylight hours. Being outside meant contact with the sun; which would kill him. He was thankful that the warehouse contained no visible windows of any sort. The only source of sunlight was the front door which was closed by the exiting bandits...

They didn't want an angry ghoul and mage chasing them through Concordia Forest. Lorenor's heart felt heavy at the situation at hand. Within moments of their initial meeting; the girl had attacked him without thinking. What would this do to their group dynamics? Lorenor had worked hard to earn Tenki's trust. There were precious few willing to look past the fact that Lorenor was a cursed demon for all intents and purposes. Lorenor kept his hand on the newly acquired fire sword; the sword stolen from the leader of the bandits. Lorenor was developing quite the collection of weapons! He walked out of the uncomfortable room and stepped into the larger section of the warehouse proper. He observed the cold stone of Coronian architecture and decided that the warehouse was probably really old. It seemed to date back to the time that Ithermoss was in control of the Red Hand and was probably a forgotten relic of the past. The old Red Hand still had many places where they hid their wares besides Pandemonium's Fist. The ghoul knew that it was within the best interests of the Gol'Bron to retain control of Pandemonium's Fist.

Thoughts passed the ghoul's mind...

******

Several hours later; Lorenor felt the distinctive temperature change which signified that the sun had finally started to fall. The ghoul would wait until the sun was completely set in order to venture out into the realm of the Dark Mother. Lorenor managed to pace throughout the rest of the warehouse and find some provisions and wares. There was a section of the warehouse specifically specializing in equipment for traveling purposes. The ghoul grabbed an item here; an object there. He finally found himself to where rations; food, and drink were stored in a refrigerator like room. He made his way in and helped himself to some ready to eat rations. There were also buckets of ale and fresh water in barrels. Lorenor served himself a goblet full of fresh ale. He could use the drink badly after the recent series of attacks on his life. The fighting with the bandits was still fresh on his mind as he drank and ate some food. The jerky tasted extremely spicy; but the ghoul didn't mind this. He would allow Alisa and Tenki some time for catch up whilst he planned the rest of the adventure out.

Yes...Lorenor had to kill the noble that he was assigned to kill.

[Tenki]

Alisa forced herself to hold her tongue, and the weapon still in her hand, at the creature's remark about not knowing her home village. How could he, it had been rampaged. Tenki, for his part, gave a fairly indignant look towards Lorenor as he made that remark. Either from taking the hint, or from his own lack of interest, Lorenor left the two alone once more. Going off to explore the rest of the building presumedly. For a moment, Tenki's mind wandered over what else the building might contain, but was brought back to what was before him as Alisa let loose with a shiver, bringing her to cross her arms tight across her body. With the large cloaks covering her body, the look wasn't far from monks from a monastery. Even with the cloak Lorenor had provided on top of her normal clothing, there was no denying that with the opening of the cryogenic chambers, the room had drop to downright chilling in temperature. Tenki pulled his duster a little closer to stave off the cold for himself. "It's daylight out right now. If you wanna step outside, you'll probably warm up a lot faster." Alisa sniffled once before replying. Whether it was from the cold or her emotions was unclear. "Sure. I'd like that."

Silence reigned as the two made their way down the hall. Alisa looked around quite a bit, attempting to regain some bearings for herself, but the cold, naked stone building did nothing to help. The two made it to the main room shortly enough and passed the odd pile of cloth Tenki had attempted to build into a remains covering, to the front door where Tenki took the lead and opened the door for Alisa to go out into the sunlight. As the two stepped out, Tenki first took note of how much higher the sun was than he thought. It had to already be halfway between dawn and midday. So much had happened today he admitted, so it was no surprise he'd simply lost track of time. For her part, Alisa walked a fair distance away from the building, but not all the way to the tree line so she could absorb some of the sun's warming light.

The soft braying sound that caught Tenki's ears also made him recall another forgotten detail, the horses. While Tenki's had gotten tied up in the woods, Lorenor had not had the time and had left it roaming the area. Considering the time they were likely to be left, until nightfall, letting his own horse loose seemed more than reasonable. He turned to Alisa for a moment. "I'll be right back, I left my horse tied up for way too long." He walked off towards the tree line, Luin still in hand. As he approached the beast it acted spooked as Tenki popped out from behind the trees nearby. Or maybe it was that Luin was still in his Lancer Form. He reflected on it for a moment. Twice in one day, busy. "Luin, go ahead and stand down again. Hopefully you won't be needed yet again." "The rest will be useful, goodbye." Tenki extended his right hand as his left let go of Luin's weapon form dissolved in a field of purple energy and replaced itself with the arrowhead pendant Tenki kept on his person nearly at all time. Slipping the Device back over his head and onto his neck he did note the horse seemed a little calmer with the "weapon" gone. Tenki smiled as he reached up and untied the horse from the tree, talking to it a bit as he did so. "I bet you had a much quieter day than I did." He reached up and patted the side of the horses head, and it made some light noises and leaned in in appreciation as Tenki began to bring the beast back towards the clearing.

Back near the warehouse, Alisa had wandered around the clearing some before taking off the cloak Lorenor had given her. She messed with her hair some to put it back into place after the hood of the cloak had messed it up. She leaned back, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight. Her thoughts however, soon turned to darker tones. She had no memory of the time she was frozen. In fact, the last thing she could remember was the raid which took so much away from her. How much time had passed, she began to wonder over many things. She'd been awakened by none other than the Investigator himself. While certainly not up to the legend she'd grown up hearing, he seemed like a reasonable person. Being nice and caring once her part of the situation had become clear. He'd given up trying to persecute her on questions as well, she noted. But if that was because he find out later or no longer cared, she wasn't sure. She found herself wondering about that creature that had given her the cloak, the lack of eyes disturbed her the most. Still, Tenki had treated him with respect, and reflecting on it all, that was good enough for her to try and do the same. Andravida brought her back from her thoughts. "Mistress, can I stand down now?" It asked of her. "Sure, I don't think I've used you properly today. I apologize or wielding you with so little forethought." "It's alright, you mean well. Standing down." The dual colored sai devolved from it's weapon form into a small charm in the style of a Yin/Yang, complete with small fabric band attached. Alisa held out her right hand as the device landed in it, and she quickly pushed the band over her right wrist and into place. Her mind went back to her inner thoughts. She decided it would be best to apologize to Lorenor for her initial, gut reaction to attack whatever it was moving outside the chamber she had been in. He just had no idea what it had been like. The horrors of seeing friends and family murdered, unable to do nothing before passing out, only to find yourself healed, but trapped in some kind of glass covered tube when you regained consciousness, with voices and the vaguest of ideas as to what was outside. Going on the offensive had seemed like the only choice at the time, but now she admitted it had been a brash mistake. She relaxed once more, trying not to think about anything but how could the sunlight felt. That dark night of the raid was behind her now, the cold of that tube she has awakened in retreating from her body. She stretched lazy out on the large stump she had been sitting on.

Tenki made it back to the clearing soon enough, reaching into the saddlebag of the horse to pull out a couple of provisions before releasing the horses' guides to allow it to wander. It went right up to the horse Lorenor had been riding and the two trotted off to other parts of the clearing, perhaps glad to have another member of their species to visit with. He looked around to find Alisa sprawled out on a large stump, eyes closed. For the first time since she'd literally burst into his life, he was able to get a calm, long look at her. He had to admit, she was cute, very cute. Pretty even. As he'd noted earlier she was fairly tall, about 5'6" or so he guessed, her coppery red hair was cut with short bangs in the front that slowly gave way into a length going down to just past her shoulders. Physically she was solid, as he could tell with the cloak off her body stretched out. Built a lot like Tenki in terms of being fit, but not overly muscled. Her brown leather pants, while plan, did nothing to really hide her long legs and her white long sleeve shirt, while loose, was worn with a brown leather vest over it that only served as a partial protection for her upper body, but actually helped to show off the breasts below it, which pushed up on the shirt and vest, perky with their few years. She couldn't be older than 20, Tenki told himself. He walked over to the stump and spoke up. "You certainly seem better already." He teased a bit.

"Oh, much better compared to how I was before." Alisa responded, before coming to the realization of how she was situated and brought herself up into a sitting position on the stump in a motion so smooth and fluid, she nearly didn't give Tenki enough time to react, nearly butting heads. She smoothed her clothes out with her hands nervously. "How long were you standing there." She asked. "Oh, not long, just got back from cutting my horse loose. Poor thing was stuck to the same spot since dawn. Surprised she didn't try to break the branch holding her there." He motioned behind himself to over where the horses had trotted off to, prompting Alisa to lean and look past him to see. Tenki sat himself down on the stump next to Alisa and offered her some of the dried meat and fruit he'd taken form the saddlebag. Alisa took a handful and began to nibble on them. The two sat side to side, quiet for quite a while while they ate. As soon as he was finished however, Tenki spoke up once more. "Look. It's obvious you've had a tough time and all. But we've obviously both got information the other wants. I need to know about your village, and you want to know more about me, and the truth behind it all. But Lorenor and I, we're not on the safest of trips right now. To be completely honest I'm nor too sure we're going to make it out alive. But to be safe, there is a village about an afternoon's walk from here back down this trail." He pointed down the path he and Lorenor had come down to begin with. "It'd probably be safer for you if you went back there for now until..." He didn't get to finish.

"No way. I'm not being left behind by you now. If you're in the middle of something, I'll just come with you. You worry about the danger, so will I. You're the only part of my village, my people, I have on this world now, and I'm not just going to walk away from that." Tenki tried to interject. "But it's going to be very dangerous and I don't want to see you hurt." Tenki couldn't see it, but Alisa's face had a grin on it. "Hurt eh?" She quickly turned and grabbed his left arm, twisting it in a quarter rotation and bringing it up behind his back. "You don't know anything about me. I am more than capable of watching my own back. My father trained me in defensive arts, and I helped my mother as a nurse to her patients. If you're really worried about being hurt, then wouldn't it REALLY be better to have someone that can treat wounds on hand?" With that she let go, and Tenki moved his arm back to its previous position, bringing his right arm up to rub his left shoulder some. "That's interesting. You have nearly the same specialty Andravida herself has. I never saw her used in combat, but the captain always liked to talk up about her early days as a field medic, and how much Andravida helped with that." He stood up and convinced his arm was fine, stopped rubbing it. "Alright, you can come along. Just promise me you'll do as I say if things get rough." Alisa stood up herself and looked Tenki in the eye. "Fine, but keep in mind, if things get too rough, it'll be me and Andravida pulling your ass outta the fire." He nodded back. "Fair enough. Then you may as well get used to these." He pulled the floor plans and grounds map papers from the inside of his duster, and handed them over to Alisa. "It's the documentation for where we're headed. What it looks like, what's there. Pretty detailed too." She lay them out on the stump, the trees preventing any but a light breeze to bother the papers, and began looking them over, after a few moments, looking up from them to ask. "This....is an assassination plot, isn't it?"

Tenki swallowed. Hard. He was hoping she wouldn't have picked up on that till they were done. Himself having enough trouble with the idea of killing innocents, had only managed to make his peace with it by knowing from Lorenor and the papers the kinds of things this man had ordered. Tenki choose not to answer for the moment as Alisa turned her head back on the papers. "I mean, it's not that it's surprising that someone is doing this form the information here. But I'm surprised it's you. Guess that's another thing the legend had wrong." Tenki reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "While I'm sure it did get a lot wrong. That isn't too far out. Back home I strove never to take a life unless absolutely no other option existed. And whenever I can, I do the same here in the hopes that mercy is something that can be taught through action. But I have had to learn that here, on this world, gray isn't a color seen by many. Just black, and white." This time it was Alisa that stayed quiet without reply.

After a while, Tenki began to finally feel the effect of how long he's been up. He'd already been up the whole day before meeting up with Lorenor last night, and it was now easily afternoon. He looked up from the papers both he and Alisa had been looking over now. "I'm going to need to rest for a while, how about you?" She gave him a rather indignant look back. "Right. Years of cryogenic sleep. You'll probably be awake for days." He got up and walked back to the warehouse's main door. "I'm gonna take a rest in this first big room here. Come back inside before it gets too dark and...uhm.... Avoid the small pile of cloth, if you would." With that, Tenki slipped inside. Once inside, he unfastened the hood form his duster and rolled it up to create a makeshift pillow, which he used to get as comfortable as one can on barren, stone floors. After some time Alisa came inside as well, and seeing Tenki like that, unfolded the cloak she carried with her and lay it over him, acting as a blanket. She then sat down on the floor beside him, and waited for night to fall, Tenki to wake up, and the creature they were traveling with to show itself once more.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Ale flowed thickly down the ghoul's throat. It wasn't the same taste as blood and flesh; but it was a strong taste nonetheless. His stomach burned when it came in contact with the strong fluids. The dried meat was eaten in large chunks but didn't offer any form of satisfaction. The ghoul ate and drank his makeshift meal of rations attempting to hold the substances in his stomach before feeling them threatening to erupt out of his mouth and onto the floor.

He fought this desire to vomit. Pressing his hand against his stomach; the ghoul concentrated on his sensory array. His senses were weak still; but they carried with it a certain range. Lorenor was capable of detecting much within his sensory grid. Many things that the common person would miss. Being a ghoul had its benefits.

Taking one more bite of the jerky; the ghoul finally felt his stomach lurching outward. He immediately placed the ration on a nearby barrel and clenched his lower abdomen tightly with both arms. He growled angrily; cursing at himself for being so careless. Cooked food went right through his system and offered no form of pleasure in the act of eating. This was the first time that Lorenor attempted to eat cooked, and prepared food. The ale stung his stomach causing him to blow chunks in the first place.

A pool of chunky fluids rested on the floor. Steam flowed from the smelly substance filling the air with its acrid smell. Lorenor felt the part of his body in the air more than he actually smelled it. He hissed at it wanting to cover it up with something immediately! Taking a rag from his personal belongings; the ghoul wiped the floor clean of the fluid chunks feeling the horrible sensation of the pieces of his stomach in his hand. There was black blood mixed with the fluid where the ale cut up his insides burning him with a tremendous sensation of pain. The ghoul hissed once more; the sound flowing through the air with an intense edge to it. Lorenor took the goblet in his hand and threw it to the side. It bounced on the floor a few times; rolling off with a loud clutter in the distance. His drink was all over the floor attracting the attention of rodents and other nocturnal pests. The ghoul sighed as he moved through the darkened area of the warehouse. There was no lighting in these deeper parts of the chamber; only ambient lighting from the further off parts of the building.

Glow orbs hung overhead sending their warm light to the areas below but only certain sections of the warehouse still had working units. That that did work were flickering and added a surreal glow to the air. Lorenor gathered himself once more after that ugly episode. He was hungry and thirsty. His vessel required the flesh of living organisms. It was at that moment that Lorenor discovered the nature of what he truly was; a predator. The ghoul had immediate options available to him. He could feast upon his companions; Tenki Dugall and Alisa Washburn, or, he could feast upon the horses waiting outside. The subtle temperature was a familiar sensation and hinted that the realm of the dark mother was upon them. Looking towards the front of the warehouse; Lorenor gathered his supplies. He was in a foul mood. The ghoul wasn't able to find any sort of fulfillment from the available food and drink supply. Instead, he would have to go hunt. Lorenor wondered if every night would be like that? Every night across the eternity? He'd feasted upon the flesh and blood of that bandit bloke earlier; but that meal had been a quickly obtained meal.

Lorenor hadn't thought to completely feast upon the leader of the bandits. It hadn't completely filled him as he thought it might. Hours passed from that time period to now. It was more than ample time for another meal. He would have to think of something along the way. His body ached from the pain of undeath as he moved forward like a stalker. Glowing purple eyes shined brilliantly as he moved through the dark. His companions were ahead; he could hear them. He moved his position stealthily across to the ground of the warehouse to where he knew Tenki and Alisa were by their scents. The ghoul felt Alisa moving about. He made his way towards her position and started to reach out for her but stopped his hand just shy from touching her. He watched her from the dark for a moment before finally emerging and making his presence known. He looked at her with an intense expression on his face; studying her as if peering right at her soul. The ghoul clenched his fists tightly for a moment and looked to be physically ill for some reason or another.

"Get Tenki. It is time to go." Lorenor said and made his way towards the front door.