A Cathedral in need. (Closed to Drake, Kially Gaith, and Chiroptera)

[Karla]

It had been some time since Karla had arrived at the St. Denebriel's Cathedral. Her time there was mostly spent learning the healing arts. Seven years ago, she nearly lost her younger sister when some bandits had burned her house to the ground. She nearly died herself, so it was only natural that she wanted to be a good healer.

Karla figured that the best place to go to learn how to heal was a church or cathedral. She always thought these were spots where nothing could go wrong. She thought that they were holy places that were never attacked by evil forces. She was stereotyping Cathedrals. As she stared at one of the many stained glass, windows wondering where her sister was, Karla heard a knock on the door. It sounded a bit frantic, so Karla rushed to the door as fast as she could, wondering why the person knocking didn't just open the door since it was unlocked.

When she opened the door, she saw a man with brown hair, blue eyes, and tan skin, who was bleeding all over the place. He seemed out of breath as he looked at Karla and said in a hushed tone of voice, "Sanctuary." Immediately afterwards, he passed out. Karla had only heard of situations like this in stories. The fact that people actually asked for sanctuary surprised her to no end. Nonetheless, she was happy to take the man in and grant him the sanctuary he asked for, as well as heal as many of his wound as she could.

That was yesterday. Since then, the man had been fully healed by the Heads of the Cathedral and given a room to stay in until it was safe, the man had awoken long enough to explain that a gang of bandits was trying to kill him, and the bandits that were after him started storming the cathedral. Things had gotten so chaotic that two of the heads of the cathedral, in a last ditch effort to save the man and the cathedral itself, went into one of the many hidden rooms to summon an angel.

Karla was in the main hall of the cathedral, tossing White ball after White ball at the bandits that were coming her way. The problem was that there were too many of them. They just kept advancing. The bandits were not the usual run-of-the-mill type, either. There were mages, healers,fighters, ninjas... You name it, they had it. Out of the corner of her eye, Karla saw one of the bandits whispering to one of the priests. The priest started walking towards where the summoning ritual was taking place. Next thing she knew, the priest had walked out with a bloody knife in his hand.

Karla didn't need anyone to tell her what was going on. The priest had just walked in and murdered Two of the heads while the were unaware of what was going on around them. Karla only hoped that the summoning ritual had been completed, because with the enemies only 15 feet away from her, and her back against a wall, she was going to need all the help she could get.

[Kially Gaith]

The wind of the general area began to rage, speeding round in cold circles chilling all unfortunate enough to be caught in the sudden gust. The inside of the summoning chamber would cool dramatically, energy protesting its' use as the floor glowed a shimmering red.

Kially was taking a quiet stroll in a distant region when all of a sudden, he felt a tugging sensation on his whole body, before being engulfed in bright white light.
“Huh?”, he managed to state, before suddenly his position changed.

In a flurry of frantic baby blue and white sparks, Kially began to reappear within the summoning chamber, floating above the floor for a few moments before landing elegantly to the floor with both feet. Looking bewildered, he gazed to the two bodies on the floor, whilst the remaining summoners stared in disbelief, they’d got themselves an angel alright, but not exactly what they’d planned. It seems angels these days don’t come with armour, weapons or even a significant age. One or two less devout summoners quietly cursed at their own deities for sending such a miserable effort of what ever this thing was.

“Where ‘m I?” Kially spoke out, icy blue eyes looking round, taking in his surrounding whilst his mouth gaped an ‘O’ of sheer shock, he daren’t move, looking round as to summarise the area, was he safe? He couldn’t decide.

The wind outside now calmed and the air within the cathedral returned to its’ previous temperature, allowing all whom had felt the change to understand that something odd had perhaps been conjured, be it magic, some fell beast…Or just a small child that had no idea in hell of what was going on.

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri Jordel sat in a nearly-empty prayer hall in the eastern wing of St. Denebriel’s Cathedral. Her rear was slowly growing numb from having remained on the wooden pew for over an hour, and her fingers were sore from being clasped tightly in her lap. The toes of her booted feet lifted and fell in an alternating pattern, silently venting the energy that the half-elf always contended with during prolonged periods of inactivity. The dark stone of the small hall’s walls was almost oppressively thick, the monotonous grey decor broken only by an intricate stained-glass window that covered most of the wall in front of the half-elf. Delicate strands of blue and purple twined and coiled on a backdrop of brilliant yellow, and fading sunlight trickling through the colored glass, casting colorful shadows across the few who sat with her in the Hall of Peace.

A wry smile crossed the girl’s face at the thought of the chamber’s name. It was that very thing, peace, that she had come to the cathedral to find, and yet despite her pointed search it eluded her still. Rumor of powerful magic had brought her to Knife’s Edge in search of someone with magic powerful enough to save her mother from the darkness that was taking over her soul, but though Eltarri had stayed in the city for a week and wandered the streets in search of help like the desperate beggar she was, her efforts had come to no avail. She’d gotten lost in the twisted maze of the city more times than she cared to remember, and all she had to show for her efforts was a lighter money bag and a terrible cold.

She had already made arrangements for an imminent departure and had only come to the cathedral on an impulse, hoping to fight the despair that clawed at her resolve with some kind of spiritual rejuvenation or a soul-touching experience. No priest had yet offered her sage advice that could revolutionize her outlook on life, however, and as most of the other commoners coming in had gone straight to one of the many similarly virtue-named halls, she'd read the inscription of the name over this one's door and entered with the hope of finding a taste of relief from the worry and fear that constantly dogged her. So far, all she’d been able to do was sit quietly by herself and stare at the coils of silvery smoke that wafted from a raised brazier on the slightly-elevated platform at the front of the hall. She'd tried praying for a while, but considering how little her mother's gods had done for her, she didn't place much hope in the powers of the divine, and the urge to plead had soon been spent, leaving the girl to wrestle alone with her thoughts.

She was sitting near the front while most of the people who came in to pray stayed near the rear, but still the presence of others made her uncomfortable. Aside from the fact that weapons weren’t allowed in the Hall of Peace— which meant that she’d had to leave her black iron sword with a guard at the door who’d responded to her mother-like concern and paranoid questions with a raised brow and a snigger—the heightened hearing that her mother’s Elven heritage had given her allowed her to hear most of the prayers that were being fervently whispered by plaintive devotees. She had enough troubled thoughts of her own to keep her occupied, but it was hard to focus on them when she was being bombarded with the gossip-worthy concerns of other people.

If you’re not accomplishing anything, why don’t you just leave? Even though she’d asked herself the question, the girl couldn’t think up a good answer. She had been intent on getting out of the cold city as soon as possible not long ago, but now she was hesitant to depart, as if there were some unspoken expectancy looming over her head that prevented her from leaving before whatever it promised had been fulfilled. She sighed and tried to relax her spine, to let down her guard and appreciate the looming solemnity that hung over the room. If nothing else, she ought to be able to get in a few hours of undisturbed sleep, something she'd sorely missed at the tavern-side inn where she'd been staying.

A gust of cold air prickled the hairs on the back of her neck as the door behind her opened with a soft squeal. Soft footfalls told of a woman coming down the aisle to find a seat for prayer, but Eltarri's ears were tuned to the faint noises that she heard in the short space of time during which the door was swinging shut. She wasn't a seasoned warrior, but she had been in enough life or death situations to know the sound of clanging weapons.

The girl's heart rate spiked, a thrill of excited trepidation coursing down her spine as she stood from her seat and made her way up the aisle towards the door. She sneezed once on the way, darting apologetic grimaces at anyone who turned to her with startled gazes, and then she was out of the Hall of Peace and buckling her harnessed sword onto her back. Armed guards rushed past her in the company of men in stately clothing, all wearing serious expressions that assured the girl that her ears hadn't been lying. It was a big cathedral, but even though she was a ways away from the main entrance, the sounds drifting down the airy hall promised some kind of trouble.

YOUR kind of trouble?

She paused with a strap halfway over her shoulder. The guards rushing past her didn't seem the type to need help from a girl her size who couldn't even swing her sword without the help of magical bracers, and experience had taught her that she had the capacity to be more of a hindrance to her allies than she was a help. But how had anyone managed to break into a cathedral as well protected as this one? Anyone bold enough to attack such a fortress-like construction at the heart of a vast city would have to be quite a formidable enemy.

Coming to a quick decision, Eltarri finished putting on her sword and took off down the hall in the direction that she had seen the guards running before. She tried to run quietly so that they wouldn't notice her and send her away, but her footsteps still seemed to echo loudly in her own ears. Blood pounded in her temples as adrenaline and fear sharpened her senses. She didn't know what was going on or how much help she could offer, but there was no way she was going to sit around and pray when she could at least provide some kind of distraction.

[Drake]

Drake couldn't help but smile about what was transpiring in the main hall of the cathedral, the petty squabbling of humans, the only reason Drake was even here was because he had been offered a job here, but when he arrived the man he was going to do the job for was already dead. Drake hated when things start to go sour on him. Drake couldn't help but laugh as he watches the main priests get killed by one of their own, humans were so pathetic, Drake thought to himself. His laugh brought upon him some un-wanted attention, namely the bandits.

Drake had been sitting in a dark corner planning to watch and see who would win, then go have his own brand of fun, but it was not to be, because a few of the bandits noticed him and decided that an "unarmed" elf would be an easy target, but they where very wrong, suddenly out of no where Drake draws and throws 4 daggers from his cloak into the advancing bandits, Drakes eyes open wide with pleasure, "Death screams of the foolish, how beautiful." Drake purrs as he starts to attack the bandits with more of his throwing daggers, more and more bodies piled up, but still Drake quickly found himself surrounded, he had never moved from the shadowy corner, so he had no fear of fighting these fools.

[Karla]

Karla couldn't keep up her little Magic act for long. The worst part wasn't that the bandits were coming full force into the cathedral, nor was it the fact that there were countless bandits still outside. For Karla, the worst part was not knowing the reason for the attack. Yes,she knew that the man she had given sanctuary to was what these bandits sought, but she had no clue why they were after him. Karla dodged a fireball at the last second as she thought about this. As she dodged, Karla happened to notice the Drawbridge. If she could get that closed, she could stop the rest of the bandits from entering the building.

Karla Skillfully dodged between the enemies as she made her way to the drawbridge. As soon as she got there, though, Karla realized that there was a problem. Any one of the bandits could slay her while she was raising the drawbridge. Another problem was the fact that there was no telling how many bandits were still inside at the time she raised the bridge.

"Please keep them away from me." Karla yelled out as she started to turn the crank to raise the bridge. Of course, that statement drew the attention of alot of the bandits in the cathedral toward her.

"Crud" Karla thought to herself as about 40 of them rushed toward her. Afew guards attempted to protect her, but Karla was sure that the attempt wouldn't last long. What she needed now, more than ever, was a miracle.

[Kially Gaith]

Kially was hardly the required miracle Karla needed, leaving the blood filled chamber with nothing but a shocked pale face. A voice only he understood rang out in his mind. “Zrva jravt rva, jvpugvt, fvaq fvr avpug, nore fpuügmra fvr, Fvr. Avpug fpuervra. Vpu ova uvre.”*

He understood immediately and his face once again flushed with blood as he lost his fear and regained focus.

“Angel! Y-You have been called upon! Protect us!” Said one of the few priests who did not judge the lad upon his size or age. Kially did nothing but smile sweetly, a soft glow around him, not an ability, but a weak and quickly dissipating glow from the energies of summoning.

All about his tiny form were screams, but the boys resolve was strong, with the unknown voice on his side, he felt invincible. It was true he were anything but invincible, but it mattered not, as a calm state flooded its’ little host.

It were obvious that noise were not an issue in this place, as sound was in abundance, the clashing of weapons, the tearing of flesh and fabric, the launching of spells and weaponry, a flurry of hell that seemingly tore reality from under the feet of all those unfortunate enough to be within the cathedral on this day of atrocity.

Towards the boy, a large male, blood lust in his eyes, rushed at Kially with a large war axe. Kially remained calm, the voice still echoing in his mind with but only his own ability to protect him.

A yell and swing of the axe brought it slamming with horrid accuracy down next to the child, whether it were fatigue on the brutes part or just horrid skill, it didn’t matter it still missed, embedding itself into the floor, to the childs’ right hand side. So these were the enemy? This large fellow was attacking Kially after all, obviously this was not the set of people he was supposed to protect, but uncertainty still held him, so, incapacitating the larger male seemed the only answer.

Quickly blading his hand, he placed the upper side of his palm onto the shaft of the axe and brought it rapidly up, following the length of the item, moments later, 4 digits, 2 from each hand, remained on the floor whilst a scream billowed into the main hall of the cathedral, the large overweight male holding the remnants of his hands to his face in utter shock and surprise, the pain having not set in due to adrenalin.

Kially quickly followed his technique with a dodge roll to the left, expecting a leg to attempt an attack on his small form, and such came, and as it did, rolling onto his right knee, he once again tumbled behind the male, using the edge side of his hands to aim a singular strike for each of the backs of the males knees, one caught the left calf with an uncomfortable ‘shlur’ sound as fabric tore and revealed sliced flesh, and the right knee tendon was torn from behind as the angle of Kiallys’ inaccuracy still held home a singular direct hit of an aimed two. As the male buckled onto his right knee, he flung his elbow back, catching the boys right shoulder in his offensive tumble, knocking Kially cleanly over, first onto his left hip, then his left buttock into a mangled ball on the floor which soon unfurled for the boy to lay out painfully.

The large brute did not try attack again, the adrenalin slowly running out as pain began to set in. “You little shit!” he called, remaining still to try stem the blood loss that was occurring, two hands pressed tightly against clothing. “I’ll kill you!”

Shaking off the majority of the pain, Kially stood to his feet from placing himself onto his knee and raising himself up and quickly ran off, limping weakly as he ran, his hiney aching and his shoulder sore and painful. Not focussing on where he was running, he stared blankly, just trying to get away from the person he’d just disabled.

*"My little one, important, they are not, but protect them, you shall. Don't cry. I'm here."))

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri didn’t have to go far before the sounds of fighting grew to a cacophony, the ringing of metal and wood accompanied by the whistles of hurtling objects and magical projectiles. Hard-pressed to keep up with the guards’ pace, she rounded every bend about ten seconds after they did, so when she hurtled around the last corner between the Hall of Peace and the cathedral’s massive entryway, she was the only person to stand there immobile and gawk at the mayhem that met her eyes.

The girl had read books about wars and thought she had a pretty good idea of what a fierce battle would look like, but the bloody bedlam before her completely took her breath away. The wide hall was filled with people who spun and slashed and yelled and fell; the chaos was almost like a wild party with celebrants who'd had too much ale, if not for the copious streams of blood that streaked the stone walls and floor.

Wizards, too? The blood drained from Eltarri’s face as she stared, still panting, at the fearsome battlers before her. The guards in their formidable armor were fighting with competence and organization, but the sheer number of assailants made it obvious that they would soon be overwhelmed. The men attacking the cathedral weren’t in matching uniforms, but considering that everyone else not in the regalia of the Church of the Ethereal Sway was running away, Eltarri could tell that despite the bodies strewn about the floor, these killers knew what they were doing.

The fight was spreading; skirmishers were starting to chase each other down the halls. But why were they even here? She couldn’t imagine that a mere gang of bandits would be stupid enough to attack the most well-fortified structure in the city, but what kind of organization had the resources to orchestrate such an attack, complete with fireball-tossing wizards and men who were faster and deadlier than the average cobra?

A flash of motion caught Eltarri’s attention, and she watched in shock as a small figure came running down the hall from the other side of the church, dodging hastily-swung blows and hurtling past unprepared assailants. Was it a child? She looked to be not even as tall as Eltarri. The half-elf’s breath caught in her throat as the figure hollered a request that had half the attackers on her tail in an instant.

“Who says ‘please’ when people are trying to kill them?” Eltarri muttered wonderingly as she took a few cautious steps towards the fray. The guards she’d followed were too overwhelmed to heed the cry of the running girl, but there were plenty of bandits who weren’t fighting guards that followed the white-robed girl. Eltarri’s hands clenched at her sides. Go figure that the heavily-armed killers would rather go after an unarmed little girl than fight the well-trained guards! As unwilling as she was to get involved in this unfair fight, Eltarri knew that there wasn’t enough time for the guards to get through all the attackers in time to save the girl. Heck, she'd ran right into the throng of them; she might already be dead!

Ignoring every self-preserving impulse that tried to lock her muscles, Eltarri pulled the clasp on the harness across her chest and brought her sword from its sling on her back to an upright position in front of her. There was nothing else for it; she’d have to just run and hope her bracers could stop whatever hits fell.

Hero time!

The girl broke into a run, her speed diminished from having to hold the four-foot sword. Few men looked up from their fights as she approached; not even the huge sword in her hands could make her diminutive figure seem like a serious threat.

Halfway down the hall, close enough to the doorway that she could feel a cool breeze floating over her head, a mismatched group of five attackers came through the door and headed as a unit in her direction, their strides the hurried steps of people on a mission. The man in front, a bearded human with an axe big enough to rival her own blade, fixed his eyes on her and frowned as they drew near to each other.

Eltarri stopped running and tightened her grip on her sword, preparing for combat. But the man stopped about five feet away from her and held up a hand so that the people behind him stopped as well.

“Where did you come from?” the man demanded in a thick accent that Eltarri couldn’t place. For a second she just stared at him, wondering why he wasn’t trying to kill her, and then realization struck. There were so many assailants that they couldn’t possibly all know each other, and this man must have assumed that she was just one of them!

“Back . . . there,” she answered nervously, waving towards the hall she’d just come down.

“Any luck? Did you find him?” The man’s voice was impatient, he was fingering his axe as if he couldn’t wait to use it.

Him? “No, but I didn’t get very far.” Who were they looking for?

“We’ll take over the searching from here,” he said briskly. “There’s some little slut outside trying to pull up the drawbridge; go help take her out.”

Eltarri nodded, but the gang had already ran past her. Was the “little slut” that girl in the white robe? Looking up, she saw that the fight was moving further into the cathedral. There were still tons of men pouring through the door, but at least she didn’t have to be as cautious about dodging swinging blades meant for someone else's neck. Thinking that it wouldn't hurt to clear at least a few of the men away from the door, Eltarri cupped her free hand against the side of her face and started yelling.

“He’s back there,” she shouted, pointing down the hall where the group of five had disappeared. “Go that way!”

Attackers pounded past her in the direction she’d pointed, making her skin crawl at the thought that every one of the men whose cloaks brushed against her would have her head on the end of their swords if they knew that she’d lied and wasn’t really one of them. But who were they looking for? How could all this effort be for just one man? The question tormented her as she headed at top speed towards the door.

[Drake]

Drake smirked as more and more people died to his hale storm of daggers, the battle was in full tilt and Drake found himself quickly being overwhelmed, the piled dead around him were the only thing keeping the bandits back, the blood thick on the ground made the crossing to him almost impossible.

over the din of combat Drake heard someone call for aid and the cranking of gears as the draw bridge id raised. Drake smirks at the bandits in front of him and shadow melds and starts to head towards the person who had asked for some help, but also making sure to grab his throwing daggers on his way, he was starting to run out.

Suddenly Drake pops out of the shadows from under the girl, "Ya need some help?" Drake asks jokingly even as his daggers where already flying out of his hands into the faces of surprised bandits, "I had better get paid for this." Drake says in a laugh.

[Karla]

Karla was glad that she got help, but it wasn't quite what she expected. First an odd girl Misdirected half of the bandits, then a man of some sort popped out of nowhere and started protecting her on the condition that he get paid. It was not the best kind of protection, but Karla was willing to take what she could get. Karla finished raising the drawbridge without too much more trouble. It was then that she noticed the kid angel. She was a bit shocked by the size of the kid, but she didn't dare second guess the logic of the heads of the cathedral, though. She considered herself lucky that there was any angel summoned at all.

Karla went over to the kid and healed as many wounds as she could on his body and then continued towards the woman who misdirected a lot of the soldiers. Karla motioned for the Merc who protected her and the young angel to follow her. It was time for a group huddle. Most of the bandits who had gone after her had either gone off in the direction the woman pointed in search of the man, or died. There were three exceptions who were trying to reopen the drawbridge, but the few guards that were left were able to take them down quickly.

Once she thought it safe, Karla explained the situation as best she could to the angel, the girl, and the merc.

"Ugh. this has really gotten out of hand. I am not exactly in the know as to what is going on here, but what I do know is that yesterday I gave sanctuary to this really beat up looking man and today I find this place under siege by the biggest group of bandits I have ever seen. The heads of the cathedral decided to summon an angel for protection, but, and this is just a guess on my part, though the spell was near completion, some assassin disuised as a priest went in and killed the heads in an attempt to cancel the spell. It didn't quite work, though, because we got a small angel out of it."

At this point Karla pointed at Kially.

"In any case, that is all I know. Why these bandits are after this guy, I have no idea. I could take you guys to him, but we need to be sure nobody sees us... Not even the priests."

All of a sudden there was a the sound of about 50 footsteps as a ton of the bandits that the woman had misdirected turned the corner. one of them could clearly be heard yelling "There's that lying Bitch. Kill her and her friends."

Karla had only one reply to this.

"Shit!!!"

Please note that I changed a few things in my post. thank you.

[Kially Gaith]

By this time, Kially had already lost his god complex the second the large axe wielding bloke had almost seen to dislocation his shoulder, a more childish sense was what flooded him as once again, he looked back to realise what he'd done.

The human back in the main hall lay unconscious in a small puddle of blood, as Kially sat against a pillar, letting the pain of his backside and thigh slowly settle, to most it would seem a stupid idea, but in the hell of battle, most of the assailants found no reason to attack what looked like a fatigued child, perhaps they had morals? It hadn't stopped the earlier fellow...Maybe a friend of the assassin whom had been made aware of the childs existence? Far to many questions to ask, when survival was the instinct of the day, in comparison to soup of the day, which seemed to be church de blood.

Taking a few breaths to regain composure, he found that a less hostile looking woman beckoned for him to follow, her attempts to heal him apparently failing as Kially was in a heightened state. Aching, he once again stood, following with a great deal of caution, and now, with a sore backside to remind him of his status, with more a willingness to run. The thought of escape then crossed his mind.

"Avpug fvr fbtne genhra, Xvnyyl!"* Ran within the childs train of thought as he sighed obediantly, as he continued frightened step until those of the group met up. When the 'leader' referred to Kially as an angel, he looked almighty confused, be it because he didn't know just WHAT he was, or if it was still the after effects of the summoning.

"...Why am I h-" Kially was cut short by the sudden screaming of footsteps on stone, a daunting feeling of approaching death and on hearing such, Kially froze.

"Ynffra fvr fvr Vqvbg ynhsra!"** Rang out like bells in the brain of the child, shaking him from his sudden battle fright, and before even those around him could stop him, he made for the nearest doorway, which was straight back into the summoning chamber, in the instance of him stepping into the doorway, came the shouts of the owners of the feet he'd ran from.


* "Don't you even dare, Kially!"
** "Run, you idiot!"

[Chiroptera]

The action outside was already coming to a close by the time Eltarri made it to the door, and she reached the doorway just as the white-robed young woman streaked past her into the cathedral. The plethora of bandits who had moments ago been vying for entry now lay dead in gruesome piles of mutilated flesh. The drawbridge was up, and armored guards were grimly finishing the brutal task of destroying the attackers.

Eltarri swallowed hard and tried to ignore the twisting of her stomach at the smell and sight of the carnage. She could never have imagined that such a grisly slaughter would be possible on the threshold of a church. She turned away from the sight and saw the girl in the white robe standing near a brown-haired child down a hall opposing the one by which she’d come to the site of the battle. Eltarri’s throat clenched, painful memories suddenly racing through her mind at the sight of the child. He looked like . . .

No! You don’t have time to remember.

Eltarri fiercely blinked back tears and moved across the corridor, avoiding the few living bandits who staggered about or groaned piteously from the floor. She did her best to avoid looking at the boy, unable to bear the stab of guilt and almost physical pain that went through her heart every time she glimpsed him. She had no idea as to why a child would be present at such a horrendous scene, but she wasn't exactly surprised by it. Children had a habit of ending up in terribly places they didn't belong. What did surprise her was that the short girl who appeared to be the boy's acquaintance was Elven. She'd never known an elf who didn't help humans for their own benefit, and it was with wariness that she approached the harmless-looking girl.

But before Eltarri could even open her mouth to ask one of her many questions, the Elven girl was talking, explaining in a low, urgent voice that made her seem a figure of authority. Was she a priestess? That would explain the robe. But what about the boy? She listened hard in the hope that the elf would be able to alleviate some of her confusion, but at the end Eltarri found herself more confused than she’d been before the girl had began. The elf’s story made sense, since her earlier encounter had revealed that the bandits were apparently here after a single person, but why would any bandit leader send an army to come after one injured man if they could sneak in assassins who could kill off the heads of the church without trouble? And did the fact that the boy was in front of them despite being the result of an interrupted spell mean that he was only a semi-angel, or some kind of angel-in-training who was just going to end up as another guilt-causing deadweight on her conscience? And how did an Elven girl who looked so young – even for an elf – manage to be in charge of the cathedral’s defenses?

Eltarri shook her head and tried to ask a question. “First of all, who are—”

The boy spoke at the same time and Eltarri cut herself off, turning her gaze to the far wall to avoid having to see him even out of the corner of her eye. Just the sound of the child’s voice was enough make her eyes water. But not even he could finish his question, for he’d barely begun to speak when the din of a hundred pounding feet began to echo through the stone, growing louder as the hoard approached. At the head of the crowd was the ax-bearing man, and even from afar Eltarri could see his eyes burning with anger, and his infuriated bellow made her blood run cold. Why did all of her brilliant ideas always end up returning to bite her in the backside? It seemed the explanations would have to wait while they worried about preserving their lives.

“Let’s go talk to this guy,” she said quickly to the elf, “but only if we can we get to him without having to go through the mob."

[Drake]

Drake smiles as he watches the approach of the bandits, ‘killing is so much fun’ he thinks to himself as he launches 2 daggers at the approaching bandits, “here take my hands if you want to escape.” Drake states calmly as he starts to approach some nearby shadows, “I can quickly and easily get us to that prisoner.” He knows that they would stand little to no chance against the approaching bandits.

Drake makes a quick look around to make sure the area is dark enough to meld and started slowly sinking into the floor, his hands spread wide inviting anyone to join him.

[Karla]

Karla looked at the man, confused. "Do you even know the way? I didn't think anyone knew the guy's location other than myself and the cathedral heads. Wouldn't you have to know where the guy is to take us to him? How do I know I can trust you not to get us lost? Look, no offense, but I think I can get to safety by myself." She asked the man.

Karla looked over at her female companion. "Follow me, I know quite a few places we can escape to."

Without any hesitation, Karla ran towards the statue of an angel nearby, She quickly cast the heal minor wounds spell on the statue and it moved out of the way to reveal a downward staircase hidden room. Karla grabbed a torch from the wall and waited for the female to get in the hiding spot before pressing the button to seal off the passage. If after ten seconds the female still didn't show, it meant that she had likely been caught by the enemy. If she didn't show for ten more seconds, Karla would have no choice but to press the switch and seal the passage off leaving her outside with the enemy. Otherwise, it just wouldn't be safe.

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri only saw the man’s feet fade into the darkness below him before she had to look away, more nauseated by the sight of a melting man than by the bloody corpses that littered the halls. Did he really expect them to let him use his black magic on them? She didn't trust magic users as far as she could throw them! Was there really no other way? Eltarri turned pleading eyes to the elf, but the white-robed priestess was already speaking to the creepily disappearing man, and she nearly sighed in relief when the offer was demurred.

Eltarri nodded at the elf’s command and followed on her heels, trying to ignore the sound of imminent doom as it approached them in a growing din that echoed down the stone hall. She nervously watched the elf cast a spell on a statue, sticking her sword into its harness on her shoulder as sweat trickling down the side of her face despite the chill of the air. Her throat tickled, but she stifled the urge to cough and settled for rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. Fighting hoards of evildoers was hard enough without having to deal with a bad case of the sniffles.

The statue slid sideways almost soundlessly, the grate of granite on the floor a softer noise than the slapping of a child’s running footsteps. Eltarri’s eyes followed her ear’s direction on that one and she looked towards the noise in time to see the little boy disappear around a corner at the far end of the hall.

“Hey, where’s he . . .” she trailed off uncertainly and turned back to the waiting elf. The kid was an angel, right? Surely he could take care of himself. And if he wasn't around to get into danger, he wouldn't be a distraction if she did end up having to do more fighting. Eltarri ignored her doubts and stepped into the dark staircase behind the statue. It wasn’t much higher on the creepy scale than the melting man, but at least she didn’t have to wonder if she’d reach their destination in one piece. Well, she did, but she was much more comfortable with trying to get there on foot.

She stepped slowly down the staircase with one hand against the cold rock wall beside her, shivering as the air got colder the farther down she went. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, but she stopped a short way down and stood against the wall to let the white-robed elf pass her. It wasn’t that she was afraid to go down first, she told herself, it was just that the elf seemed to know her way around the cathedral pretty well, and if there were any unpleasant surprises at the bottom of the stairs she wanted to make sure that the more experienced church-goer could give fair warning.

[Karla]

Karla pressed the button as soon as her friend made it to the passageway. The statue moved itself back into place as soon as she did this, she knew she was safe, for now.

Her biggest concern right now was why the bandits were assaulting the cathedral. She knew that they were after the man she was hiding, but she had no clue why. Come to think of it, the bandits now had free reign of the cathedral, and it was only a matter of time before they found him.

This room was where they stored all records on the cathedral's history and layout. The whole room was lined with bookshelves.
"There you are. You are late.. We need to talk." Came the voice of the mystery man she gave sanctuary to. Karla nearly jumped out of her shoes.

"The hell? How'd you get down here?" Karla asked the man.

"What the? You are that girl who let me in. Fascinating place, really. But I was expecting one of the heads of this place. Still, seeing as how you are here noww, you will have to do. As for how I got here, I was hidden away here. The cathedral heads chose to lie to all the staff about my location, because some of the bandits actually work for the church."

"Then how do you know you can trust us?"

"You haven't killed me yet. That plus the fact that the bandits are after you gives me a pretty good idea about where you stand.

"So, why are they after you?"

"'I stole something that belongs to them, and if they get it back, this whole building will be in trouble."

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri followed hesitantly after the elf and stood a few feet behind her when they reached the bottom of the staircase, her eyes quickly growing accustomed to the dim torchlight of the underground study as she looked around at the book-lined shelves. The air was chilly and the smell of old parchment permeated every breath she took, making her mouth taste of dust and ink.

The elf’s torch was throwing strange shadows across the face of the man who stood before them, but her initial instinct to reach for her sword was quelled by the calmness in his voice, the authoritative self-confidence that made her trust him more than any of his words ever could. He was on the younger side and moved with the casual grace of a fighter, and his dark hair fell haphazardly over sharp eyes that glinted with a cunning energy as he spoke to the elf. He might have been scary to her if he’d been up in the hallway with a sharp weapon, but down in the bowels of the church, unarmed as he was and nonchalantly revealing his crimes, Eltarri found herself instead feeling relieved at having found another ally in the chaos of the struggle.

She stepped forward into the flickering circle of the elf’s torchlight, inclining her head politely when the bandit’s eyes flickered warily towards her as she moved. She nodded at the elf as well in a barely civil greeting that would have made her mother cringe, but they didn't have time etiquette and propriety. Curiosity made her speak, but beneath her interest was a horror at the thought that there were material things that could be worth more than hundreds of human lives. How would this battle be justified? At the end of the day, what would the victor have won?

She spoke quickly, unconsciously keeping her voice low in case they needed to avoid detection from possible eavesdroppers. “What could you have stolen that would warrant this kind of attack?”

[Karla]

"Let me reply by asking you this, Ever notice anything odd about this cathedral? Statues that didn't seem to fit the scene? Doors locked that nobody knows where they lead?"

Karla knew what he was talking about. For every angel statue, there was a Devil statue, but in two places there were Medusa statues instead. Also, over half the doors were locked to her. some doors were even locked to the heads of the cathedral.

"Yeah? So?"

The man rolled a piece of parchment out on the table. it was a map of the cathedral itself.

"This is what they are after. The only copy of the building schematics that shows EVERYTHING."

Karla looked at the map. there were many more basements than she had thought but what really worried her were two words written on basement level 11.

'Necromancer's lab'

"Wait, are you serious? No wonder they have magic users amongst thier ranks."

It all made sense now. Half the statues that hid secret passageways needed holy magic to get through, while the other half opened to darker magic, which she didin't have.

"Wait, how do you know all this?" Karla Questioned.

"I can't tell you that just yet."

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri had to bite her lip to keep from voicing her many questions as the elf and the bandit bent over the map, their conversation as incomprehensible to her as the liturgy at a Dwarvish wedding. It was frustrating not to have any idea of the secrets they were talking about, but it was worse to be finding out that there was nothing she could do to help. She knew nothing about the church except what she’d seen with her own eyes of the hallways.

The man’s stolen property was intrinsically linked to the cathedral, which made it a good thing he had it with him, but on the other hand it seemed incredibly foolish of him to have come to the cathedral for protection. By running to the fold for protection he’d led the wolves straight to the vulnerable lambs. And these sheep didn’t even have a dependable shepherd. At least, if the elf’s report of the heads’ assassinations were true, they didn’t anymore, and even while alive they’d been turning to divine aid for their salvation. What was the point in having Cathedral leaders that weren’t powerful or honest enough to protect the church?

Eltarri stepped closer to the table and looked at the faded parchment when the elf mentioned magic users. What was it that had caught her eye? She frowned in frustration and stepped back. The diagram was far too complicated for her to decipher, and the plethora of tiny ink lines made her head hurt with just a glance. In most situations she liked having an idea of what she was getting involved in, but she didn't know how to read blueprints and hadn't the foggiest notion of what they needed to do. All she knew was that there was a hoard of fighters waiting upstairs that would happy to kill her if she tried to slip away, and her only hope of survival rested with the two before her.

Eltarri sighed and sat down on a rusty chest that sat against one of the shelf-lined walls. She crossed her legs beneath her, grimacing at the dust that smeared her pants, and set her chin in her hands to wait for orders. She told herself that she didn’t mind being useless; she had neither magic nor knowledge of the cathedral, and sticking her nose into the strategizing process would undoubtedly be more of a nuisance than an aid. They would tell her what they needed from her, and when that time came she’d be more than happy to swing her sword at in whichever direction they pointed. It was the least—and probably the most—she could do.

[Karla]

Karla looked over at her female comrade, and noticed the confused expression on her face.

"Listen miss, this is more serious than we first thought. According to this map, this cathedral houses a very dark secret. I don't know quite how we are going to reach it, but supposedly this holy place is on some incredibly unholy ground.
We need to cleanse the evil coming from the necromancer's lab, and..." suddenly it occured to Karla that the only way to enter the right area was either by black magic, which she was pretty sure neither of them had, or through one of the locked doors.

"Fuck. There is no possible way we can do this. Not anything that wouldn't put us at risk, that is."

"I wouldn't go that far missy. Inside here is your ticket inside. This is the key to the door here." The man said as he pushed an envelope her way and pointed to a position on the map. Karla began to open the envelope, but the man stopped her.

"I don't think you want to do that. That key will hurt you if you touch it, but it won't hurt your partner, I don't think. It works like this, if you can cast any holy or healing spells, it will sense that and infect your body with a poison that will eat away at your bones until you have nothing left. Nasty stuff. Almost uncurable, but I do have one shot of the antidote." He said passing her a small vial of sparkling white liquid.

"Thanks, I think." Karla said swiping the antidote up.

"Hey, think you could grab that envelope?" Karla asked turning to her female companion.

"Oh, by the way, I don't think we've had time to be properly introduced. The name's Karla"

[Chiroptera]

Necromancer’s lab?

Icy blood pounded in the half-elf’s ears at the frightful revelation. They were going to have to get rid of a necromancer? She suddenly wished that she’d hidden under a pew back in the Hall of Peace instead of choosing to play the hero-turned-martyr. Nobody even knew her name in this part of the city; if she died her corpse would be buried in a mass grave with all the other slain bandits and left to rot in the cold ground of Salvar, forgotten until the evil necromancer raised her from the dead to fight in his zombie army as one of the mindless brain-eating terrors she’d had to face in another part of the country not too long ago. Her heart sank at the depressing thought that she might never see the sun again.

The girl was distracted from her brooding by the curt voice of the elf, whose diminutive frame apparently housed an incongruously plentiful supply of bravery. She was a healer and a priestess, and yet she was willing to descend into the pits of hell to save this cathedral. A bolt of shame went through Eltarri’s chest at her own comparative weakness. If this elf—Karla—was willing to risk her life when she didn’t even have a sword, how could Eltarri get away with hiding when she had a weapon and at least a little knowledge of how to use it? She was the one who’d come charging into the action with big plans of cathedral-saving and villain-thwarting; it would be unacceptably cowardly to run away when the real test of character presented itself, even if it did mean that she would have to fight a necromancer.

She was on her feet in an instant, the tip of her sword banging with embarrassing loudness against the chest she’d been sitting on in her hurry to rise.

“I’m Eltarri,” she told the elf, flashing a quick smile as she went to the table to pick up the envelope. It was a small key but it was heavy for its size, and Eltarri tucked the envelope swiftly into her pocket, not wanting to think about the effects on magic users that the man had warned them about. She didn’t use magic, but the image of bones being eaten painfully away made her handle the small instrument with care anyway. There was, after all, only one way of finding out if the thief's prognosis was wrong. Was this the thing he had stolen, the thing that was responsible for the many lives that had been lost that day? She glanced up at him while tucking the key away and caught his eyes following her motions with an unconscious intensity that made a shiver run down her spine. How skilled would a thief have to be to steal something as precious as this from bandits?

She turned away from the table, wondering how were they going to clear out the evil that had been lingering without detection beneath the cathedral for all those years. She knew that she probably wouldn’t be able to do much. Would the elf's magic be strong enough to withstand the powers of death?

She looked again to Karla and flexed her fingers at her sides to keep them from getting stiff in the cold. Who knew how soon it would be before she had to wield her sword again. Her voice was tremulous but determined when she spoke.

“Ready when you are.”

[Karla]

Karla quickly looked at the map one last time. If they had to exit out the same way they came in, she was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to survive for long, not that they stood much of a chance anyway, she was only just learning healing magic and they were going to have to face a necromancer, at least she hoped it was just one necromancer. Yeah one she could most likely handle, especially if it was a low level necromancer.

Karla began to wonder why she was fighting what seemed like an unwinnable battle, when she realized it was because she had no choice but to fight. Still, it looked like the map was showing one other way out. It was a crawlspace to a storage room behindone of the bookcases.

"Hey, Eltarri, mind helping me push this out of the way?"

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri jumped forward obligingly, eager to be useful as they shoved the bookcase out of the way. Scrolls and parchments fell off the shelves as the bookcase scraped noisily across the floor, but Eltarri only belatedly wondered if the noise would alert the bandits to their presence. They were deep underground, weren’t they? How far could sound carry through those stone walls? She didn’t really want to stick around long enough to find out.

The hidden door was set into an arched doorframe and was barely waist-high on the half-elf and made of a dark wood that, while aged, showed little sign of wear. There was no handle, but Eltarri noticed that there were no visible hinges either. She crouched down and pushed lightly against the door, but it didn’t budge until she hopped forward and awkwardly slammed her shoulder against one side of it. A gust of stale air even colder than that of the records room breezed in from the darkness beyond the doorway, but there was no sound coming from the darkness.

“Are you sure . . .” Eltarri cut herself off and turned to look uncertainly at Karla. She wasn’t scared of traveling underground, but she certainly wasn’t fond of wandering around in the church’s basement while there were murdering bandits on the prowl. But the white-robed elf didn’t seem to be sharing her apprehension, so Eltarri ignored her misgivings.

“Can I borrow your torch?” she asked Karla, then kneeled in the doorway to hold it out in front of her when she'd taken it from the elf. The flickering torchlight illuminated a tunnel of smooth stone that extended for only a few yards before it ended in a doorway identical to the one before her, except for the addition of a gleaming handle. The passageway was small enough that a full-grown man would only have been able to get through by crawling, but Eltarri went through bent at the waist after handing the torch back to Karla, squatting when she reached the other side to press her ear against the door. She didn’t hear anything, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything there. What if the bandits knew about that “secret” room and were waiting for them to come out of this “secret” passageway so that they could chop them to bits?

Only one way to find out.

Eltarri clenched her jaw determinedly and moved out of the path of the door. She took a deep breath and glanced at Karla to make sure the elf was ready before she silently counted to three and yanked on the door’s handle, throwing herself headfirst into the next room as soon as it had swung open, simultaneously yanking the clasp on her harness to free her sword even as she fell.

And fall she did. Whoever had built the secret passageway hadn’t done so with her unorthodox entry method in mind. This doorway was situated a few feet above the floor of the next room, and the doorway had been covered by a thick tapestry that sent up clouds of dust as Eltarri smacked into it. The hanging carpet billowed as she tumbled under it, hitting her shins against a small table that was on the other side of the tapestry before she slammed into the ground, dropping her sword noisily on yet another floor of cold, hard stone.

Eltarri stifled her grunt of pain, cursing internally at her own idiocy. Who hadn’t heard the old saying, “Look before you leap?” Her palms, shins, and knees had already started to sting, the pain an unwelcome but needed reminder of the necessity of thought before action. She wanted to scramble to her feet and pick up her sword to face whatever opposition might be waiting in the dark room, but she forced herself not to move, straining her ears for any sign of movement.

[Karla]

Karla had little problem moving the bookshelf once Eltarri helped her out. Staring at the tiny door, Karla shuddered.

"Well, I suppose it's better than the alternative." Karla sighed as she followed Eltarri out of the room. She couldn't help but wonder if the mystery man inside the room she had just left behind her would be fine. This houghh process almost distracted her from the long drop into a small dark room. She fell into the room, grabbing the hanging rug at the last second, slowing her fall.

"You okay, El? That sounded like it hurt." Karla asked, concerned after hearing the crash of her hitting the ground.

The room she was in was almost completely dark. The only thing that kept it from being pitch black was the torch she had given Eltarri. From what she could see, the room was rather small. Just in front of her was a small table that was covered in dust, Directly to her left was a larger table with some mysterious liquid eating through it. To her right was a hallway leading to who knows where. Karla tried to make sense of all this, but failed miserably.

"I hate to admit it, but I'm lost. I have never seen anything even remotely similar to this room." Karla said, confused by all this.

She tried to remember the map and what it said this room was, but with no luck. She did remember one thing, though. This room connected to another room that was right next to the room that needed the key.

"Actually, I take it back. I have a general Idea of how to get to where we need to go, but that's all. That way should lead us to the passage we need to take to get back on track, I believe." Karla said, pointing to the right.

Karla was about to help Eltarri to her feet when she heard some noise coming from down the hall. A skeleton soon came into view, then fell to the floor in a heap. A grim reminder of the fact that as long as there was a necromancer underneath them. Nobody was safe. Karla did have to wonder why it fell apart, though. It wasn't long before she recieved her answer. As skeletons appeared to her left and in front of her, they were each shot down by a strong holy magic.

"This way, Karla", a familiar voice rang out. It was one of the heads of the Cathedral. Karla recognized the man almost immediately. He was a small man with black hair, blue eyes, and white skin. He was wearing white robes.

"Flint? Man am I glad to see you." Karla said, relieved that she didn't have to deal with skeletons on her own, but despite the fact that he had likely saved both herself and Eltarri, she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that something was wrong. This room was supposed to be off limits, wasn't it?

Karla needed a way to warn Eltarri without making it too obvious she suspected flint. Luckily, a way was soon provided for her.

"Holy crap! They just keep coming. Do you have any inkling whatsoever what is going on here?"

"No, unfortunately, I'm as clueless as you" Karla lied.

Feel free to bunny flint or my character if need be. Also, all previous bunnying approved.

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri pushed herself slowly to her knees, the pain in her shins completely forgotten as her attention fixed on the growing piles of bones and the approaching skeletons that generously added to them. Walking skeletons! The bones of their feet clicked against the stone floor, their toothy jaws smacking as the charged forward, mindless of their fallen comrades whose powdery remains drifted through the air before them.

Karla had said that they were dealing with a necromancer, and she’d prepared herself for the prospect of zombies, vampires, maybe even an undead dragon or two, but there was something unsettlingly repulsive about the walking bones that she glimpsed as flashes of strong magic lit up their pale frames before reducing them to jumbled piles of dusty bones. At least with zombies there was rotting flesh and gurgling moans to make them seem more monster than human, but the only thing that separated her from one of these things was the fact that her skeleton had flesh on it!

The half-elf shifted her attention from their assailants to their defender, a man who was almost as short as she was, dressed in the same pristine robes as Karla. Was this man a priest as well? Karla seemed to be familiar with him, and his magic—as far as she could tell—appeared to be strong. Maybe he was there to help them fight the necromancer!

Only . . . Eltarri looked questioningly at the elf after she’d answered the man’s inquiry. She had a better idea of what was going on than Eltarri, and Eltarri at least knew where the skeletons were coming from. Why was she lying? The half-elf thought back suddenly to the betrayals that Karla had mentioned before, comprehension dawning in a torrent of wary mistrustfulness. If even the heads of the cathedral couldn’t be depended upon, it made sense that Karla wouldn’t trust the truth with another priest, even if he was magically endowed. But there were only two exits to the chamber, staying put wasn't a viable option, and in a toss-up between a potential traitor and a horde of malevolent skeletons . . .

She stood up and moved towards Flint, stopping when she ran into the side of a table that was making strange noises that she'd been trying to identify before the skeletons had joined them. It sounded like tiny insects were munching their way through the wood of the table, but at the same time there was a sizzling sound like oil in a pain coming from the same place. She bent over and squinted down at the table, but her own shadow kept the torchlight from illuminating the surface’s contents.

“I don’t know how you got down here,” Flint yelled between shots, the sweat on his face glinting in the guttering light, “but you better get moving! I don’t know how long this onslaught with last.”

He was standing just in front of the door on the left side of the room, and as happy as Eltarri would have been to dart past him into the relative safety of a different room, she didn’t want to get past the door and get hit in the back with a bolt of traitorous magic. Besides, she didn’t even know where they were supposed to be going. She abandoned her investigation of the table and turned uncertainly to Karla for direction.

[Karla]

Karla turned to Eltarri and nodded. Any sign of uncertainty at this point would prove that they suspected him as a traitor to the Cathedral.

"Let's go, don't worry about him, he's extremely good at what he does, he'll be fine." Karla said to Eltarri, trying to make up a reason for her hesitant nature.

"By the way, miss Karla." Flint said, looking straight at her. "Why are you here? I Don't you know this room is off-limits?" Flint said, putting her on the spot.

"You know, I could ask you the same." She replied, trying to buy time to think of a good lie.

"I heard a ruckus down here, so I came to investigate" Flint replied.

"I came down here because I heard that woman screaming for help. Look at her. She must have been fighting those things off for quite a while, because she's injured. Otherwise I wouldn't have been down here, I swear." Karla finally said in her defense, hoping that Flint would buy it.

Flint turned around and stared at Eltarri before casting a healing spell on her wounds.

"Now, go on, get out of here, both of you. I'll take care of these guys."

Karla wasn't about to argue. She grabbed Eltarri by the arm and ran out of the room. The next room was well lit. There were skeletons and other beings all over the floor, but none of them moved. It seemed that Flint had already taken care of everything in this room. Looking around, Karla quickly realized that this was almost a mirror image of the room that the mysterious man that had given Eltarri the key had been in, complete witha staircase leading to a statue that was activated by using white magic or a switch on the other end of it. The only differences were that she was pretty sure there were no secret passages behind the bookshelves and this room's bookshelves were full of books on powerful artifacts from something called the holy wars. She really didn't know much about this place, but she had noticed that one single book had been laid out on the table in the center. It looked like somebody had been reading it pretty recently, so Karla picked it up and pocketed it. Perhaps she could figure out Flint's true motives if she looked through it later, but now was not the time. Karla took the staircase up and signalled for Eltarri to follow.

"Ok, I have no clue how many bandits will be on the other side of this door, but supposedly, the door we need that key for is right next to us, so whenever you are ready, I'll open the passageway and we'll make a sprint inside the locked door." Karla explained.

Once again, feel free to bunny Karla or flint. As long as it's light bunnying, I don't mind.

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri theatrically reached down to grab at her leg with an exaggerated grimace, hoping the man wouldn’t question Karla’s story. She hoped he was too occupied with the skeletons to remember that she’d been lying on the floor when he first saw her and didn’t even have her sword out. Flint’s blue eyes were sharp as he looked at her, but apparently her act fooled him because a moment later waves of cool energy were rushing over the half-elf, humming gently in her ears as gentle tendrils of strangely comforting coldness wormed into the bruised flesh of her hands and shins.

Eltarri could almost feel the benevolence of the magic as it made its way through her body, but moments after the spell was cast she could tell that something was wrong. As soon as the cool magic touched her, a fierce warmth blossomed in her chest, vibrating in her ribs before it spread outwards to bathe her whole body in heat that overwhelmed the quiet coolness of the healing. It was gone in just a few seconds and the healing coolness left with it, but her shins and hands still hurt just as much as they had before Flint had waved his hand at her.

That was healing?

She didn’t have a chance to inquire about it aloud; before she could speak Karla had grabbed her arm and dragged her past the little man and into the next room. It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, but when she could see she gaped at the shelves that lined the room. The key man’s records room had been well-stocked with maps and parchments, but it seemed to the girl that there were enough books here to record all the information everybody had about everything in the world! What would it be like to be a monk here, to be able to sit for days in this bright room and . . . She looked up at the walls with a frown as she stepped forward, realizing suddenly that there weren’t any torches. Where was the light coming from?

Her answer was delayed in coming when she tripped over a prone body and fell to the floor, her right palm landing on a rock that rolled out from under her hand with a low-pitched hum. She looked up and saw that the stone was hovering in the air a few inches off the ground in front of her face, a light blue marquise cut crystal that spun slowly in the air, light glinting off its many-faced surface.

The sound of Karla’s voice distracted Eltarri from her mesmerized gawk, drifting to her ears from the staircase that waited on the opposite side of the room. She realized that she was still lying on the floor amid a number of fresh and not altogether human corpses, and she jumped quickly to her feet.

The floating jewel followed her. It rose to stay in front of her face, still humming softly as it spun. Eltarri wished Karla was still in the room. What was this thing? She looked down at the body she had tripped over and saw that it was a man dressed in a long white robe. She couldn’t tell how the human had died, but his arm was stretched out at his side, fingers curled tightly even in death in a cage-like grip on something that was no longer in his grasp.

Eltarri shuddered. She didn’t like being left alone in a place so full of death. She stepped around the floating rock and headed for the stairs, but she didn’t get three steps away before the blue rock’s hum turned into a whine, still quiet but higher in pitch than it had been before. Eltarri turned back to it with a wary frown, and as soon as she was looking at it again its hum returned to normal. A step away, however, brought its drone to an even higher pitch.

“What do you want?” she demanded in a whisper. She could hear Karla walking up the stairs, but she couldn’t tear herself away from the humming stone, whose only answer was to bring its whine to an even higher pitch, a noise that was starting to give the half-elf a headache. The pain in her head made it seem as if the light in the room was dimming.

She took a step towards it and the humming lowered. What was it? A part of her mind sternly told her to turn around and go up the stairs, to save herself from the obvious trap that the stone represented, but she couldn’t make herself leave. Before she could stop herself, Eltarri’s hand stretched out tentatively and her fingers brushed against the smooth surface of the floating jewel.

A burst of light temporarily blinded the half-elf, and when frantic blinking readjusted her eyes to the light of the chamber, she saw that the rock was gone. Her head swiveled in search of it and she might have spent hours looking for it, but she abruptly remembered Karla and tore her attention away as she darted up the stairs.

“Sorry,” she panted when she’d reached the elf. “There was a . . . never mind.” Had she imagined it? There wasn’t time to be distracted by hallucinations, especially if there were bandits waiting on the other side of the statue. She swung her sword off her back and held it before her in the dim staircase, giving Karla a quick nod to tell her that she was ready. And she was ready . . . sort of.

[Karla]

Karla looked at Eltarri with a confused expression on her face.

"Something wrong?" Karla asked, before noticing the nod to open the door.

Karla opened the door and looked around. There were 11 bandits looking alive nearby, and 9 bandits looking quite dead. The 11 bandits that were alive were all in the middle of facing off against around 10 zombies and 20 Skeletons. It was going to be quite easy to sneak next door, seeing how preoccupied they were, but Karla suddenly began to look concerned. "Hey, El, after we check out what's behind this door, we should probably check up on that man that gave you the key. With all these Skeletons and zombies popping up everywhere, I'm not sure he's safe anymore." Karla whispered after watching another two bandits get mauled by the minions of the undead.

[Chiroptera]

The statue moved aside with as little noise as the last one had, but even if it’d grated across the floor with a royal fanfare the sound would probably still have been drowned out by the unmistakable din of fighting that swelled just beyond the doorway. Warm air rushed into the staircase as the statue moved aside, air heavy with the smell of sweat and blood and the sound of thudding weapons on flesh and bone. Eltarri’s heart was racing and her hands were tight on the hilt of her sword before she realized that no one was coming murderously towards them. How had the necromancer managed to get his minions up to the surface already? Did he know they were coming?

The half-elf’s muscles were tense and she shifted her grip on her sword, torn between staying put and rushing out to help destroy the monsters. As a general rule she wasn’t fond of bandits, but her dislike of the undead was much more passionate. She’d seen far too many zombies in her lifetime to blithely dismiss the threat of an undead attacker. She couldn't stand back and let the humans get killed by the monsters, but if she rushed forward and gave away their presence . . .

Eltarri jumped when Karla spoke, tearing her attention away from the skirmish with effort. Check on the man? If he had been attacked by the creatures that were battling the bandits in front of them then he was probably already dead! It was disturbing to consider that he would have been safer coming along with them and meeting bandits who were specifically out to kill him rather than staying alone in what was supposed to be a safe place and risking a zombie attack. But did they have time to abandon their necromancer hunt to backtrack to the man’s hiding place?

The girl’s golden eyes flickered from Karla to the battle that raged mere meters away. The bandits were falling quickly, crumpling before the undead minions like daisies under a stampeding bull. The stench of decaying flesh permeated the air, heavy and disturbing as the gurgled bellows that lurched from their throats. She couldn’t hold herself still any longer.

“I’ll be right back!”

The half-elf charged from the hidden doorway, her heavy sword smashing through the spine of two skeletons before the skirmishers even knew she was there. She swung her black blade in sweeping blows that hacked into rotten limbs and crashed through yellowing bones indiscriminately, her graceless slashing interrupted only when her bracers jerked her arms into a block that she swung free from as soon as the blow was deflected. She spun and struck with mindless intensity, committing all of her pitiful strength into each swing and throwing herself at each undead opponent as if its very existence was a personal offense. When she finally fell still, sweat dripping from her brow and eyes roaming hungrily for more opponents, she stood in the middle of the room on a floor littered with corpses, dry bones, and the moaning companions of the bandits, who had wisely stepped back at the half-elf’s haphazard attack, giving her and her sword generous legroom.

“Damn, girl, you nearly took my head off,” one of the men grumbled, shaking flecks of rotten zombie flesh off his sword.

Eltarri was breathing too hard to speak, but she lowered her sword and nodded carefully, her gaze fixed on the bandits. Was it happening again? The only reason they wouldn’t kill her was if they thought she was one of them. If they were distracted enough by the undead attackers, they may not have noticed her entry. How much luck did she have left?

“The others found a secret entryway,” she panted, lifting one arm to point aimlessly in what she hoped was the direction of the center of the cathedral. “Zombies are pouring out and they need everybody they can!”

Several of the bandits immediately started moving towards the hall, but one of the men held up a hand, squinting mistrustfully at her. “Hey, weren’t you the one—”

Eltarri jerked her chin up and glared at the man, daring him to challenge authority that she definitely knew she didn’t have. “If I were working against you would I have bothered to save your sorry butts? Get moving!”

They did, much to the half-elf’s surprise. The room was cleared of able-bodied bandits in a moment, leaving only the mostly-unconscious thieves and the twitching bodies of the undead.

“Ready, Karla?” Eltarri moved across the room to the exit that didn’t lead to the hall, an innocent-looking door of heavy wood with a small keyhole beneath its ring-shaped handle. She returned her sword to its harness on her back as she stepped over bodies, reaching into her pocket to retrieve the key-containing envelope and shaking the small but precious item onto her palm. It was disappointingly nondescript; iron with a meaningless inscription at the end of its short stem. It slid easily into the keyhole and turned with a smoothness that was unnatural for a door as infrequently used as this one was supposed to be.

Eltarri stepped back to pull on the handle, keeping one hand warily on the hilt of her sword as the door swung open.

[Karla]

Karla was the first to enter the doorway. At first, what lay beyond the doorway confused her. It looked almost like a small closet, but entirely empty. After a bit more searching, though, Karla found what she had been searching for. The whole reason for the locked door was on the floor. It was a trap door, the whole floor was a trap door. But this trap door had no handle or any other way of opening it, What it had instead was a strange magical rune, and from what she could tell, it was a complicated magical rune, too. One that seemed to need some kind of powerful magic to destroy. Karla knew that in order to break a rune, you needed magic equal to or greater than the one that was used to create the rune.

"Crap, dead end. We need to head back to the man's room El, I ned to check that map again. Hopefully there is another route.

As Karla began to head back, she saw three of the bandits from earlier joined up with a group of twenty others, fighting off skeletons and zombies by the dozens. Once again, thier backs were turned to Karla and Eltarri. They were fighting thier way through one of the passages that could only be opened via Dark magic. It was directly opposite the statue they passageway to the man and the map.

Deciding once again that the best plan was to ignore the bandits, she opened the secret passage with some more of her magic. Hearing a loud crash down the stairs, Karla quickly rushed down the staircase.

What she saw amazed her. This man was holding his own against what had to be at least thirty zombies alll by himself, and the sound she heard was him collapsing a bookshelf on five Skeletons.

"Hey, Eltarri, you might want to see this!" Karla yelled out so just loud enough for her partner to hear.

Karla got ready to press the switch as soon as Eltarri caje in the secret passageway, so as not to let any bandits in. Her yelling didn't seem to go unnoticed by the zombies either, as three of them charged at her, but the man was too quick for them. He stabbed each one in the back of the neck with his twin daggers, sending them toppling to the ground. Karla had no clue where the daggers came from, but at this point, she wasn't too worried about it. The man was taking down the creature two to three at a time and dodging enemy attacks as if they were slow a molasses in january. He was obviously not just your average thief, from the way he was moving, but he was tiring out fast.

Karla started backstepping up the stairs as another zombie went after her. She kicked it back down the stairs in a panic.

"Come on, Eltarri, let's help this guy out."

[Chiroptera]

A broom closet? The mysterious magical key of terrible deadly darkness opened the door to a broom closet? Eltarri rolled her eyes in exasperation as she watched Karla poke around in the tiny space before pronouncing what Eltarri had seen in an instant. It was a dead end, a false trail, an erroneous lead. They were no better off than they’d been before they’d left the records chamber!

Eltarri stifled her frown as the elf spoke and swallowed a grimace at her decision to go back to the key man. It seemed counterproductive to go back when the necromancer was still loose, but then again she couldn't think of a better option. She nodded wordlessly and followed Karla as she left the room and went out into the perilous hallway, though she paused to grab the key and put it back in her pocket before she left. The elf moved confidently, finding her way through the nearly identical halls without a hitch, and Eltarri was glad to be able to follow without having to worry about getting lost. What had happened to the angel-boy and the shadow man? Perhaps it was better not to worry about them. Once the necromancer was taken care of, the bandits would surely realize that there was no point in sticking around, and maybe if those two had found good places to hide . . .

Karla turned a corner, and when Eltarri followed she saw that there was more fighting going on at the other end. Bandits were fending off undead monsters by the drove, but the number of living fighters was large enough that Eltarri didn't feel obligated to offer her help as the two females stepped into a side room that undoubtedly should have been familiar.

The statue had barely moved aside before noise of a scuffle drifted up the staircase from the records room below. Karla was down the stairs in an instant, but Eltarri followed at a slightly slower pace, her gaze fixed on her feet so that she wouldn’t tumble and make another painfully graceless entry to a room of unknown occupants. The staircase seemed brighter, somehow, which helped immensely as she made her way down.

She was so focused on her feet that she almost ran into Karla when the elf came back towards her. She spoke, but her words were lost in the din of crashing bookshelves and the angry groans of re-dying zombies. She saw a blur of motion among the slow-moving corpses and gaped when she realized that it was the man who had given her the key. He certainly didn't fight like the average human she knew. He leapt around like a monkey in a frying pan, his hands glinting as his daggers found their way into zombie necks. Who was this guy? She felt a pang of regret at the sight of the cathedral’s records being trampled by the shuffling zombies, but she forgot her regret when some of the monsters started heading in their direction.

Her sword was in her hands again in a flash and she stepped off the staircase and into the fray to join the human without a moment’s hesitation. She didn’t have any of his well-aimed finesse; her sword cleaved through flesh and bone at random, slashing at whatever moving mass came into her line of sight-- often repeatedly to make up for a superficial first strike. At the back of her mind, Eltarri spared a thought trying to remember whether the room actually was brighter than it had been the last time she’d seen it. It might have been her imagination, but she was certainly seeing the misshapen faces of the zombies more clearly than she had that of the dangerous key man.

[Karla]

Karla suddenly felt useless and out of place. Her healing was nowhere near as good as Flint's, and Flint hadn't been able to heal Eltarri's wound, by the looks of things, so why should she be able to? Karla also had some offensive magic at her disposal, but she had nowhere near enough to even make a dent in the enemy. The biggest use she was right now was as a distraction. Karla waited for the man and Eltarri to finish dusting the enemies off beforeshe approached the man.

"You are pretty good. A bit too good to be a common outsider, chased by bandits. I want to know who you really are, and why the fuck there are zombies and skeletons all over the place." Karla said, annoyed and frustrated that this guy might be hiding secrets from her.

"I suppose I do owe you some sort of explanation, but hear me out before you react, okay? I was at one time the leader of the very group of bandits that is attacking this cathedral, but that didn't last too long. The bandits started to do things behind my back. I was disgusted at the types of things they were doing, and I quit when I heard they had burned down my own village. I didn't stop there, though. I listened in to their next scheme, they planned on stealing a book called 'A Necromancer's Legacy' from the Necromancer's lab in this church. I didn't know much about the book at the time, but it sounded like bad news. Just as I was about to take action, I overheard that they had already placed some of the bandits in lofty positions in the church. I had heard enough at this point, so I made my move. I stole three things that I figured were somewhat essential to the plan and headed ran out the door, with them not far on my heels. I figured they'd catch me and get back the stuff eventually, so I came to seek sanctuary here in hopes that I could warn you in time. Problem is, I had no clue who to warn at the time, because I wasn't sure who they sent undercover." The man explained.

"Okay, so the three things you stole were the key, the map and what else?" Karla querried.

"Actually, what I took was the key, these daggers, which are enchanted with a strong holy spell, and a book about 'The Necromancer's Legacy' which had the map inside it."

"Well, I'm sure you've had nothing but time to read, so what can you tell us?" Karla questioned

"Straight to business, huh? Well, 'The Necromancer's legacy is a book that will let you summon forth any creatures from hell to do your bidding, but at a price. Usually, after they do your bidding, they return to kill you. An Immortal necromancer once got his hands on the book, and he figured that since he was Immortal, he couldn't be harmed when the minions of hell were done doing his bidding, and for a while, he was right. But the ore he used the book, the more the book changed him into a demon. He enjoyed the newfound strength he was getting and continued to use the book until the fateful day everthing except a small part of his mind belonged to hell. On that day, the demon part of his mind took over and ravaged his own town, killing his own family. He was forced to watch in horror as everyone he cared for died by his own hand. The demon mind took him to destroy this cathedral next, but the constant pelting of the holy spell brought the Immortals mind out, once more. Having a sudden change of heart, he sealed himself and the book in the area now known as 'The Necromancer's Lab'. That way nobody could ever make the same mistake as him again. He actually managed to make use a high level sealing spell for a necromancer, but overall it can be easily broken. What he did was choose 6 key points in this church to act as totems to hold in part of his power, while all six need to be broken to set him free, only one of those totems needs to be broken to make him self-aware. My guess is that one of the six items he deemed worthy of holding a point of his magical seal has had some sort of calamity befall it, and therefore, that point is broken. Hence why there are zombies and skeletons all over the place. I just recently found a place where it showed where each totem was in the book' but I didn't have time to mark them down because that was when the undead began to attack me. Now that they seem to have stopped, though, I'll mark them down." The ex-bandit said, as he finished, he put six O's on the map.

"I'm curious, though, why did you return so quickly?" The ex-bandit asked.

Karla looked at him confused, she thought he knew the answer, but for once, he didn't.

"The trap door in the room you gave us the key for could only be opened by strong white magic. I am nowhere near good enough to break it." Karla replied, once again feeling rather worthless.

"I see, well I may have a solution. In this room, you can find a stash of weapons from the holy wars, I think. Perhaps one of them will help you enter that secret passage all you need to enter that room is a little black magic." The ex-bandit replied after a bit of thought. He put an X over a room in the west wing.

"That could be a problem. We don't have any black magic that I know of." Karla complained

"Sure you do. You still have the key, right?"

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri sat down on a familiar rusty chest almost as soon as the man started talking, returning her sword to its sling on her back as she lowered herself wearily onto the dusty trunk. Her shoulders were sore from her inefficient swinging, and during the skirmish one of the skeletons—armed with the femur of a fallen companion—had managed to land a ringing blow on her left side that was already hurting with a bruise-promising ache. She rubbed absently at her ribs while the key man spoke, still breathing hard as he carefully sheathed his daggers.

So this guy wasn’t the common thief that he had pretended to be! Not that he’d actually lied to them about his identity, but dissemblance in this situation seemed just as bad as a deliberate falsehood, considering that it was his fault that they were embroiled in the brouhaha in the first place. Of course, even if he had been the bandit’s leader, now he was reformed, . that was admirable, at least. She wondered if the “holy spell” that had been cast on his daggers had anything to do with how well he fought against the undead. She discarded that theory almost immediately. Not everybody had to cheat to have a decent level of skill in combat.

The bandit leader had launched into the necromancer’s story when Eltarri saw a flicker of motion overhead, accompanied by a soft humming that could barely be heard even over the reformed bandit’s low voice. She craned her neck to scour the stone-studded ceiling of the chamber and nearly gasped aloud when, tilting her head back until she could see directly above herself, she saw the palm-sized blue jewel floating in the air above her head, refracting flashes of light to splatter against the wall and paper-littered bookshelves beside it.

“What are you doing here?” She felt ridiculous for talking to a rock, but the jewel’s hum changed in timbre at her whisper. She gnawed on her lower lip and glanced questioningly at her companions, both of whom were entirely absorbed in looking at the map that had managed to remain on the table despite the brawl. Should she bother them with her little dilemma? Probably not. She’d touched it before without any negative consequences, and she didn’t want to distract them from business that was actually important . . .

She realized that the room was unusually silent, and she looked again at the other two again to see that the bandit leader was looking in her direction, his eyebrows raised inquisitively. Had he asked a question? Eltarri blushed, frantically searching her mind for what she’d missed of the conversation.

“Yeah, yes, I still have it,” she recovered quickly, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the key to hold it up for his scrutiny. He nodded approvingly and turned his attention back to Karla.

“You’ve got a lot of information,” he said seriously her, “so now you know the enormity of what I’m asking you to do. Are you sure you’re still up for this?”

Eltarri had no doubt about what Karla’s answer would be. The elf had already proved that she had a lion's indominable spirit, and Eltarri didn't have the guts to refuse to help her. The girl was already pushing herself to her feet, wincing at the pain in her side, when the floating stone suddenly stopped floating, its humming cut off as it bounced off the top of her head and clattered to the floor by her feet. Eltarri sighed and bent over to pick it up, realizing with a touch of worry that it was harder to see the stones on the floor than it had been before. The torches along the walls kept the room illuminated still, but she was almost certain that the room had somehow just gotten minutely darker . . . unless she’d been hit on the head harder than she thought.

She picked up the stone and held the jewel tightly in her fist as she waited for Karla's direction, so focused on the mission at hand that she was completely unaware that the pain in her head, side, and shoulders was slowly ebbing away.

[Karla]

Karla was a bit concerned and it showed. She wasn't her usual gung-ho self. She knew she wasn't going to be good at hiding it, but she had to try, for Eltarri's sake. So while she tried to figure out what she wanted to do next, Karla decided to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while now.

"Hang on a second, why have the undead suddenly stopped coming? I thought there would be more by now." Karla asked, still expecting a skeleton or a zombie to pop up behind her.

"I can't say for certain, but my guess is that the seal was lowered for a split second, giving the immortal enough time to summon only a small amount of creatures." The bandit leader replied after a bit of thought.

Karla nodded as she figured out what she needed to do next. She needed to convince the bandit leader to come with them, without sounding like she was the one who needed help.

"I've been thinking, you know more about all this than either of us, and while hiding may have been a good idea up until now, the bandits seem to be more focused on fighting off the undead than finding you at this point. Another thing I'd like to point out is that while you may be able to hide from the bandits, if the undead come to get you again, you may not be able to fight them off. One last thing, even if you are able to fight them off, you are still trying to get others to clean up your mess." The bandit leader stared at Karla for a few seconds, then shook his head.

"No, I'd be a burden on you. While the bandits may not be searching for me, they still won't hesitate to attack me on sight."

Karla shook her head disapprovingly as she grabbed up the map.

"Eltarri, come with me. Let's check out this weapons stash this so-called leader told us about."

[Chiroptera]

Eltarri had trouble tearing her gaze away from the face of the bandit, whose firmly set jaw and lowered brows gave clear indication of his opinion of Karla's suggestion. Her request for him to accompany them had seemed completely reasonable to the half-elf, and the man's quick and certain refusal reminded her again that it was a bandit they were dealing with, even if he was supposed to be reformed. Why was someone so intent on saving the cathedral being so resistant to getting directly involved in the saving process? He hadn't seemed to be very cowardly before, but to insist on staying safe when his fighting skills might make the difference between victory and defeat seemed downright pathetic.

The bandit's eyes flickered towards her and she turned quickly, setting off after the petite form of the elf with her hand still tightly wrapped around the blue jewel. It lay cool and smooth in her fist, completely lifeless and dull when she peered down at it through the gaps between her fingers. Even if it was a strangely lively talisman, the stone's presence was somehow comforting to the half-elf, a similarly useless companion in the turmoil of their surroundings. They were once again leaving the safety of the underground to traverse the zombie- and bandit-filled halls of the cathedral. What had he meant when he spoke of a seal being broken? Was the necromancer immortal? Questions raced through Eltarri's head, but she kept her mouth shut and followed Karla, intent on making sure that she remained as un-bothersome as possible. Necromancers, poisoned keys, complicated bandit politics, relics from the Holy Wars (whatever those were), black and white magic . . . it was all way over her head, and the only thing she was sure she could do was to stay quiet and swing her sword at whatever menace assailed those who were actually contributing to the resolution of the crisis.

The halls seemed to get darker and darker as the two passed through them, ominously silent and vacant but for the corpses that littered the ground, some still twitching as their lives ebbed away. Eltarri's grip tightened unconsciously on the jewel in her fist and she kept her eyes fixed on Karla's head as they stepped over congealing puddles of blood and detached limbs, almost glad that it was too dark to really see exactly what she was tripping over. Where were the rest of the bandits? They couldn't all have been killed by the undead hordes. Who would be responsible for cleaning up after all of this was over? Eltarri swallowed hard. What did that matter when there was no guarantee that all of this was really going to end? If a priestess and an incompetent adventurer were the only ones available to take care of a dilemma of this magnitude, who was to say that the situation was one that could be resolved?

Eltarri quickened her pace to catch up with Karla, nervously clutching at the clasp of her harness with her free hand, eyes warily flitting over every shadow on the wall as if a skeleton would jump out at them at any moment. Hadn't the bandit said that there wouldn't be any more? With her lips pressed worriedly together, she regretfully peeled her fingers off the blue stone and tucked it into her pocket, shaking her hand to keep her fingers limber. It wasn't that she didn't trust him . . . well, she didn't, but that was irrelevant. It never hurt to be prepared.

[Kially Gaith]

Throughout the actions of Karla and Eltarri, Kially had been hidden in the summoning chamber, he’d lost the following assailants with his invisibility enchantment of his ribbon combined with the disturbing darkness of the murky and blood filled chamber.

Kially sat rocking in a corner to comfort himself. He had to admit, even though he’d seen blood before, the amount within this room was an abundance fit for a vampire feast. Having forgotten that initiated charms and enhancements fail after time…And after 5 minutes of ceasing to exist, his form faded back in to human existence and sight.

“Go back and check the summoning chamber, can’t afford those bastards getting any of their divine shit out here!” Came a battle ready order from who knows what from a short distance away from the chamber entrance.

The small child’s heart came to a brief stop, his eyes fixated on the door, before the starting gun of a 100 metre sprint sounded in his head, his heart charging the beginning and racing to keep up pace with the brain recommending courses of action to a body that would just not respond in any way.
A scrawny male with a blood swathed steel schimitar swayed himself into the room, his feet click-clapping in a slow even beat as he made his way towards the child. “Well, look what we have here.” A deep sneer, having recognised the child from the fray before. “Slave material to be sure.” His footing now cautiously gaited towards the lad, making slow movements as to prepare for the boys undoubted attempt to escape.

Kiallys’ eyes lit up bright, widening in fear as the creature before him neared. A signal from squidgy head middle said to move, a tense body refused.

“Guys! Come take a look at this!” Called the scrawny fellow, now two steps away from the child huddled on the floor.

In response came 6 men, two of which were supporting a large brute who suddenly grinned a grin of demons, a dirty smile that would eat into the heart of anyone.

Kiallys’ heart literally stopped for two seconds. “Nooo…” He whimpered out weakly at the sight of the bleeding man by the door, the fellows cotton pants covered in blood from the back of his knees.

“Luck smiles on the wounded.” Stated the injured beast of a male, carried towards the young lad as two covered the door, one standing to the left of the room, leaning against the wall idly, not really wanting a part in whatever was to take place.

“Mommy…Don’t let them…” He stated out silently, lost as what to do, he was trapped, he had no weapon and no rush to fuel him on.

“I’ma kill him!” Came a grunt from the bleeding bunch of anger, supported by the two lesser muscled folk. “Ah-ah-ahhhh!” responded the skinny morsel of flesh. “Not yet. Bait.”
These words registered with all but Kially who was slowly edging towards the dead corpses of the summoners, a knife that had been plunged into the females side had caught his eyes. A weak chance of salvation at best.

“C’n I rough h’m up a bi’ then?” echoed the furious voice of the earlier passed out axeman. “Dun’ see why not…Dun’ kill him though, we can sell him later.”
With their attention on what to do with the lad, none trully even saw him move, shuffling his little butt across the floor, tugging the loosely stabbed kris dagger from the corpse and holding it behind his back.
The two lesser males eased the injured one down in front of the child, bloodlust burning in his eyes. “Remember Thurnas, don’t kill ‘im.”
“Kill ‘em? He tore my knees up real bad!” With this, he leant back, clenched his fist and flung it forward towards the small ones abdomen.

Kially clenched his eyes tight and thrust his right arm out forward, dagger grasped tightly in paled fingers, it was then that the pressure on his little chest registered. He let out a pained squeal that echoed throughout the majority of the cathedral followed by an almight roar of pain. The dagger embedded in the punching arm of the beast savage enough to harm a child.

With nothing but pain flooding over Kially, he bunched over on his, writhing in silent pain, unable to even squeak out as he silently sobbed, struggling to breathe, incapacitated before the fellow he’d dealt innumerable amounts of damage to.

“He be lucky I ain’t to good right now…” Shouted the angry male as the two dragged him away before he could throw another enraged killing blow at the child. “THANAS, Leave the kid alone, DAMNIT! Look at him, he ain’t doing anythin’ for a week now!” Using the distraction of the Thanas’ anger and impaled pain, a quick yank with drew the kris from its’ place in the upper right of his torn up arm.
Thanas lurched forward, using his torso as his only leverage, only to fall flat on his face, slamming cheek first into the solid stone below him, his eyes weary and tired from all the blood loss, before once again, passing out. “I’ma…Kill…Him…” came his last passive and helpless words. A promise or an idle threat. None could tell.

“Oh, for gods sake, pick him up…” those who had previously carried the axeman through thick and thin once again picked him up and sat him up, propped against the wall. The scrawny fellow soon moved to the entrance of the summoning chamber and called out. "We got your little boy now, he's ours, he'll make a nice little slave I say!"

[Karla]

"Tell me, Eltarri, When you think of paladins, priests, and clerics, do you like most of the rest of the population assume they are fighting for the good of our nation? If so, then you are just as oblivious as most to the slaughter that was the holy wars. Both sides of the battlefield were comprised of paladins, priests, clerics, and other holy types. One side of the fight had people who insi...." Karla said, beginning to explain the holy wars to Eltarri while heaaded up the stairs. She was quickly interrupted by a loud scream of pain.

"Oh crap... I nearly forgot about him. Eltarri, follow me! We need to save the angel!" Karla yelled out breaking into a run.

Out of nowhere the ex-bandit leader sped past them, quickly slashing his way past some wandering bandits towards the summoning hall.

"I'll save the kid, meet me at the summoning chamber once you get your equipment!" The man yelled as he passed by Karla. Needless to say, this thoroughly confused Karla, but she decided to follow his advice.

"You heard the man, let's go!" Karla said, quickly changing direction to the weapon stash the now active ex-bandit leader had mentioned.

"Hey, Eltarri, before we get to the weapon stash, let me just give you a short explanation of the holy wars. For years, one group of religious leaders amassed an army of paladins and other soldiers of their god to take down anyone who didn't worship the same god they did. They managed to wipe quite a few churches off the map before people of other religions caught on and banded together to form their own army. The battle that ensued raged on for 2 days. When all was said and done bloodshed was everywhere. The religious army that tried to destroy all other religions eventually lost, but only 27 soldiers from the winning side survived to tell the tale, and I'm sorry to say that most of them decided never to mention it to anyone. Three of the survivors decided to spread word of the battle to the churches around the world, as a warning to keep on guard. A few years later a bigger force of the some religous sect came along in bigger numbers, ashamed by the earlier defeat. So enraged were they that they not only slayed unarmed civilians, but went out of their way to do so. Only after a joint effort of 24 different churches and only after 4 years was that religous sect finally stopped." Karla had just finished explaining this when they reached the door to the stash.

"Well, Eltarri, you're up."

If you have any questions about this post, PM Crystal Suncrest. (I'm on her most). The ex-bandit leader's change of heart will be explained in a few posts. Kially, feel free to bunny thebandit leader saving and protecting you while he is waiting for Karla and Eltarri to arrive

[Chiroptera]

The confused frown that had slowly settled onto Eltarri’s face during the nearly incomprehensible retelling of the Holy Wars disappeared, replaced instantly with a wide-eyed expression of shock and dismay. She stared at Karla, trying to see if the elf was trying to make a not-funny joke.

“Me?” she squeaked. “Why me? I don’t know anything about magical weapons—hell, I don’t know anything about magic! You’re the priestess . . .”

She forced herself to stop talking, closing her jaw with an audible click and stepping past the elf before she could say anything else. How selfish could a person be? It wasn’t as if she was being asked to cut off her own hand; all she had to do was go in and find something that had strong enough magic to open a secret door in the floor of a broom closet. No problem.

The relics room was like a temple, with a large circular floor of glimmering white marble and smooth walls lined with altar-like displays on which sat a sundry collections of weapons and tools. There were progressively smaller rings of display tables that left a spiraling aisle that led to a small area of open ground at the center of the room. Eltarri walked along the waist-high blocks, examining the various items that sat atop them. There were the usual ornate swords and glistening daggers, but among the relics were also musical instruments and even a rather plain-looking fork. Each one lay docilely on its display, but despite their harmless appearance Eltarri was nervous to be among them.

So which one did they want? One hammer even began to vibrate warningly when she passed it, but most just sat there. She reached the center of the room and disappointedly turned to look at Karla with a helpless shrug. She hadn’t exactly expected one of the relics to float up into the air and play an angel chorus at her approach, but would it have hurt so much for one of them to glow a little or something?