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The world outside her window was colored in tones of sepia. Thunder could be heard rumbling in the far off distance and the wind swayed the tree branches into a slow rhythmic dance. The sky seemed to be threatening to rain. The wind howled its eerie song whilst brief flashes of lightning illuminated the night, but still there was no rain.

Muse sat idly in her room, her eyes staring intently out her window in a penetrating gaze. She felt oddly unsettled...she didn't know why. She felt as if she shouldn't be there, sitting alone in her room doing nothing at all. There was another uncomfortable feeling deep within her...It wasn't exactly fear that she felt...but she found no other word to describe it. It was a feeling she got every night before going to sleep and every morning when she awoke. It was as if she'd had nightmares...or at least dreams of things disturbing and all around unpleasant...it was just a feeling though...she had no recollection of ever having such dreams. This had been going on for quite some time..

"What's wrong with me" she sighed, getting up to walk towards the solitary window in her room. She pressed her forehead up against the cold glass watching the graying clouds light up. She then cast her eyes downward. Purple

"Huh?" Muse looked up again. Did that lightning just flash purple? Muse had never heard of purple lightning before. She squinted her eyes and focused on the clouds...waiting for another strange color to grace the evening sky...but it seemed like nothing was going to happen. She heard the dull roar of thunder and tensed up...but it was only a regular white lightning flash that came. Muse sighed and relaxed her body a bit, slouching back. Her gaze was still fixated on the scene outside her window when suddenly a blinding flash of green broke through the clouds, penetrating her window. The light seemed to envelope her. She didn't even have time to gasp. She shut her eyes tight and felt dizzy as if she were about to faint. She saw nothing but white now which slowly dissipated into blackness ...white specks of light soon appeared scattered throughout the darkness, it seemed unearthly but after a time Muse found herself gazing up at what appeared to be a night sky.

She was experiencing the strangest feeling. Every inch of her felt alive. There was a feeling of suppressed energy within her. She felt a rush...then realized she was swiftly plummeting downwards..she knew not where.

Am I going to die?

Contact.


"OUCH!"


Muse landed on a hard smooth surface. She blinked the stars out of her eyes and found herself atop a moving structure. She had no time to marvel at how she survived the fall for she began to slide downwards once more. She didn't want to tempt fate by falling again so she held on for dear life and tried to pull herself back up. It was only then when she realized she was on top of what appeared to be a giant...robot?

It was definitely metallic...and shaped like a man..she knew because she had her arms wrapped around what would be his head. She peered down to see a group of scrambling figures attacking each other and the robot as well.

Muse gasped and clutched on tightly as the giant swayed.
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She had no idea where she was or how she got there, alls he knew was that she wanted to get out of this general area fast.

"Somebody help me!" she screamed. It seemed the thing to do...she hoped someone down there was nice and not bent on destroying her as well.

This post has been edited by Selax: 24 January 2008 - 03:21 PM

Well, that's interesting, Rapierian mused as he saw someone drop out of the sky and onto the iron golem's back. For a moment, he wondered if some new hero with some teleportation ability had joined the group. Then, the person started yelling for help. The necromancer shrugged. Then, he heard voices near him talking about water, and an idea came to him.

He stepped out next to the men and said, "Greetings, it is I! Lord Rapierian of House Strymon, forty-second inline of descent ruling my poor deluded relatives." The necromancer paused and surveyed the scene once more. "My, my, the heroes don't seem to have improved since I was last here. Oh well, I suppose such a remote possibility was too much to be hoped for." He laughed and continued, "You want to get the iron golem to a stream, do you? How do you intend to make him drink if you get him there? Well, assuming there's a person inside this particular odd, but interesting, contraption or device or whatever term you prefer, why don't we give him a reason to run (or hop or roll or whatever mode of travel he likes) to the water himself?" Sifting through his cloak, he pulled out a potion. "Here, it is," the necromancer said. Then, examining it more closely, he corrected himself, "Never mind, wrong one."

Ignoring the two men staring at him, he rummaged around once more before pulling out something else. "Here, this should do it. All we need to do is get it to hit those vents where the eyes are, and, if he's smart (and wants to keep his vision), he'll run like crazy for the stream."

"What about that woman up there?" Bly demanded. "Shouldn't we try to rescue her?"

"Well, she could just jump?"

"No, I don't think that'd work," Bly answered in annoyance.

"We could just assume she can swim or you could rescue her if she starts drowning?"

At that point, the discussion was rendered moot.

Muse lost her grip on the iron golem and fell toward the ground. One of the iron golem's swinging arms grazed her as she fell, sending her spinning off to the side. . .where she landed on top of Shanadar, just as he was starting to stir. The skeleton that Rapierian had left standing guard over Shanadar made no move to help either of them.

Rapierian doubled over, howling with his mad laughter.

After a few moments of trying to get his attention, Bly realized it was hopeless and took the potion himself.

Quickly, he gathered what other group members he could find and revealed the plan.

Ignoring the clay golems, they charged straight at the iron golem, which was still behaving erratically. The creature noticed them and turned to meet them...

Yomu stepped out from the trees near the golem and threw the potion directly at the distracted creature's eyes. (This had been his part of the plan while the others had all made their attack as a distraction.)

It struck and splattered, a great deal of it going inside the eye-slits.

The iron golem howled and began to paw at its face. The clay golems stumbled around in disarray, and the group members hurriedly began to deal with them, just in case their leader recovered.

The iron golem then took off through the trees, charging toward the stream with several adventurers close behind it.

A few moments later, there was a loud splash...

Muse clung desperately onto the head, though she really didn't want to be there...however she wasn't going to jump anytime soon. Unfortunately...or perhaps fortunately, during a particularly violent sway of the giant, she lost her grip and fell downwards once more. Before she had time to even think however, one of it's arms flew past her and grazed her enough to send her body hurling somewhat horizontally towards the ground. She landed with a thud atop something soft.

Muse groaned and sat up, she looked down and nearly shrieked. She was certain she had just fallen on top of a corpse. She scrambled to her feet to get away from it. Strange gooey mud-like stuff was all over her arms and legs.
"Ugh!"
Suddenly she thought she saw the body breathing. She sighed...ok...it wasn't a dead guy...just...a sleeping guy...who could sleep at a time like this?
Her eyes then traveled up to the animated skeleton that stood nearby. A look of horror spread across her face. Where was she?

Splash.

Muse turned to see a bunch of people running towards the source of the sound. The robot was gone. Muse immediately ran after the people and saw that the giant had crashed into a stream. No one seemed to take any notice of her at all. She wondered if she was being foolish by trying to talk to one of them...maybe they were violent...they sure did seem that way..

What a strange place this was.


She even felt different being there. Her body still had that electric feeling within as if she had a giant mass of energy inside her that was stirring, desperate to get out.

*SPLASH* The mighty foe had fallen, and now was sinking. As it's arms flailed upward the once vibrant glows of the runes were now disappearing into the depths. "We did it!", someone cried followed by other cheers and grunts from the others.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 16 January 2008 - 06:59 PM

Everything was going to plan. The golem was in the stream, and Rapierian was preparing to cast a decay spell on it. Bly had been surprised when the woman had appeared above the golem, but she--

It wasn't a sound as much as a feeling that caused Bly to turn. A feeling of intense energy, ready for release. Bly sheathed his sword and ran towards the woman, fur cloak trailing out behind him. The woman was surrounded by a nimbus of multicolored energy, though she couldn't seem to see it. Bly groaned. He had only seen this once before, and the building he was in had been destroyed shortly afterwards. The woman was a natural mage, and she didn't have control of her magic.

He skidded to a stop beside her, and said "Look. I know this might be a bit disorienting for you, but just keep calm. You've been dimensionally ported from Earth. This place is called Cythera. Just keep calm or this entire forest could be splinters in minutes."

The woman seemed to calm down a bit. The nimbus faded and shrank.

Bly exhaled. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. As a triumphant shout from the direction of the stream signaled that the golem was beginning to rust away, Bly decided that he'd better take the time and explain things to the woman now. He began.

"OK. My name's Bly. This place is a universe a bit different from Earth. It's called Cythera. Magic is real here, but in technology, it's not as advanced as Earth. I know all of this because 5 months ago, I myself got transported here, from Earth, by a piece of magic I still don't understand. I, well...
I saved this world, and then I got sent back to Earth. I manged to get myself back here about a day ago. You see, ...dang, this is complex. OK. What do you want to know first?"

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 14 January 2008 - 12:52 AM

As the adventurers gathered on the bank of the stream, they heard a curious, muffled sound coming from the water. It sounded like the shrieking of metal.

Suddenly, a man bobbed to the surface of the water, and it became clear that the sound had been some sort of exit mechanism (from the iron golem) opening. Sécundus quickly waded into the water, caught the man, and dragged him back onto the bank.

The man was small and dressed in the robe of a mage adept. He was also inundated with water and now quite unconscious. One of the group members wondered aloud if he was not a failed student. Unable to wake him, they carried him back up to where the others waited.


Rapierian had finally stopped laughing, and Muse, realizing that that sound had not been some sort of bizarre wind as she had thought, was staring at the strange man with a look of bafflement when the others returned.

"Who are all of you?" Sécundus demanded when no one had spoken for several moments. "And what are you doing here?" he asked turning to Rapierian.

"Oh, just saving a few helpless people and being persecuted in return," the necromancer sighed dramatically. "Actually, I was pardoned by Alaric (as this note says and as Shanadar would tell you if he ever wakes up to read it)—not that I ever actually did anything wrong that I can be proven to have done—and decided to come and derive more amusement from all of your endless antics. As for these two," he continued, gesturing toward Muse and Bly, "I think it best to let them explain themselves (if they can), don't you? Oh well, it hardly matters if you do or not, since I'm not going to bother with it. I'd torture—or have a pleasant talk with your captive, if you wish, but I suppose you'd rather wait on that. Here, read (if you can, if not, pretend you can or hand it to someone who can)."

Rapierian tossed another note from Alaric to Sécundus. This one was a more general statement; the other was a specific note that Alaric had written directly to Shanadar and was for his eyes only.

Now, the others turned toward Bly and Muse, waiting to hear their explanations.

Shanadar remained unconscious on the ground, and the unknown mage had been dumped next to him. Yomu and the skeleton that Rapierian had summoned earlier kept watch on both of them.

Previously:

Hovering above the battle, where the non-observant eye would have trouble finding him, Silver waited impatiently. His aim was not good enough to hit anything with darts, & there was so much mana flooding the field that it would be torture to join the melee. He -was- able to hear most of what was being discussed by the other heroes though...
~~~~~
Silver watched as the iron golem sunk into the river. This was not good, they wanted whoever was in it -alive- for questioning, that would be much better than having to trust Rapierian to convince a dead man to tell what he had locked away in his mind.

The flowing water had severely damped the effectiveness of the magic, the runes were not -just- dimming from sinking beneath the murky water. Silverfish closed his wings & plunged into the murky depths of the river.

The water around the golem tingled slightly across Silver's skin, & as he began to tear apart the plate metal it seared at his mind, but Rapierian's Decay spell soon began taking effect, & Silver had to back off for a time. The controller was nearly dying of no oxygen by the time Silver was able to reach in & restore his oxygen to liveable levels. Then the husk of the golem crumbled in a swirl of rust, & Silver dragged the helpless man to the surface, but remained hidden under the waves since nobody had noticed him anyway.

This post has been edited by Jehezekel: 25 October 2007 - 10:20 PM

Shanadar awoke slowly with a groan, and felt very very sore, as though he had just been trampled by a herd of Titans. As he returned to consciousness, he suffered a nasty migraine from his head injury, which was compounded by the incessant talking of another adventurer nearby. The voice seemed familiar, but the Enforcer could not quite remember who the voice belonged to, until his vision cleared enough for him to visually recognize the hero who had cured Alaric some time ago.

From what he could tell, the returned hero was trying to explain the current situation to a young lass, who had apparently fallen through the cracks of the void and into Cythera. Considering the amount of unexplained chest-pains he was having, the Enforcer supposed that she had fallen on top of him, or something to that effect.

"Bellerophon?" Shanadar inquired.

Bly responded in the affirmative, obviously expecting the Enforcer to ask what the hero was doing back on Cythera, although this confused the lass greatly.

Cradling his aching cranium, Shanadar gave the talkative adventurer a directive, if only for the sake of his own sanity. "Shut it."

Bly/Bellerophon was taken aback by this, not knowing quite how to respond to such a blunt insult, which shut him up long enough for the Enforcer, sore though he was, to right himself and get his bearings.

His first order of business was to find the rock that Rapierian had thrown at him, then to find the Necromancer himself and return the favor. Judging by the skeleton that stood sentinel over him, he supposed that the twisted mage was not yet far off (and had perhaps left the skeleton to prevent the Enforcer's annoyance from coming to a premature end). A short distance away, he found the offending hunk of igneous material, and wrapped around the rock, a letter.

Curious, he unwrapped the parchment and began to read, and he did not like what he found. Alaric had pardoned Rapierian, and it was proven with the Land King's own seal, and as if that were not bemusing enough, the mad Strymon had even gone so far as to convince the King to address the letter to the Enforcer himself. The nerve of that Necromancer infuriated Shanadar to no end.

Turning again to Bly, who was just about to think of a response, he cut off the returned hero. "Excuse me. My second-greatest nemesis is making a run for first, and I've no time for his antics today."

Moving over to the river, where the rest of the adventurers had chased the Iron Golem, he moved up behind Rapierian, who was conversing with Sécundus, who, likewise, was reading a note eerily similar to the one Rapierian had hit the Enforcer with.

Shanadar tapped Rapierian once on the shoulder to get his attention. The Necromancer turned round, and smiled with his trademark smug self-righteous grin when he realized the Enforcer had come-to. He wasn't smiling for long, however, as his handsome face became rapidly acquainted with the contours Shanadar's right fist.

"That was for throwing a rock at me. You may have been pardoned, but that does not give you license do as you please. I have enough to worry about rescuing Wizard without having to deal with your antics. Step out of line like that again, and, so help me, I will not leave enough left of you to be identified as the 'forty-second in line of descent for the rule of House Strymon'. Understand?"

This post has been edited by ~vIsitor~: 25 October 2007 - 06:28 PM

For the moment, the commotion seemed to die down...somewhat. A man ran over to Muse and said some nonsense about Muse having been transported to some other world or some such...Muse didn't really pay much attention, she was too overcome with relief at discovering at least one nonthreatening English-speaking person. All she really got from the conversation was that she was to calm down, which wasn't too hard at this point what with her relief.

Muse stood quietly listening to the man's explanation as to how she got there and where she was exactly. When he ended his talk and asked if she had any questions she remained silent, letting it all sink in. Questions?
She could have burst out laughing right then. It all seemed so ludicrous, yet here she was...there seemed to be no other explanation for it all. Muse had always imagined the possibility of something existing beyond what she knew, but she never imagined it would hit her so quickly and so hard...

Muse opened her mouth to speak, though she wasn't quite sure exactly what she should say, when another man came and spoke. He practically demanded that Muse and Bly explain themselves.

Explain what? I fell out of the sky apparently, what's more to explain that that? she thought to herself.

Two other men began to converse. They didn't quite seem to fond of each other...in fact...it appeared that most of the group didn't seem to fond with the one smug looking man. Before she knew it, Muse saw the same man get hit in the face by the other, who she soon realized was the same man she had taken for dead.

Strange place indeed...She thought...feeling much like Alice in some twisted way...though instead of bunny rabbits and cards, she was dealing with robots and skeletons.


She wanted to wait for the commotion to die down once more, but decided not to try everyone's patience...they seemed to be anxious to get something done.


"Um.." she stammered, her voice coming out weaker than she had expected.
Clearing her throat she continued.

"Look...My name is Muse...I'm from Earth..." She stopped and thought for a moment...Bly did say this place was different from Earth right? Of course it was...I mean...if this was part of Earth someone would have known about it long ago...right? Muse cleared her throat again, trying to strengthen her voice so she didn't sound like such a hopeless idiot.

"I don't know how I got here...I was just in my room and all of a sudden I was falling" A perplexed look came over her face. "Don't ask me how, I really don't know how I went from standing in my room, to falling into nothingness...all I know is I kept falling then finally landed on that robot thing" She noticed everyone save for Bly seemed confused at her mention of a robot.

"And...so...yes...um...that's how I'm here....I um...I really don't want any trouble...I'm just...I...ya..." She mumbled off...not really knowing what else to say. She looked to Bly at once for support, though she wasn't sure what she was to expect, it's not like it was his problem, and how was he to know anything more...it's not like he had been there to see it all happen. However he did say he was from Earth as well...and that was enough to convince Muse that she should stick to him.

This post has been edited by TheMuseInYourHead: 26 October 2007 - 03:28 PM

Rapierian dusted himself off and got up. He was somewhat annoyed. Now, he had a headache and no one's life to take to cure it.

"That was most uncalled for. It's not my fault that you're getting too old and slow to dodge a rock," the necromancer stated. "Perhaps you should consider retiring? You are, after all, certainly old enough to do so. Is this the reward that I get for dragging you out of a mud puddle?"

"You caused me to be in the puddle in the first place," Shanadar growled.

"No, you were," Rapierian replied. "Really, aren't you a bit old to play around like that—and in the middle of a battle too! I would've thought a letter from Alaric himself which specifically explained the situation to you would have gotten through even your thick skull."

Before the two could get into another fight, Muse began to speak, and everyone stopped to listen to her explanation.

When she was done, the necromancer shrugged and said, "That's an odd explanation or a close approximation. I suppose one you 'heroes' will want to help her. Drag her along or tie her up and leave her here or send her back to Cademia or send her to LKH or kill her or ignore her: it matters little to me. I think that I shall be moving on—to rescue the ol' Wiz goat. I don't think they stopped at this particular cabin but perhaps at one of the one's near here." The necromancer laughed, a sound which echoed unpleasantly in the close confines of the cabin, and stepped toward the door. The skeleton picked up their unconscious prisoner, and Rapierian examined him. "I think that he'll live, but he seems to be in something of a poor condition. Of course, I could wake him—"

"NO!" everyone yelled at once. None of them really wished to see how the necromancer would do that.

"—but I don't think any of you boring people will like that," Rapierian finished unimpeded. He and the skeleton, which still carried the prisoner stepped to the door. "Come along now, although you are all most slow, we really must be moving on."

The necromancer stepped outside and headed off down the trail left by Wizard's kidnappers...

Bly groaned. This-- Muse-- was disoriented enough as it was already, and Rapierian (or, as he privately amended it, Rapierian-First-In-Line-For-Rule-Of-The-Nuthouse) hadn't helped things any. He took a deep breath, and tried to explain again.

"Ok. Let's try again here. This is an alternate universe, called Cythera. I don't know how, but you got sucked in here, just as I once did. In your case, it was bad luck, or something. In my case, someone had cast a powerful spell that sent me here. You see, Cythera is a bit different from Earth. The obvious thing is, magic." To demonstrate, Bly sent a small lightning bolt from one of his hands to the other for a second. He continued, "The technology is much less advanced here too."

"If you have no idea what's going on, I'll explain. You see, I was sent back to Earth after I saved Cythera. I managed to get myself back here about a day ago. I arrived just as this mage called Wizard was kidnapped. I'm actually here to keep an eye on the creepy guy in the robe (whose name is Rapierian, by the way). It's complex."

Bly paused, and seeing no answer appeared to be forthcoming, continued.

"What you literally dropped into was a battle between me and the other adventurers here, and those things (which are called golems). They were sent here by whoever kidnapped that mage. Speaking of which, you probably don't know it (having just dropped in) but you're a natural mage yourself. One with incredible power levels. Which means you'll be a target for whoever kidnapped the other mage."

Bly grinned, ironically, and said, "So, welcome aboard."

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 26 October 2007 - 10:40 PM

Muse looked like she was trying hard to take in all that had happened but most of what everyone had said sounded like it had come from a fairy tale. "Mage? Magic? Portals? I've gone over the rainbow!", Muse exclaimed sarcastically followed by a heavy sigh. Behind her Yomu walked over and put his hand on her shoulder, "We do not know who you are and perhaps you don't even know who you are, but what lies on the path ahead may be your way home and maybe yourself as well. Either way your coming here was no coincidence." Briefly Yomu coughed and put his fist to his mouth for he had not talked so much in some time. Muse still a bit confused could feel the right in his words. Nodding her head the group continued on, some talking and marveling at Muse others mending their weapon and themselves.

It had gotten dark and everyone being tired from the hike and the fight decided to make camp. As the hours past and watch sifts changed their prisoner was slowing being nurtured back to health, however this pleasant time was soon to end as the sun crept up over the hills.

----

The cold metallic surface Yomu felt in front of him gave him great annoyance. Luckily all he had to do was- *BASH* the menacing creature, the basilisk, had nearly taken Yomu's legs as it slammed into the bars. Yomu sprang upward dodging it, the basilisk realizing it's miss reared backwards and charged once again at it's prey. This was not good, Yomu couldn't get to the mark while the beat stalked him so, and the narrow corridor didn't help much either. Powerfully the basilisk sung it's fang infest head while letting out ear piercing roars and crys, and as it attacked it snagged Yomu's pouch snagging it onto it's head. Yomu had an idea, almost gracefully he sprinted towards the beat jumping as he came close, but I say almost for, as he scaled the beast's head he cut his leg on it's mighty jaws. Grabbing his pouch he swung it around the basilisks throat. He pulled tight on the reins and the basilisk cried in pain. Control is what Yomu thought he was to receive however what he did receive was far worse. The basilisk did not like this man on his back and started smashing into the wall, Yomu kept a firm grasp and pulled as much as he could. For what seemed to be ages the basilisk thrashed about in the narrow passage, then finally after throughing it's self about so wildly for so long it fell. Yomu dismounted the beast and pulled his pouch away in the process.

The bars had not been bent enough by the basilisk for Yomu to squeeze through, he had no choice, he must get his mark. Reaching into his bag he pulled out a beaten up red wizard like had, dusting it off he slowly brought it to his head. *Swoosh* Now instead of struggle through the bars Yomu scurried through with ease. Now through the bars Yomu flung the hat off *Swish* and out it back in his pouch but only after patting the top of it.

He walked up to the ruined pedestal and gazed down at the dull gray box that stood before him, behind it lay a tree carved in stone with letters from a forgotten language surrounding it. "Strange." Yomu muttered to himself as he reached for his mark.

----

The sun was starting to shine into his eye and faint mumbles of the surrounding adventuring was starting to grow louder.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 16 January 2008 - 07:00 PM

As early dawn started tinting the night sky a lighter shade of blue, a stray wolflizard rummaged through the baggage, & the prisoner contentedly mumbled something about ashen hors d'oeuvres fighting parfait. Silver slept hanging from a branch near the edge of the camp, alert for any major disturbance in the night woods. But the adventurers were beginning to awake.

As soon as it was light enough to see the trail, the adventurers woke up, ate hurridly, and, finding the prisoner still unresponsive, moved out along the trail which seemed to be heading for the mountains that almost completely divided Cythera into two halves.

There was some debate about where Wizard's kidnapper's were heading. Some thought they were trying to lose any followers before turning toward the pass along the Pnyx-Cademia road. Others thought that a band of ruffians would wish to avoid the road because of the risk of running into trouble; they believed that the ruffians would either head south or attempt to scale the mountains directly.

No one yet knew which of these possibilities would prove to be the case, but they were making good time regardless. Already, the mountains had begun to loom up before them and several smaller foothills were scattered about them.

At this point, Shanadar spotted another small cottage in front of them and pointed it out to the others. The trail seemed to be heading straight for it.

Cautiously, the group approached. It was unlikely that those who had taken Wizard were still here, but they might have left some form of surprise...

Wizard's right hand was almost free of the anti-magic ropes. As he struggled to get them off, his mind suddenly flashed to the group miles away. Wizard rarely let his mind wander apart from his body because it was so draining on him, especially when he was bound with magic-dampening ropes, but his subconscious had detected something that he couldn't ignore. The group was nearing the hut where Altérius had spoken with him. Wizard remembered that Altérius had laid a rune of flame directly before they left the cottage earlier.

Altérius tugged on his horse's reigns and slowed until he was riding next to his prisoner. "You felt that to, eh?" He seemed to chuckle in a twisted sort of way, "Well, I'm glad. Maybe you will be able to better appreciate what I once felt. I was once left alone to face an enemy I could not defeat, all of my backup, my only hope, gone. You should remember that well, you. . . and that group of yours were the ones who did that to me. Now, I'm just pleased to be able to return the favor."

* * *

The group had fanned out until the small building was surrounded. Whatever surprise there was waiting for them when they opened that door, they planned to be ready.

Sécundus had been the one elected to actually open the door. He was nearly the youngest and hopefully agile enough to dodge anything that may leap out after him. He carefully edged his way toward the cabin. This was his least favorite part of adventure: the possibility of running into something very unpleasant.

Ready with his mace, Sécundus turned the door handle and gently pushed the door open. He peeked inside. "It looks clear!" he shouted to the others after a few moments. He was about to step inside, when he felt a tingling sensation. Something wasn't quite right here. After glancing down, he realized the reason. Directly within the threshold, invisible to the untrained eye, lay a single rune.

Sécundus knelt down to closely examine it. It was a rune of flame, and a powerful one at that. "Nevermind! It's not clear!" Sécundus yelled over his shoulder to those who were about to approach. He breathed a sigh of relief, "Good thing I didn't trigger it. . ."

* * *

Altériius looked at Wizard unhappily. "Why didn't you tell me that Sécundus person could detect runes? Now he's spoiled my trap!"

Wizard was silently pondering the situation himself. He didn't know that Sécundus had had magical abilities either.

Then an evil grin came across Altérius' face again. "Oh well, I'll just activate it remotely, even though it is slower."

* * *

Sécundus had spoken too soon. Suddenly, the rune became very apparent as it began to glow a deep violet color. "Oh dear. . . RUN!"

Everyone ran as fast as they could toward the shelter of the trees. Shanadar backed away as well, but he lingered long enough to ask the retreating Sécundus, "What's wrong?"

At that moment, the rune activated and a huge fireball erupted from the floor of the cottage where it had sat. The cabin itself was completely incinerated before anyone had even realized it.

Sécundus ducked down for a split second before continuing his retreat from the wall of flame coming his way. Like a nova, the fire exploded in every direction, destroying everything in its path. It came so quickly and powerfully, that each member of the group could see they weren't going to escape it. Then it passed over the patch on the ground where Sécundus had knelt.

The fire stopped. It seemed to burn against some unseen wall. The explosion flew further into the sky, but it came no closer to the group on the ground. It was contained on all sides. It burned for several seconds longer in a whirl of flames, before the amazed eyes of the group. Then, as quickly as it had erupted, all of the fire was sucked into a vortex, back into the rune it had originated from. The rune continued to glow purple for a moment, but then it faded away, completely gone.

"I didn't know that you could detect and lay runes," Rapierian spoke first.

"What was that?" Resty asked. The others in the group seemed to be wondering the same thing.

Sécundus glanced back at the clearing they had just been in. The cabin was gone, the grass was burned; nothing was left except for a vast pit of scorched earth. "That was a rune of flame. Obviously intended to kill us."

"Why didn't it?" Enna asked the question this time.

"It was blocked. I stopped for just a moment to set my own rune, a rune of blocking. Thankfully, it was enough to save us from the edges of that explosion."

"First those golems and now this. It seems that someone desperately wants to stop us from rescuing the Wizard," Shanadar noted.

"Why did they kidnap him anyways?" someone asked.

Shanadar glanced at their own unconscious captive. "I don't know, but I think it's time we wake him up and find out."

* * *

All of the ruffians turned in their saddles to witness the cloud of fire that had shot into the sky. Even from miles away, it was very large. Altérius smiled, "There, now we may proceed with our expedition without interruption." He spurred his horse and rode to the front of the party again.

Wizard watched as the flames disappeared, disheartened. Then he felt something, a touch of familiarity. Yes, it was definitely real. He still felt traces of life. They were alive! Sécundus had saved them—much to Wizard's surprise. He would have smiled himself, but Altérius had apparently not checked to make sure they were dead.

Grateful for Altérius lapse of judgement, Wizard remained quiet out of the hope that Altérius would continue under the belief that their pursuers were dead.

Before Shanadar could interrogate the bandit, he needed a means of waking him up. Unfortunately, the Enforcer was more into the trade of knocking people's lights out, rather than introducing them to the morning daylights. And Rapierian's preferred method of waking prisoners was not likely to get a favorable response from the victim, however, Shanadar realized, the dark-robed pansy might just present another solution.

"Rapierian" Shanadar called.

"What do you want from me, you self-righteous old codger?" The Necromancer snapped back.

"Hand me some smelling salts." the Enforcer asked.

"What makes you think I have any, you senile old fool?" Rapierian replied icily.

"Because you're obviously a skilled alchemist, and having smelling salts goes well with your otherwise-roguish paradigm besides" Shandar explained, "Now hand over the salts."

"Even if I did have what you're asking for, why would I give them to you, you over-aged git?" the dark-mage said rhetorically, careful to questioning the Enforcer's age with every statement in a vain attempt to insult the man.

"Because you do have the salts--three vials, in fact, in your front left inner robe pocket if I am not mistaken--and if you don't hand them over I shall take them by force" the Enforcer threatened.

"You?" Rapierian laughed, "You're too far too old to overpower a spry young man like me. The unconscious ruffian, maybe, but only while he's unconscious."

"You know, for someone who seeks immortality, you certainly have odd opinions about your elders" the Enforcer mused.

Rapierian stood stunned for a moment, while his ego reeled from the blow.

Breaking the lull, Shanadar made his ultimatum. "If you want to live at least as long as I have, I would suggest you hand over the salts now."

"Fine" the Necromancer relented with a heavy sigh, pulling out a vial of a powdery-white substance from the pocket the Enforcer had earlier specified, "Here they are."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Rapierian" the Enforcer returned flatly, checking the vial to make sure the Necromancer had not given him anything dangerous.

Now that he had the necessary tools at his disposal, Shanadar made his way over to the prisoner to get the answers he needed by doing what he did best. Use diplomacy. Ordering several other party members to restrain the already-bound captive (for safety), uncorked the vial, and let the noxious fumes waft under the ruffians nose until the strong scents jolted the bandit back into the waking world.

"Rise and shine" Shanadar greeted the now-awakened golem pilot smartly.

"W-what do you want?" the ruffian acolyte made out between exasperated gasps for air.

"What we want is for you to answer our questions" the Enforcer explained with an unearthly calm, "What we'll do depends on your answers."

"W-what questions?" the bandit-mage choked on his words, fearful for his life.

"In order of importance: Where is Wizard? Who kidnapped Wizard? And what does the kidnapper want with Wizard?" Shanadar clarified. "Answer satisfactorily, and we can laugh about this later over a pint and a game of dice at the Alraeican. Refuse to answer or answer in an unsatisfactory manner, and I will sic him on you" Shandar gestured to Rapierian before continuing, "And if how much that guy annoys me when he isn't trying is any indication, what he can put you through will make any sort of torture your employer is capable of seem like a very pleasant prospect in caparison."

"Alright! Alright!" the scoundrel squawked like a parrot, "I'll talk!"

"Good" the Enforcer replied, pleased the prisoner was so eager to respond, "Just remember: I've been dealing with scum like you for twenty years. I can tell if you're lying, no matter much Kesh you have running through your veins, so don't bother. Its the truth, or your funeral."

The prisoner audibly gulped before he began talking.

Shanadar just hoped that the pawn knew any of the answers to his inquiries.

"NOOO! Don't hurt me! I never heard of this Wizard guy. I swear it!"

The prisoner was obviously telling the truth, though the more astute of the adventurers could easily tell that he was twisting his words. But why the sudden melodramatics? A young voice sounded out behind them.

"Look Retsy, they're talking to the sleeping man!"

"Yay! He woke up! Now we can find Wizzy faster!"

Suddenly it occurred to the Ruffian mage that he should have taken a course in Psychology before he was evicted from the Magesterium. These girls were not interested in helping him, no matter how pathetic he made himself, they wanted the old captive back.

Enny crossed her arms in front of him & glared, "Where's the lizard?"

The mage did not dare to fool with words now, he did not want to risk a tantrum. He gazed at Shanadar, "Probably with the Boss, the Boss. Apparently the Boss wants landscaping advice from him, I overheard him muttering about a tree."

The girls' squeal of delight as they ran off to pack was drowned out by an agonised shriek. Previously unnoticed, Silver grinned ruefully in spite of his ashen complexion, "Remind me to -keep away- from Enny whenever there is excitement afoot?" Silverfish shuddered as they turned their attention to the hysterical mage. the mage's robe had turned pink with white bunny shapes actively hopping all over it, & his skin was light blue with the same dizzying pattern.

"They were headed toward the mountains," continued the shaken prisoner, "but I guess you knew that already." he added after glancing around.

Bly, with a still-disoriented Muse in tow, came alert. He walked over to the ruffian and said "Say... was it any particular kind of tree your boss was looking for?"

The answer came back, "He said... something about... powers, and... life. Yes! That's it! It was the Tree of Li—"

At this point, it became obvious that the golem wasn't the only thing 'The Boss' had applied protective spells to. A band of green light appeared around the mage-bandit's neck, and started to choke him. Before Bly or anyone else could figure out what to do, the security spell had choked the man to death.

Bly turned to the others and said, "Sorry. I think I broke the prisoner."

When the prisoner began to choke, Rapierian said, "Hey, I think that I might have something for this." He began to rummage around in his robe, but, by the time he found what he was looking for, the prisoner was dead.

The necromancer shrugged. He leaned closer to the prisoner for a moment and "sniffed" for a moment, trying to detect the magic that had killed the man. After a moment, he moved back.

"Oh well, he was boring anyway," he commented. "In any case, he was about to say 'Tree of Life,' which as I'm certain Bly told you Alaric already mentioned to him. (How the old boy knew the Tree was involved is beyond me but then I'm not Land King). Now, I should have a book mentioning that somewhere around here..."

Rapierian began to search through his cloak once more and finally produced a small, worn book. He thumbed through it until he reached the page that he wanted.

"Hmm, this is interesting," the necromancer said after a moment.

"What? What?" Retsy asked excitedly.

"Oh, there's a grammar error here."

"What about the Tree?" she demanded impatiently.

"Which one? There are a lot of them around here."

"THE TREE OF LIFE!" she yelled.

"No need to yell," he laughed. "I can hear you just fine. As for that, I think it's on the other side of the mountains. I won't say more yet: there's no real time. Come along!"

With that, he moved off, still reading. The book was in some evil language, probably quite dangerous to read if one did not understand it. Thus, Rapierian did not fear anyone trying to read over his shoulder.

It seemed whatever explanation needed to be said was said. Muse was still quite bewildered, but she figured her time for being confused had come and gone. These people appeared to be in some sort of urgent rush, so she stalled no longer with questions that had already been answered.

Instead, she took to merely following the others along silently.
She still stuck closely to Bly, him being her only connection to her world. She observed as some bomb of sorts was triggered but deflected by some miraculous force. She needed no further proof...magic was certainly real in this place.

Magic...Bly said she was magical herself...perhaps that explained the sensation she felt upon entering this world. He also mentioned someone might want kidnap her for this reason...Muse looked to the one called Rapieran...she concluded that she didn't like him at all either...no one else seemed to and she pretty much figured why.

Gazing around at the others, Muse began to wish she had a weapon of some sort...apparently she was magical but this was obviously unharnessed magic...and what good was it to her if she couldn't control it...what if this person came after her?

Muse felt utterly helpless...Perhaps they should leave her and continue their journey without her like Rapierian had suggested...or perhaps that was what they were already going to do

She was an accident after all
There didn't seem to be any reason for her to be there...except maybe slow them down
Perhaps this was part of this "bad guy's" plan
Perhaps she was summoned by him to fall in on their party and distract them...


how ridiculous!

She was letting Rapierian's attitude get to her

"Enough" she said aloud...a bit louder than she had intended.

She noticed Bly glance at her with a questioning expression. She wanted to ask about this kidnapping, but decided not to bother. In any case, everyone's suddenly attention was diverted to the awakened prisoner.

The man got to say something about a tree before he was immediately choked to death by some unseen force.

Tree of Life?

Muse found it quite peculiar that these people should make mention of something she was somewhat familiar with.
She let out a small laugh and for a moment seemed to forget everything that had happened since she was last in her room.

"I did a paper on that" she said casually, as if she was having a conversation with a friend.

"I got a C on it" she added, in a somewhat disappointed tone.

Reality...or something like that, came back to her all at once. She now felt like a damn fool talking about school papers on mythical trees when there were important issues at hand.

This post has been edited by TheMuseInYourHead: 29 October 2007 - 08:15 PM

Bly spun around very quickly. "Really?" he said. "I found some fragmentary information while I was trying to figure out how to return to Cythera, but nothing much. Please, tell us anything you can remember. It might at least shed some light on why whoever-it-is is so desperate to stop us..." His voice trailed off into mumbling.

Bly made to turn back to looking forward again, but then stopped, as if he had remembered something. "Oh, by the way," he said, pulling out his spellbook. "This is a spellbook. Most spellbooks can sense when the holder is a complete newcomer to magic and will instruct them accordingly. Mine's no exception." He handed the book to Muse. "Just open it and follow the directions inside. If you've got a lot of willpower, you shouldn't have too much trouble."

As Bly turned back to the road ahead, Muse opened the book. The page cleared, then displayed

Tutorial for Innate Mages
Lesson 1(Basic Control)

Welcome! If you are reading this, the spellbook you are holding has sensed that you are an innate, or natural, mage.
A natural mage is someone who has a great deal of natural magical ability, without the rigorous training required for others.

The first thing any mage has to learn is controlling their powers. As most mages learn control at the same time as they work at expanding their abilities, this is not a problem. However, you have not learned this, and so risk destroying anything and everything around you while under stress. Until, that is, you gain control of your powers.

To begin, imagine there is a sphere of light that is your magic, deep inside you...

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 29 October 2007 - 09:55 PM

Muse was surprised at Bly's immediate interest in her crappy paper. She would feel guilty now about telling him that The reason she barely managed to get a C on it instead of an A was because most of her sources were unreliable, and she had BSed some of them...and some of the information came from a dream she once had. There was hardly any validity to her papers at all, even in mythology. The only reason she didn't get a lower grade was because it was extremely well written and she was one of the teacher's favorite students

However, it didn't matter, for the next thing she knew, Bly had thrust a large book upon her.

Muse looked down and watched thin neat writing scrawl itself over the blank first sheet of paper.

Neat

Muse walked along, doing her best to keep up with the group while trying to read. She hoped she wouldn't run into anything or anyone. She was simply immersed in this book. She tried to do what it told her, though not being able to stand still made concentrating a bit harder.

She tried to imagine this sphere inside her and was surprised to find that it didn't take long at all for her to feel a change. All the sporadic tingling she had felt slowed down and became smoother.

Glad to see that a mature person was walking at their own rate of speed, Enny & Retsy stayed back with Muse, while most of the party strove to keep up with Shanadar's driven pace.

After a moment's indecision, Silver sent a small technological homing device (which he had been working on almost since arriving back in Cythera, & had just finally finished) with Shanadar's group, while he stayed back with the slower party-members. He refrained from alerting the faster ones though, because he assumed that any traps would be sprung by the -vanguard-, not the camp-followers, in spite of their strong adventuresome streak. But he stayed closest to Retsy or nobody, since she was the only non-magic wielder.

To amuse himself & his unoccupied companions, Silvy told the story of Cinderella -with more than a few of his own little twists.

"And then Cinderella was much delayed, for she had to think of a way to convince the dragon to stop eating her pumpkin-carriage."

Enna and Retsy walked hand-in-hand, while a short distance away, Silvy walked and told the story.

"Wait," Retsy interrupted, "how did she know how to talk to dragons?"

"One of her elder stepsisters majored in Human-Dragon Relations, and she caught on," Silvy explained.

"What's 'majored'?" Retsy asked.

"What's a dragon?" Enna asked.

"A dragon's kind of like me, except green and with teeth," Retsy answered Enna, forgetting her own question.

"Not all dragons are green-" Silvy began to correct Retsy's description, but was interrupted again.

"Are any dragons pink?" Enna asked in excitement.

"Yes, some," Silvy replied.

"How pretty!" Enna exclaimed.

"Ouch!" Retsy cried at Enna. "What did you just to do my hand?" At the same time, Silvy flinched.

Enna defended herself, "I didn't do anything!"

Retsy shot an odd look at Silvy and asked him, "why did you just jump?"

"Magic doesn't like me," Silvy told her.

"Who did magic?" demanded Retsy. "It was me, wasn't it? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I'm just really powerful!"

"No... No, I expect it was Enna," Silvy calmed Retsy.

"What? I didn't do anything!" Enna complained.

Suddenly, a pink bunny with a harness around its neck & chest hopped in front of them and toward Enna. Enna gasped, "IT'S A DRAGON!"

"It is!" Retsy agreed, eyes widened in surprise. "I've never seen one before! I thought they looked a little different!"

"Let's keep her forever!" Enna exclaimed, grabbing the harness and picking up the bunny by the scruff of her neck. "What should we name her?"

Retsy was positively thrilled. "Let's name her Dragon!"

"Good idea!" Enna agreed, hugging Dragon.

Silvy just smiled at them, and didn't bother informing them that it wasn't a dragon.

After a few minutes of petting Dragon, the girls got impatient to hear how Cinderella was ever going to get to the rummage sale, and begged Silvy to finish the story.

"And then Cinderella remembered the best way to communicate with dragons is to twitch your nose and hop around on your hands and feet..."

Rapierian was getting bored.

He had, of course, heard the comments made by Muse and Bly about the Tree, but he decided to wait on that aspect just now, thinking it would become more important later. He had finished reading what seemed to be the most relevant portions of his book and was now searching for any other information that might prove useful.

By now, they had reached the base of the mountains, and the trail still continued on before them.

Shanadar stopped and stared at the trail, frowning. He glanced up at the mountain.

"I don't like this," the Enforcer stated. "Tracking them up there might be difficult. For all we know, they could have split up. One group leads us up here, while the others take the pass."

"Maybe they think we're dead," Bly suggested. "They may think that the rune killed us."

"Maybe," Shanadar replied. "I still don't like it."

"If we take the pass, could we head them off?" someone asked.

"Possibly, but we'd risk losing them, and, if we split up and try it, we could be wiped out or never regroup," he sighed. "I'm afraid that we will have to risk it. . .we've got to find a way to catch up with them!"

"Could we head them off somehow?"

"Oh, most likely," Rapierian answered unexpectedly.

Everyone turned slowly to face the necromancer.

"What do you mean?" someone asked doubtfully.

"Oh, nothing much," the other answered, smiling. "Just that they seem to using a few very old paths, probably made by the Seldane themselves in years past. To tackle the mountains any other way would be unwise, don't you think? Well, it just so happens that I have map of these paths (in my little book here), and I think there's a place where we can ambush them. Naturally, it's a risk, but don't forget we have someone who can fly." The necromancer pointed to Silver behind them. "As long as he makes sure that they don't see him, he could continue to follow their trail and tell us if they take another way or scout out the area of which I speak. As a matter of fact, he might be able to do both. I should think that with his mobility we have an advantage over those who have the ol' Wiz."

Rapierian looked around at them all, seeming quite amused.

"So, do we take the risk? Or attempt to gain on them this way?"