NationStates Jolt Archive

Eva was running frantically now, Ixair close behind, along with Cobiesel, as she was having trouble finding her room.

"I hate this!" the princess shouted as she turned another corner, feeling something tighten around her ankle again, before she was lifted in the cieling for the second time. She hung there, her face flustered as she crossed her arms, letting the bottom of her dress slowly fall over her face. "Ixair!"

Again, the elf chuckled as he took his knife out and did much the same procedure as last time, catching her as she fell. Eva huffed up, pushing herself away and then poking Ixair.

"You lead, rebel," she growled.

Ixair nodded as he walked a short distance, before wincing as a sharp pain entered his foot. He gasped as he jumped back and looked at his boot. There were tiny holes evenly spaced along his shoe. "Eva...are these traps...normal?" Ixair asked, when suddenly, two demons turned the corner in front of them, swords out and snarled. "Get back!"

Eva had already began retreating, trying desperately to think up a spell or something she could do. If only she'd listened to Auntie Fala and mother.

It took her a few more seconds before the thought came to her. A confusion spell!. She smiled brightly as she tried to remember the words, saying a few, shaking her head, then correcting herself. A thin strand of magic escaped her hand and soared at Ixair, who ducked as he noticed Eva casting. The spell was about to hit a demon, but it sidestepped, causing the spell to smack into the wall behind.

Eva felt a tingle all over her body, and shivered slightly, before giving up on spell casting, considering she couldn't remember any others.

"Uh...Princess?" Ixair said with uncertainty.

"What? What?" Eva asked impatiently.

"I'll tell you later," the elf said as he flipped around and hacked an arm off the nearest demon. "Cobiesel, a little help here?"

Cobiesel stabbed one of the demons in the heart with Nirvana, it didn't do much, so she lept back and unleashed her spirit spell again. The four orb like spirits flew through the demon several times, before the demon fell, and Cobiesel decapatated it.

The General sighed again as he walked to his map. "Sir Sebastion, I'll ask you this question. If you found a child with the deadliest disease known in the world. A disease that not only effects the child, but can contaminate anything the child touched. Would you kill the child to save mortals...or would you spare the child and doom all life on this world?"

"I understand your sense of distrust and would not have it any other way," Sebastian replied calmly as the Templar and Master General seemed to share a shot and heated argument. The echoes of dead surrounded the land as so many of these people's comrades had fallen in battle.

The Master General decided that a test of morality was the only way to discern whether this man before him was true or treacherous. The question he presented was an age old conundrum that had tested the staunchest of wits and purest of souls. It was one that the Lord Sebastian had come across before and came to his conclusion with much thought, but little effort... "Sir, I would not lift my blade. The innocent shan't be judged on their cursed ailments. There is only the one that can ask anything of the child... and I am not he."

"Good answer, Sir Sebastion," the Master General replied, with a nod of his head. "The Imperium Fanatics believe it justice to eliminate the child. I can understand why, however, it would not be the best of ways. You can always pray for the god's hand of life. In one form, that miracle came in the form of a man. The Patriarch. He was in a predicament like that at one point. With his powers, he was able to heal the poor child. A great man indeed..."

"Sir Sebastion, one question will not get me to trust you, however because Ikara believes in you and we are desperate for hands, you can help aid the southern defenses, as that's what needs the most help. Apparantly, a troll chieftain leads three regiments of the barbarian forces. If you see him, elimate him. It will greatly release some of the burden our forces have to deal with."


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Ixair was locked in combat with the remaining demon. Each slash sliding closer to Ixair as he perried and reposted.

"Blast...change in tactics," he growled as he ducked under a blow, leaned backwards to dodge another, spread his legs for yet another, and finall balanced on one hand as the demon's last hand joined the fray. Ixair laughed as he sliced upwards at the imprisoning hands, pinning them all with one blow and hacking them all off.

The demon screamed and backed off, before screaming again as it stepped in the trap that was on the floor. Ixair frowned as he closed his eyes and decapitated the beast.

"Eva, close your eyes," Ixair said as he walked over to her. He couldn't believe what was happening to her face. She was practically red all over...

Eva frowned. She did feel very strange, mostly on her face, however if Ixair believed she couldn't handle two dead bodies, he was very wrong. "I've seen more dead and bloodier bodies than that."

She stomped off, using the demon's body as a bridge and arriving to a long hallway of doors. "Here we are!" she screamed excitedly.

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Kalzog was once again leading the way, turning corners and avoiding traps as best he could, until he came to a series of doorways. "Well...which one?"

"It would be better if it did not look like a toy," Teralynn said, looking at the orb in Habdebza's hands.

She glanced around at the surroundings, then at her Maw. Her like for the thing was quickly dying off, as the stench of it was starting to become a bigger deal than her fatigue from the fight at the palace was.

"How much longer until we get to wherever we are going to?" she asked.

***

Jorian remained quiet and out of the way as he followed the trio that were trying to free his parents and Rimoru and Alegain. When the attacks came, he did his best to stay out of the way, and fortunately the demons were more interested in the three fighters in the group than they were in him.

The sudden chill did not help, though, and Jorian found himself freezing, unprotected from the cold spell. Then came the explosions. And all the little counterspells Rimoru put in place seemed more painful than hilarious to Jorian.

He began to wonder what he was doing here. Hopefully Eva and Daejan were doing a lot better.

***

Daejan was just as quiet and out of the way as her older brother was as she followed Luthien and Beatrice. Jorian had told her to stick with these two and to be strong, and so even though she wanted to cry for her mother, she kept it back and only a few tears were rolling down her cheeks.

The palace had seemed to eat his spell with retaliation, but one door seemed to have more of a presence than the others. "That one seems right or at least different." He replied pointing to the door.

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"Are you alright little one?" Lúthien asked the child that had followed them without her knowing about it and was presently partially crying.

"You're insulting my prize?" Habdebza growled. "After my little gift to you..." the demon smiled insidiously as it pat the creature above the strange human face on it's forehead. "You know, it reminds me of you, my little Tera. Believe it or not, she had a beautiful face, perfect features, long, flowing red hair, pale skin..."

"Beautiful woman...until she got on my wrong side...but my your little maw still reminds me of you. It has a large mouth to match," Habdebza growled, before letting his eyes fall upon a large castle nearby. "Not much longer, my dear Teralynn. It's just over this hill..."

The desert had begun to give way to grass and trees, despite the rather decayed look they had to them. Toads croaked in bogs, snakes hissed as they ran down trees, and vultures waited impatiently for their next meal.


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Beatrice frowned as she sat down next to the child. She gently brought the little child closer and wrapped her in an embrace. "It'll be alright, little one," she whispered.

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Kalzog raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" he asked as he walked to it. He opened it slowly. Nothing happened. "Well...alright..."

Suddenly, there was a deep rumbling that ended in a defeaning roar as fire blasted out of the door, dissolving a chair and table right across from it.

"Trying to get me killed, hmm Azrael?" Kalzog growled.

"I told you it felt different. I didn't promise a good difference. If it was trapped, then that quite possibly means that it's the right way anyways." Lorathin added

Teralynn rolled her eyes when Habdebza looked away toward the castle. Chances were that Habdebza was just making that all up. But just in case, Tera decided to scan the creature's mind for any clues of the authenticity of Habdebza's claims.

The Maw's mind, however, was much too warped for Tera to get anything useful out of it.

Giving up and looking over at the castle as well, she asked, "What is so special about that place? Looks deserted."

***

Jorian cringed back at the blast of flames, reeeaaallly wishing that he was not here. But Aunt Rimoru's spells would not hurt him...right? He had a feeling he did not want to find out.

***

Daejan gave an unconvincing nod, sniffling. Then she looked up at Lúthien and Beatrice, and more tears welled up in her eyes.

"Are they goin' to be aw-right?" she asked in a quiet voice. Her mother and father did not look too good the last she saw them, and now her brother was gone too, leaving her with these strangers.

"Daddy and Uncle Kalzog have gone to rescue them, and they're the strongest people I know." Lúthien replied

"Well...you first," Kalzog replied, gesturing inside the dimly lit doorway.

"Fine, thought it appears that you are developing a cautious streak, much at odds with the unstoppable warrior you make yourself out to be." Lorathin replied as he headed down the corridor, eyes alert for any recent trace of Rimoru and faint traces of trapped areas.

The demi-god let out a chuckle as he felt Teralynn scan the demon. "It's true, my precious little Tera. What else would explain it's eerily human-like qualities?"

"This place? Well, that's why it's special, Tera. It's deserted. It's not supposed to be that way. Someone had taken out the guard there and Valtrox has sent me to go find out...with his precious little girl."

"Tell me, Tera. If Valtrox came to this world and conquered it...would you love him so much...that you would marry him?" Habdebza asked curiously. His master had valued Teralynn so much...but why?

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Kalzog frowned at Jorian. "You should have stayed behind with your baby," he growled before descending behind Lorathin.

"I thought I told you. If Habdebza is down here, I'd consider us all dead..."

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"Kalzog is big and Lorathin is smart," Beatrice said cheerfully, wiping away some of Daejan's tears. "I'm sure they'll all be fine."

"I wouldn't. In trouble certainly but not dead." He replied as he continued at a quick pace.

"I wouldn't test out your theory," Kalzog whispered gruffly as he carefully stepped down, behind Lorathin. It was dark down there, but he could definately hear the screams of Rimoru and struggling.

"A good suggestion regardless." He replied as he continued down the passage way. As long as the darkness didn't turn out to be of a magical nature he had partial, black and white, sight.

"No, please no!" she sobbed and screamed, the binds digging into her skin. "Please don't!"

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Several of the demons did exactly what Mienna was planning. One of the discs was deflected angrily by it's target, who promptly scolded it's thrower. Another two hit their targets however, killing both.

As Mienna passed, however, they continued their throwing onslaught.

Horatio ignored her comment and grabbed his scythe and pulled a sharpening stone from his bag, he sat back on the chair and began running it along the blade, making sure it was as sharp as it could be.

He was disturbed by a knock from the door when one of the demons informed him of three seperate disturbances; the first, a bird, the second a mismatched group of people wandering the palace doing strange thing like coughing up frogs and third, a much smaller group of people wandering the floor above.

At the mention of a bird he realised that he had felt something strange, or more precisely not felt something, the bond to his pet bird had gone when he had been demonised, a smile crossed his lips, much crueler to let it come than to have it killed before. "Kill the bird and bring its body here, i have plans for it. And gather the demons from the nearby rooms, when they come, we will be ready."

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Mienna let out a triumphant caw as two of the demons went down and contiued trying to evade the disks and fly towards the presence she felt, occasionally having to change direction due to dead ends or lots of resistance. She was not tough and one of the disks had cut shallowly along her back, a minor wound but it showed that she could take a direct hit well at all.

Kalzog's red eyes glowed as a blanket of shadows covered his face, following behind Lorathin, starting to wonder if they had truly picked the right door...

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Rimoru silenced her sobs when the demon came in and spoke of the 'disturbances'. She couldn't help but smile for joy. She'd soon be free...she knew she would.

Her tears welled up in joy as the pain in her wrists and ankles soon disappeered. "You're going to be killed, you wretched excuse for a demon. And I'm going to be saved..." she called to the druid who had previously been sharpening his scythe.

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The demons smiled as one of them got a hit, but continued their onslaught.

They were, however running out of discs, so some of the demons had begun to gather up more discs.

Lorathin kept up his quick pace as he has stopped hearing Rimoru's screams, which was more worrying than her screams. They at least confirmed she was alive.

The sight of Lorathin descending the stairs was too much for Rimoru. She burst out crying and looked up at him. "Azzy! Help me!" she sobbed, trying to get herself out of the binds. "He has a scythe, Azzy! And a sword! And...and...A sharp tail and wings!"

Alegain slowly sturred and opened his eyes to see the large ogre and a few smaller figures walking down the stairs. He could only hope they were here to save him.

Horatio and the demon cohorts were waiting in the dungeon had gotten themselves ready to ambush them. Horatio had decided it would be so much sweeter to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Horatio had dimmed the lights, leaving the dungeon in almost pitch darkness, so he didn't immediately recognise the people who ran in, nor should they recognise him. He stepped between Rimoru and the intruders; "So nice of you to join us. Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way? I am perfectly amiable to either course, throw down your weapons or throw down your lives." He stalling for time slightly to let their eyes adjust to the darkness before he cast the spell he had in mind which would send several rays of blinding and burning sunlight towards them, in normal conditions it would may have blinded opponents, but in the darkness it would be that much more potent. The heat would not inflict serious damage, but should hurt.

Several demons appeared behind them from the room leading to the dungeon, though they would struggle to get down the stairs more than one at a time and several more appeared from behind Horatio, they planned to menopolise on their enemies moment of weakness and infict as much damage as possible without killing them. Horatio would prefer to capture them as trophy's for 'the master', though if they put up too much of a resistance be forced to kill them.

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Mienna could not keep dodging the spinning disks and was seemingly unable to get closer to Horatio. The disks had begun to take their toll, a few more had glanced her and she had lost several feathers. She knew she couldn't keep going and felt a sick pleasure from Horatio's bond. As an act of desperation she dove directly at a demon, letting out a challenging caw and scrathing furiously at it, her last act would be to go down fighting and hopefully catch as many demons in the crossfire as she could.

The demon leapt back from Mienna, several discs whizzing past, however the demon also roughly took hold of the bird, trying to squeeze the life out of it, before a disc sliced right through it's hand.

Habdebza's minion roared at the others, who roared back, and once again threw their discs.


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"Well, there you go...you girlfriend," Kalzog said to Lorathin as Rimoru began to scream for the mage. Just then, a voice spoke in the darkness, somewhat close to Rimoru's.

"Who's there?" Kalzog growled, immediately wondering if it was Habdebza. His old master had a knack for fooling the most observant of beings. Suddenly, a bright light shined in his eyes and he roared as he stumbled around, trying not to kill any of his party members, but also trying to keep away from them.

"Considering I don't have any weapons that are possible to throw down..." Lorathin commented darkly, "And I suppose in all fairness I should return the choice to you, thought mine will be a bit more to the point. Surrender or die."

"And this darkness is irritating, or are you such a coward that you are unwilling to face an unarmed man in the light?" He asked as he muttered a few words in preparation to deal with the one who sounded vaguely like Horatio.

Suddenly, a demon leapt on Kalzog's back, followed by a few more, attempting to take down the large ogre, and perhaps kill a few the ones underneath as well.

"Get off me!" Kalzog roared as he slammed the demon into the wall in his blind rage, while pushing Lorathin down the stairs. "Get out of my way!"

More demons kept pouncing on the ogre, some of them bringing out their blades and trying to stab at him. Kalzog, however, kept his arm swinging, trying to keep them away as his vision cleared.

The demons from behind Horatio growled as they leapt in front of Lorathin, blades whirling.

"If i were a coward, would i be standing here?" He was about to say more but was cut off as the demons surged forward, earlier than he had intended, but they were not the most trustworthy of troops, they would be cought in his spell as well it seemed and there was little point in him wasting time.

He sighed, "Very well then, lets get this over with." He cast the spell, launching the rays of light towards the group with a few second delay between each one, there would be 4 or 5 of them. He hopes the demons natural resistance to fire would protect them somewhat from the heat and maybe the light.

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Mienna followed after the demon that had jumped back, only to be grabbed and then released as the hand was severed by one of the disks, Mienna flapped forward again, continuing trying to attack the same demon, trying to claw at its eyes or and important vein she could find. She refused to go down before it did, though many more of the disks were razoring past and more slashes appeared along her, she felt one leave a gash through one of her wings but continued her attack regardless.

Lorathin stepped down the stairs the rest of the way to avoid getting squished by the embattled Kalzog. As the demons with thier sword-spinning jumped in front of him, he finished the spell he'd been prepping as he'd been expecting thier to be more demons in the area. Letting the spell loose a number of uncoloured lights flew out at each of the demons, each would find itself being slammed backward and pinned against the wall, floor or ceiling.

"I'm not in the mood to be dealing with you right now, be lucky you don't hold my interest right now." He growled to the demons. "Now then, what is your decision on your fate?"

The demons facing Lorathin immediately muttered a combined spell in their terrible demonic language, reverting Lorathin's spell back at him. These were not the usual guards around the palace. These were some of Habdebza's elite...

But muttering that spell also turned a few of Horatio's light rays back on him, about two of them, out of the five that were shot out.


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The demon shouted something, making them all cease their throwing as the one being pecked at wrapped his hands around Mienna. Its right eye had been pecked out, leaving one empty socket, however the beast smiled in victory as he began to squeeze the bird.

The lightburst didn't bother him much as, by using mystical means to see in the dark, his eyes hadn't needed to adjust and the light was thus only quite bright, rather than it's doubtlessly intended, blinding.

"Please, if that's the limit of your skill, go back to doing parlor tricks for your master." Lorathin growled as his spell was sent back at him. Combating mages was much easier than fighters as he knew the tricks of the trade. As he was about to be smashed and likely killed from the combined, reversed spell, he lifted a hand and muttered a trio of words generating a field that nullified the spell.

For all his mockery they were decent, just not up to his level. He decided to incapacitate the demons for the time being as he cast an additional spell, causing the demons to become awash in holy energies that would be quite painful.

The demons howled in pain as they were engulfed in holy pain, however, as Rothargot's minions had proved, pain does not hinder the demon's ability to fight.

They continued forward, slicing and jabbing at Lorathin, a few even having different weapons, such as two spears and two morning stars, or two huge swords that were wielded with two hands each, one right under the other. As one sword was swiped horizontally, the one above would also swipe horizontally or cut downwards.

Kalzog, on the other hand, had his hands full. Several demons had come close to spearing out his eyes, however they were in a deadly position on top of the ogre's head. Kalzog could easily grab hold of them and fling them against the wall. The ones at the small of his back, however, were the hardest, and he could feel their swords pricking at him, trying to break through his tough skin.

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Eva frowned as she opened the fourth door, resulting in a wall. This was not going so well for her. "Who is playing these tricks?" she growled. She scratched at her face, feeling a slightly itchy feeling and a few bumps. She frowned but shrugged them off as she thought it was just the dirt forming on her pure skin. Besides, she would never get zits. It just didn't happen.

"Well...where is my room?" She growled, opening one more, revealing several guards opening drawers and closest, pulling out clothing and undergarments...all from Eva's room. "Get out you-you-you fiends!" she shouted at them, before being pulled away by Ixair.

Horatio blinked in surprise as his spells were bounced back at him by the demons, Just can't get the help these days. He closed his eyes and tried to turn away from them but wasnt quite quick enough. He stumbled back a few steps and grabbed hold of Rimoru's leg on the table by accident to steady himself.

He blinked and steped away from the table, "You haven't seen anything yet mage." He hefted his scythe which began giving off a sickly red flame that was tinted with a hint of green suggesting its poisonous nature and lunged at the mage. He was keeping in reserve a spel to fill the area with unholy energies to empower the demons and himself.

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Mienna had done all she could, birds were not made to fight demons and she could feel the life being forced out of her by the demon. images of her compartively brief life flashed before her eyes, how Horatio had found her alone in the nest, her parents had been killed by other birds and he raised her and other memories of their time together, though now he had abandoned her and that had crushed her spirit more than the demon ever could. The light fade from her eyes and the body went limp, hollow bones cracking under the pressure.

Rimoru gave out a short squeek when Horatio grabbed hold of her leg. If she hadn't hated the demon, or been bound, she probably would have taken that as a sign of flirtation...and she would admit that Horatio wasn't that bad looking...

"Azzy, watch out!" she squeeled.

Alegain tried to keep himself conscious, however he was worn out and tired. He had lost feeling in his hands so long ago. But he had to help by any means necessary. Using what was left of his strength, he cast a small fireball directly at Horatio, and desperately hoped it'd cause some sort of damage.

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The demon smiled and unwrapped his fingers around the bird, except for his thumb and index finger, which he kept at the limp bird's neck.

He laughed and spoke in their tongue again as he bounced the dead bird up and down with it's neck. The other demons laughed and muttered their praises.

"Our master's new servant will be proud," one of them said in the demon tongue.

The elfs fireball hit Horatio in the back and while not causing too much damage, did surprise him and hit him with enough force to throw him off balance causing his initial swing at Lorathin to go wide. He regained his footing and spun the blade before swinging it low, aiming at Lorathins legs.

Harlin didn't remember the palace being this large, but in the dark hues of the Shadowfold it appeared truly massive.

He'd followed the dim shape of Kalzog, who made an impression in this dimension with his chaos magic, as Kalzog had battled his way through the demons. Now that the target was so close, he knew he had to act. Crossing the room uninhibited amongst the shadows of demons, he came to the clear outline of Rimoru ling in bondage on a tablet. Stepping from the Shadowfold, he lightly touched her wrist and then stepped back in. Immediately, she was free of her bonds, and they were together in the Shadowfold.

"M'lady," Harlin said bowing low after he lifted her to her feet. Straightening back up, he continued, "I'm sorry, but we're a bit rushed for time. I have to get you away from here before they notice that you're gone."

Each blow plinked off his stoneskin, without shifting Lorathin, thought he could tell they were picking it off at a annoying rate and he did take some effort to avoid the strikes. "The first thing useful from you will be the first." He replied as he avoided a swing from the star.

Deciding to take a 'break' from the fighting and cast one of the more powerful spells a mage could learn and a moderately draining one at that. As the entire room seem to freeze, he stepped backward and out of harms way. If he was lucky, his sudden disappearence would cause one or more of the demons to hurt its fellows.

He also noticed that Harlin had appeared, finally. He decided to see about eliminating, at least partially the demons for a while as he began tracing a circle in and around them. He'd be likely wearied, thought not entirely drained by his efforts. As he completed the spell that would, in essance, bind all evil creatures within thought not completely cripple them if they were smart enought to figure out the solution, time resumed its steady flow or rather he returned to normal speed, breathing hard.

Rimoru smiled weakly at Harlin and wrapped her arms around him. "Harlin...I've never been happier to see you in my life," she laughed, planted a small kiss on his cheek. Tears of joy flowed down her cheeks as she was finally free.
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The demons growled as Lorathin disappeared and immediately retracted their hands and began to inch towards the darkest areas, waiting for the mage to show himself.

Horatios attacks seemed to be nothing nothing but bounce of the mage and then he found himself trapped in a cage of force, he placed his hands against the sides and looked round. "Clever..." He trailed off as he noticed the empty table where Rimrou should be, "Oh, somebody is going to pay." He let out aroar and smahed his fist against the side of the cage before turning back to Lorathin and casting a spell which would fill the entire room with swarms and swarms of locusts, apart from the magical shells they were in of course. He was just using it as a distraction until he could think up a way out of this box and to track Rimoru.

Holding Rimoru gently by the wrist so as not to aggravate the raw spots that the bindings had worn into her skin, he led her out of the dungeon and out of the palace. As they crested the hill outside, he stepped from the Shadowfold with her, and said, "Wait here, I will return with the others."

OOC- Sorry, jolt wasn't working and I was away for a bit.

IC- Cantrell immeaditly attacked the demons, being careful not to cause any spells to activate. He grabbed two demons off of Kalzog as they attempted to cut out his eyes, and dismembered them. He saw a man cast a spell, and then locusts. He started to swing his chains around wildly, smashing locusts away. When he saw the man again, he cast his box spell. The man would feel pressure continue to ncrease until he escaped or it crushed him.

Rimoru nodded and hugged Harlin atleast ten seconds longer. "Be safe...and bring back my family in one piece, please," she whispered, before setting herself down on the grass overlooking the palace. Her legs felt weak and she was dizzy. Her first trip through the shadowfold and she felt terrible. She could feel her stomach churning, her mind just wanting to put her to sleep. Oh how sleep would feel so good...

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"Blasted bugs!" Kalzog roared as he kept his eyes closed and continued to slam into the walls. He felt a few demons slide off his back and he remained unsure as to who performed the much needed service.

"Crud." Lorathin thought in almost parallel with a 'Thank you' directed at Harlin as Rimoru was rescured and the swarms of insects appeared. As the bugs began buzzing and doing annoying bug stuff, he tried to cast a spell only to have one of the locusts fly into his mouth, gagging him. Spitting the insect out, he tried again causing a wind to blow the bugs around and keep them off balance and hopefully out of peoples hair.

Kalzog himself was crunching down on a few locusts, only to spit them in several demon's faces as they ran up to him.

When one of Cantrell's chains swung around, several demons took hold of it and pulled, trying to set the man off balance.

As the demons who had escaped the binds of the circle before it was finished observed their comrades who impatiently awaited their release, they began to kick at the circle, trying to ruin it and hasten their freedom.

Lorathin decided to put the proverbial screws to the demons in the circle as he cast a spell to target those inside the circle. They'd get the visual, auditory, thermal, olfactory but not tactical impression they were in a field of flowers, while meadowlarks sang sweetly and the sun shined down on them. In essance an idealistic image, for a person, a nightmare for a demon.

Cantrell felt something pull on his chain. He was thrown of balance. As he got up, he saw a demon rush toward him with a sword. He barely dodged. He got up, and tried to see through the locusts. No more wild swings he said to himself. He found one of the demons, and rushed to attak it, only to be hit in the back by a demon sword. He cursed loudly and continued to fend them off.

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Cobiesel immeadily tried to fight off the demons, but there were far to many. She summoned her spirits again, and they flew across the room, trying to fight off the demons.

Horatio laughed at how effective the locusts were, better than he had expected. His laugh was cut off as he felt the box contracting around him. He rapidly cast a spell turning his skin to stone to resist the crushing force while he tried something else.

Focusing he forced plants to grow, due to the palaces magical defences and the lack of soil in the dungeon it was a tiring process but necessary, a small growth of plants almost covered the floor and Horatio cast a third spell to vanish from within the box and would appear on the other side of the room, giving him a moment to recover. However when he arrived in his mind he saw a field of flowers and heard various birds singing, he glanced around in confusion. He did not feel natures grace emanating from these things and could only surmise it was an illusion. He stayed still with his scythe at the ready as he pondered how to escape.

Lorathin saw the demons trying to rescue thier comrades and began sending bolts of lightning, fire and ice at them in an attempt to chase them away. As it was an almost sure thing that one would get throught, the circle was broken and the demons were free, thought still enraptured or tormented as was likely thier view, in the illusion.

He did hope that those formerly out would cause injury to those formerly in as it would break the illusion, even so little as a moderately deep wound or broken finger would suffice thought a slap or punch would not.

Harlin rushed into the room in the Shadowfold, his dimension free of locusts, and ran to where he had seen the other prisoners before. Unlike Rimoru, they failed to cast an imprint into the Shadowfold. Stepping out, he looked around, and saw a familiar face, against his better judgement, he grabbed Maverion and stepped back inside the Shadowfold.

The extended use of the alternate dimension was beginning to fatigue him, and he was slower in his return to the hillside, and left the Shadowfold earlier so that he could make repeat trips.

Setting the unconscious Maverion (exhausted from exposure to the Shadowfold) next to Rimoru, he turned and set back off into the palace.

The demons roared as they thrust and sliced at Cantrell, trying to take off his chains as well.

Kalzog was having his own bit of trouble as one of the demons continued to dodge his attacks.

Horatio, however, performed a spell that Rimoru's palace didn't enjoy. As the plants sprang up, the druid would feel a strange prickling feeling start from the bottom of his feet and eventually end at the top of his head. After about a minute of this feeling, he would get an annoying feeling as flowers and vegetables would begin to sprout from his skin, painlessly, but again, annoying. And for each flower or vegetable taken off, two more would take it's place.

But that was not all. Horatio's meddling had brought quite a few flowers. Along with that, he's hear buzzing in his ears, which were, Wasps, as it would appear wasps had made a nest within his ears. His hair would turn a bright pink as well as his lips. He would find an urge to buy an endless amount of footwear as well as gain a terrible sense of fashion, believing his wardrobe made him look fat.

The horrors of Rimoru's Palace, all for the Empress' enjoyment.

Lorathin saw that Kalzog was in a spot of trouble, and was about to help when he realized he'd been pushing himself a bit which changed his mind. He did cast an demon-effect sleep spell to try and get the demons to take some much needed snooze, but wasn't sure how receptive they'd be to the siren song of Morpheous.

The demons growled as several were engulfed by Lorathin's spell. The survivors, however, walked into the broken circle and snapped at their comrades, who appeared to not know they were there. The demons began to shout, until one of them spoke several words that seemed to gather all of their attention and snap them out of their trance.

The demon who spoke shouted again and pointed at the escaping prisoners. Some of the demons ran to Alegain and Fala, while the remainder once again closed in on Lorathin and began to slice, smash, and hack at him. Suddenly, they began to get slower as they began to feel tired, as though they hadn't slept for several weeks, which, to a demon like this, was akin to not sleeping for several days for a mortal human.

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

Ixair had worked up a frenzy at getting the demons to stab at each other, defend Eva, and avoid getting hit himself.

He perried a blow, bringing his dagger into one of the demon's armpits, noticing a heavy resistance to the dagger as their skin was still quite hard, although it was nothing like Rothargot's minions. The demon brought one of it's swords back to deal with the meddling elf, but instead was perryied again, this time recieving the blade through it's neck.

It slumped to the floor, as Eva stood screaming nearby. A demon had begun to give chase to her, stabbing out and smashing through a flower pot, a table, and a chair, as Eva ran from place to place, occasionally tossing something at the demon.

When the princess was finally cornered, a spirit burst through it's chest, disappearing afterwards.

Lorathin lept backward as he noticed while they hadn't fallen over as they were suppose to thier movements had most definately slowed, as if they were beset with fatigue. He could also feel his own stores starting to run low which made finishing this off quickly an imperative.

As he knew that there were only a few 'skins' left to his spell, he knew he'd have to come up with something good. As he watched, he was struck by divine, or prehaps Rimorian, inspiration.

With thier fatigue soaked minds, they'd be more vunerable to the fear-killing spell. As he began casting he knew if it failed for more than a few of them, he'd be in trouble, but those were the risks. Casting the spell, each demon saw manifest thier greatest fear and nightmare, this most horrible beast that stalked the secret recesses of thier mind. Those who could muster the will and mind power to realize that it was only a phantasm, a lethal phantasm but a phantasm none the less would still will feel sore and weakened beyond thier lethargy.

And so the image of a creature born within the shadows of their mind manifested itself before them. It was not Habdebza, nor was it Valtrox.

It was Rothargot, a hint of Valtrox and Habdebza within the hulking demon as he stomped forward. It had the figure of Rothargot, it's wings much grander, and the flames of Valtrox, as the creature's body was completely engulfed in flames. Yet over Rothargot's face, the mask of Habdebza lingered, two blades sliding into the creature's hands.

The demons began to run, unsure what to do with this menace. The leading Demon, however, once again barked a few orders, getting a few other demons to realize the creature to be false. They glared at Lorathin before advancing on him again.

Lorathin kept back, making sure that they weren't herding him into a corner, quite vexed with the lead demon. He briefly wondered what they saw, but as it only appeared as a semi-formless being to him, he couldn't tell. He hoped Kalzog had dealt with his pests so he could get a little assistance and glanced over as he avoided a stool.

The demons were hit with a surprise as Kalzog barraled into the three unrelenting guards. "Lorathin, we should let Harlin take these three. I fear Habdebza is coming..." he growled, his eyes narrowed.

The fleeing demons had run from the illusion, smashing into Horatio as they did so, trying to get as far away as possible.

"Let's find Eva and the others and get out as soon as possible..." Kalzog growled.

"Gotcha." Lorathin replied as he narrowed his eyes for a second. He then laided a twofold arcane mark in the air around the room, it would serve, hopefully, as a reference point for Harlin in case he had trouble as well as providing him with a quick explaination of why the other rescuers were missing and why.

"Now let's go." He replied as he absorbed his stoneskins, leeching thier magic back into him as he headed back the way they'd come.

Kalzog quickly ran up the stairs, taking the same route back to their entrance point, before looking up the path that Eva, Ixair, and Cobiesel had taken. "I think this is it..." he growled as he ran down it. Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed as dead bodys lay strewn around, even serving as a makeshift bridge over thin, nearly invisible spikes, which Kalzog had nearly stepped on, had he not moved the demon's body from it and noticed the many pin pricks it had on it's body.

Within minutes, which had taken Eva and the others a good deal of minutes to go through, Kalzog noticed Cobiesel and Ixair waiting by a large doorway, several dead demon bodies at their feet.

"Where is she? We need to get out of here!" Kalzog growled.

Ixair pointed inside. "Watch out, she's very moody right now," he whispered, indicating a thin red mark on his face, most likely where he'd been slapped by the little girl.

Eva was indeed moody. She was staring at herself in the mirror. Apparantly her single spell had done more damage to her than anything else. Her whole face was covered in zits of varying sizes. Her mouth hung open in horror as she continued to stroke her skin. "I don't get zits!" she growled sadly, before returning to a small bag nearby and stuffing more clothing in it, not noticing anyone looking in.

Lorathin followed letting the ogre lead, just in case. Spotting the others, he was about to make the same announcement, but Kalzog beat him to the punch.

"Well her moodiness will have to wait." Lorathin commented as he stepped into the room. "Princess, it's time to go. Grab the last things you need and lets go."

He'd been tempted to laught at her pimples, but decided that'd be counterproductive. He did have an offer if she proved obstinent, a fairly good ointment for blemishes on the skin, thought he was even more sure Rimoru would have the antidote.

Eva turned her head slightly, before grabbing on of the many pillows on her massive bed and burying her face in it. "Alright, just give me a few minutes alone," she replied as she hurried to the other side of the room and took out a few perfumes and silks, making sure to keep the pillow covering herself from Lorathin.

"Don't worry about your outbreak if that's what's bothering you. I have a very good ointment back home. I use to look uglier than ten sacks of potatoes before I started useing it." He replied with a faintest amount of a tease in his voice. "If it doesn't work, I'm certain I know who was responsible and can remove it..." He added suggestively, playing slightly on her vanity before offering to carry her back if she wished.

Eva chuckled as she slowly put the pillow down and looked at Lorathin. "Ten sacks of potatoes?" She giggled again.

"Oh, please...I've never had...pimples before! I need to get rid of them!" she groaned, as she took some undergarments off the floor, her red face turning even redder as she tried to hide them from view and stuff them in her bag.

When he offered to carry her back, her eyes widened slowly. "You're serious?" She was silent for a moment before closing up her bag and tieing it. "Alright."

"Hurry up!" came a growl from outside, most likely Kalzog's.

"Yep." He replied as she giggled. "They'll be gone soon enought." He added as she stuffed her undergarments into her bag, turning his head so he'd spare her a bit more embarressement.

"I'm always serious, except when I'm not." He replied before crouching down so she could climb up on his back. "We're comming." He called back to the ogre.

"Mother always said you were so charming," Eva chuckled as she climbed on his back and burried her face in his neck, trying to hide as much of herself as possible. "Always serious except when you're not? You are a strange one."

She couldn't help but snuggle up ever so gently to the man her mother had fallen in love with so long ago. Once one gets past all his strange and quircky moments, he may, just may, be someone she could get used to...Besides, like her father, she always enjoyed exotic ones...

"Alright, let's go," she whispered in his ear, hiding her face in his neck.

He was tempted to ask her if Rimoru still disliked him, but decided not to tease her in that way at the moment anyways. "That's me, a strange one. I believe Rimoru said something to that effect before as well." He replied as he stood, lifting the princess with him.

He felt Eva snuggle up to him and, for a brief second, a strange mix of a smile and regret crossed his face before vanishing as they headed out of the room, his shirt almost seeming to move to serve as both a pillow and veil. "Let's get going." He commented, in an attempt to forestall Kalzog and anyother quick wits in the group.

"Oh, what's this? Got your own carriage because your sore little feet couldn't handle it?" Kalzog growled at Eva.

"Take this and shove it, ogre. And yes...because I'm a princess," she said as she tossed the bag in Kalzog's general direction while keeping her face against Lorathin's neck.

Kalzog growled something as he caught Eva's bag and looked around. "Let's get out of here before something bad comes our way..."

"Agreed, and since you seem to have the better sense of direction in this place, after you." Lorathin replied thought as usual, he had an ulterior motive, namely Kalzog was the biggest, strongest toughest and the best shield.

Kalzog growled again, but complied as he held onto Eva's stuff and jogged down the path, towards their entrance point.

"Alright, now get down and open these doors," Kalzog growled as he let Eva's stuff fall to the ground.

"Careful with that! There's important things in there!" Eva shrieked, barely lifting her face off of Lorathin. "Say 'Family Victoria'"

Ixair only chuckled as he knew what Eva was trying to do by keeping herself hidden.

Kalzog raised his eyes and did what was asked and sure enough, the secret gate opened. He slid through and stopped before he came to the steps he remembered flipped to a violent side.

"Don't worry, it's on the other side now," Eva said. "And we have about five minutes before it starts."

Kalzog sighed before he picked up her things and began to jog, and sure enough, they made it out the other side with little trouble.

"Lorathin? Eva!" Rimoru cried as she struggled to stand up, Maverion in her arms. She gently set him on the ground and ran to Lorathin and her daughter.

Lorathin winced as Eva shrieked in his ear as he'd been very much not expecting it.

As they made it throught the palace's secret tunnel, he hoped that his mark was being useful to Harlin as he didn't want to have to try and brace the palace and its invaders again.

"I've got your daughter and she's safe." He replied as he half-jogged over to her, "But I think she has a bit of an issue with one of you're palaces self-defence measures." He commented as he kneeled so Eva could get down if she wished, and so he'd have less strain if she wanted to remain pressed against him. She was light, but not that light afterall.

Eva slowly got off of Lorathin, but kept her face down as her mother slowly limped over. Rimoru brought her slender hand on her daughters face and gently pushed upwards.

Rimoru let out a quiet laugh and pulled Eva up close to her. "My little angel..." she whispered before she broke into tears.

"Mother! I-I want my face fixed!" Eva said, trying to cover her own tears as she wrapped her hands around her mother.

Rimoru pulled away gently and frowned. She brought her hand over to Eva's face and pushed gently. Nothing happened. She tried again, with no different effects.

Rimoru cried again as she pulled Eva closer to her. "Go check on Uncle Mavey, alright?" she whispered. Eva nodded, and kept her face down so her long blond hair could cover her face.

Kalzog, however, had taken a look at her and began to laugh loudly. "Serves you right, you pompous little brat!" he chuckled. Eva just kept walking, however one could hear her sniffling sadly as she did so.

Rimoru frowned at Kalzog, but she knew she couldn't do anything. She ran to Lorathin and wrapped her arms around him. "Azzy...oh Azzy..." she whispered, her lips slowly moving towards his. "Azzy...I'm...I've...I don't have any powers left," she whispered sadly, tears welling up in her eyes again. "Habdebza took them all..."

Horatio had felt the odd effects creeping across him body and noticed the plants growing from him and some of the other changes. On the one hand, it was almost useful, he may be able to utilise these plants to boost his natural powers, on the other hand, they were annoying and he suddenly thought, They don't suit me, they make me look fat. The pink hair is nice though. Coing to his senses he shook his head and creating a small ball of fire in his hand set himself alight to burn away the plants, the fire hurt enough to dispell the illusion on him, but much to his dismay the plants kept growing.

He looked around, still burning and saw several demons running in abject terror towards him, he managed to dodge the first two but was caught by the others and trampled, one fell on top of him, victim to its allys blades thrashing around as they ran.

He pushed the corpse off of him and put himself out. Rage burned through him and even through the vines small changes could be seen to be happening on his body, his horns grew slightly, as did the spikes on his wrists. "Get after them or i will give you something to be scared of. Do not let them escape." He slammed his scythe into one of the fleeing demons knocking it to the floor and hopefully knocking some sense into it and then shouted again. "A few stay here and guard these remaining prisoners, Do not fail, or you will die."

He turned and ran after the sound of retreating footsteps, regardless of whether the demons had followed or not. Unfortunately they had gotten a decent lead on him and he wasn't able to keep up, eventually losing them in the warren of pasages. He made his way back to the dungeon and over to the elf on the wall, punching him in the gut. "That was for the fireball you shot at me earlier. Now, tell me where they might go or you will suffer." He had heard the ogre call one Lorathin and mention Harlin, the third man with chains must have been Cantrell, the people i met in the inn. Where did they say they were going? i may still be able to track them down. However he had also heard the ogre mention Habdebza and something told him that that was 'the masters' name. So the ogre and Habdebza have some history, perhaps I can use this..

That is when he remembered the hordes of locusts flying around which were feasting on his vines and on the flowers he had summoned earlier. He banished them with a wave and examined his new attire, he decided to try simply dispelling the magic on him. If it was simple magic it should work, if it was a curse, it most likely wouldn't, but there was a small chance it would.

Lorathin watched the tearful reunion between mother and daughter with a bit of a smile. The smile dipped slightly when he saw what appeared to be Rimoru's attempt to clear Eva's face fail.

"Kalzog, stow it." Lorathin commented tiredly at the ogre's nigh eternally flippant attitude, "This isn't the time to snipe."

Lorathin wrapped his arms about her as she choked the words out in addition to suffering leakage of the eyes. He was going to ask how, but figured it was both immaterial and he had a pretty good guess as to how it had happened. "We shall get them back. I'm not entirely sure how or when but we will. Until then you need to rely on those who care for you and who'll help you." He replied as he let her lips find his.

Despite it's relatively annoying simplicity, the spells were somewhat more powerful than they seemed. When Horatio attempted to dispell the magic on him, it slowed down slightly, however it hadn't stopped. But it would stop givin a few more minutes, at most three.

The demons nodded as they realized their foolishness. They slowly stood up and some shuffled behind Horatio as they awaited what the elf had to say while a lot more traveresed the maze that was the palace.

Alegain gasped as he was rudely awakened by a punch to his stomach. "I-I don't know," he wheezed. Alegain took one good look at Horatio and smiled, a weak smile, but a smile none the less. "Nice hair, tree man."


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

"I'm just giving it to where it's due," Kalzog grumbled as he watched Rimoru with disgust before looking away.

Ixair had remained silent as his eyes were wide open. Rimoru was seductive enough, but Rimoru in her undergarments was a whole new concept.

Rimoru, however, gently kissed Lorathin's lips. That's what she was going for, a gentle kiss, however she remembered her old passion that had gotten her riled up for Lorathin. She brought her lips to his again, giving him a more passionate kiss as she pushed herself against the mage. "Azzy...I missed you," she whispered before once again bringing a kiss to Lorathin. Her passionate desires were fueled up again. She wanted to be alone with Azrael just for an-

Someone behind her cleared his throat. A young voice.

Rimoru slowly pulled away and turned her head, still within Lorathin's embrace. Her eyes focused on a tall elfvish figure. A very familiar one with a long coat, a hat, and bright blue eyes like her own. Here was someone that she had given the orders to kill. Ixair Riftdreamer...

Rimoru's cheeks reddened only slightly before she smiled, wiping away a tear or two.

"Your reputation precedes you, your highness," Ixair said with little emotion.

Rimoru raised an eyebrow, unsure of whether to take that as a compliment or otherwise. "This wasn't one of your little plots, was it?" she asked in much the same tone the elf had.

"No," he replied simply, his eyes going from Rimoru to Lorathin. "Don't you have a husband?"

Rimoru's eyes widened as her passionate desire for Lorathin seemed to have driven away her fear for her husband. "Where's Alegain, Azzy?"

Lorathin just shook his head slightly at Kalzog. As Rimoru kissed him lightly he smiled as he remembered the enjoyable time he'd had with her in her palace. The addition of a the following passionate kiss was both surprising, reassuring and vaguely expected...

Ixair clearing his throat was also partially expected, thought he'd been thinking it might come from Eva instead. He watched the little exchange between the two, wondering briefly if he'd have to step on a few toes. Ixair's implication that there was something inappropriate between him and Rimoru was a bit aggrevating as he wasn't in the mood to explain the difference between an affair and a friendship of the type he shared with the Empress.

"Harlin is rescuing the others that were with you in the same manner that he rescued you. I gave him a beacon that'll fill him in with what's happened and where we are. If he doesn't show up soon, I'll go get them myself." He replied as there was another way into the palace. What he decided not to mention was that if he did have to use that method, they'd be stuck going overland for a goodly distance as he'd be drained of energy, and easy prey to a skilled tracker.

Rimoru rested her head against Lorathin and frowned. She hoped Harlin would bring Fala and Alegain back soon. She did not want them to remain in Habdebza's custody and she didn't want to put anyone into harms way again for trying to save her.

Rimmy looked up into Lorathin's eyes and pushed herself up to kiss him lightly. "So how do you like Eva?" she asked quietly before once again kissing him on his lips, with more passion each time she did so.

Ixair sighed. "Your highness, you do know you are in your...undergarments..." Ixair said confomortably.

Rimoru turned her head again and looked down at herself. Bruises and her beautiful curves were clearly accented with her current form of dress. She smiled seductively at Ixair. "Have something...wrong with it?" she asked suggestively.

Ixair cleared his throat and took a step backwards. Very few men could resist temptation, especially a temptation like that. "N-n-no," he replied back.

"I didn't think so," Rimoru replied, nuzzling Lorathin's neck and continuing to kiss him.

"She's interesting, thought she seemed to think you didn't want to see me." He replied with a faint smile as she kept kissing him between words.

He mentally chuckled at Ixair's uncomfortableness and wondered how he'd do if they switched places.

Horatio backhanded the smiling elf. but couldn't help feeling slightly flattered, part of the annoying spell. "Where would they go? I could make you grow a nice set of plants yourself..." Turning his attnention back to the growths on himself he frowned at the apparent lack of effect his spell had had, but there was little he could do about it for the moment, those spells were not in his range. He would have to ignore it and hope it went away by itself, along with the unusual urges and hair colour.

"Interesting? Isn't that what you used to describe me?" Rimoru chuckled. "Now why would she say that? I've always told her good things about you."

Rimoru smiled as she set her head on Lorathin's chest. "Now where is your little one? I'm anxious to see her," she said quietly. The empress had mixed feelings of this "Luthien". If the little elf girl was given more time and care than the empress, there will definately be some conflicts. Plus, from past experience, she tended to dislike children, especially little girls, unless they were her own.

"Alright, enough, you rabid woman," Kalzog growled as he pulled Rimoru off Lorathin suddenly. "Where did Habdebza go?"

"Get off me, you oversized glut!" Rimoru shouted, slapping at Kalzog's hands. "I don't know where he went. He just told that man to watch over me and the others while he was gone."

The ogre set her down in front of him. She glared up at Kalzog, before backing up slowly back to Lorathin.

"I somehow knew that Eva was going to get your worst traits," Kalzog growled.

"Well, I'm glad you've never had a child, ogre, so we wouldn't be graced with any more of your traits," Rimoru shouted back. Kalzog was surprised at the comment, but the hint of a smile played on his lips.

"Your highness, please calm down," Ixair said calmly as he walked up to her and hesitantly put his hands on her shoulders. Her skin was so smooth and delicate and when she turned to look at him, Ixair felt his knees buckle. His eyes were entranced into hers, her pursed lips, her light furrowed brows, her delicate nose. A goddess of beauty.

Rimoru's pursed lips flattened out into a smile as she realized she'd ensnared one of her greatest threats to the throne. She gently brought her hand to Ixair's chest and walked her hand up it, feeling his muscles tighten up as she did so. Her face inched closer to his. She could feel him struggling to overcome the urges, to resist her. And she could see him loosing it. "What's the fun in calming down?" she whispered, her lips mere centimeters away from his.

Ixair struggled horribly, as he could feel his eyes close as he desired to taste those beckoning lips. To feel her against him...He envied Lorathin earlier, but now he felt himself entering a euphoria never before earned. He could feel her hot breath on his lips, teasing him, taunting him, inviting him to her full lips.

"Silly Rebel," she whispered, gently placing her finger on his lips and giving him a teasing smile before walking back to Lorathin.

Ixair sighed, cursing himself for not accepting her invitation, yet praising himself at the same time for resisting. He just didn't know which one was the worse of the choices.

"It's good to know that Habdebza hadn't made me any uglier," Rimoru chuckled happily.

Horatio backhanded the smiling elf. but couldn't help feeling slightly flattered, part of the annoying spell. "Where would they go? I could make you grow a nice set of plants yourself..."

Alegain frowned and shook his head. He didn't enjoy the idea of having to look like his captor. "I don't know. All I know is that they'd try to get out as fast as they could. Either that or Rimoru would go to her room which is unreachable..."

"You are similar in ways." He replied, "And she might be the best to reply why she spoke in such a way, but I think she was acting out of worry and attention-starvation. She's appearently broken up with her boyfriend recently.

"Lúthien is with Beatrice and a goodly distance away." He replied, failing to take into consideration that Rimoru would want to know who Bea was.

He then watched as Kalzog man, or rather oger, handled Rimoru and began asking about Habdebza which quickly degenerated into an argument. The smile one Kalzog's face, faint as it was, seemed to imply he was a father.

He watched Rimoru flirt with the rebel that wanted her off her throne, which she was, but in all likelyhood he wanted to be the one responsible to bring about the changes he wished rather than those that would happen.

"You could entrance most men with just your eyes." Lorathin commented as she was beyond beautiful, beyond gorgeous, beyond exquisite.

"You flatter me, Azzy," Rimoru giggled as she gently rubbed up against Lorathin, wishing for him to wrap her in his arms again. Her eyes closed and she was quiet for a few seconds.

"Eva was acting out of 'worry and attention-starvation?" Rimoru giggled suddenly. "Attention Starvation is a common trait in my family, I suppose. I was always told I should be an actor, if I hadn't been born royally. I replied that if I wasn't of royal blood, I'd be in a run-down shack with twenty kids." She giggled again and rubbed her head in Lorathin's chest. "Eva broke up with her boyfriend? That's not very good...I thought she finally found a keeper. I wonder why..."

When the subject once again became centered around Luthien, a certain Beatrice was mentioned. Rimoru's eyes flashed open and she furrowed her brows. "Who's Beatrice?" she asked rather harshly. Her mind tried to remember any Beatrice's from his letters or pictures, but she failed to get any. But it could have been from Kalzog's orb, since ever since she was hit with it, her mind has been acting a bit different.

"I think she's developed a bit of a crush on yon rebel." He replied, with a gesture of a finger at Ixair. "Not entirely sure why she broke up with her boyfriend thought."

"Beatrice is an elf who has been adopted, or done the adopting. I'm still slightly unsure at how it came about, but it has seemed to work out where she and Lúthien view each other as sisters. She's looking for an angel by the name of Bodista that she has a relationship with, what it is I'm not quite certain." He explained

Rimoru smiled again and nodded. "I can understand why. Although Ixair may be a rebel, I'd rather be overthrown by him than anyone else," she whispered back with a giggle. "I'll ask her about her boyfriend later."

"So...you don't have a love interest in Beatrice? A relationship with an angel?" Rimoru once again scanned her mind for any knowledge of a Bodista or a Beatrice, however none she could think of was about an elf and an angel in a relationship.

She spun around and looked into Lorathin's eyes. "So I still remain your one and only love, right, Azzy?" she asked, half in jest, half in seriousness.

He turned to the demons and asked where the intruders were first encountered. He recieved the answer of a door leading to a pantry and returned his attention to the elf. "Does this sound familier? Where does it lead?"

Another idea was crossing his mind, whatever had taken the other two may return and if was undetectable as the case must be, then perhaps the best idea would be to relocate the prisoners to another room.

"I'm sure he'd be happy to hear that, as he certainly seems smitten with you." Lorathin replied with a grin.

"Not in the manner I do with you, nor as you are asking." He said as he did care for Beatrice, but neither in the manner he did with Rimoru nor in an intimate manner.

"Do you even have to ask Rimoru?" He replied as he gave her a bit of a hug while bearing an artfully contrived, slightly pained look on his face that let her know he wasn't hurt by her having to ask, only teasing her. He did love her, but he loved others as well, just in different manners.

Cantrell and Cobiesel reunited. "You okay?" Cantrell aked. "Never been better. Come on, let's o met the empress." Cantrell merely shrugged and stood where he was. Eventually they would notice him, but until then he was fine where he was.

"Who isn't?" Rimoru asked with a grin. When Lorathin gave her a hug, she once again closed her hands around his waist and sighed. "So you are still my Lorathin," she chuckled quietly, kissing his cheek before resting her head on his shoulder.

She was beginning to worry about Alegain, Fala, and Harlin. What if they didn't make it alive? What if Habdebza didn't truly leave and somehow did something to all of them? Her heart beat faster and she began to tighten her hold on Lorathin.

She took the time to examin people around her, turning her head to either side to glance at them, but still resting against Lorathin's chest. That's when she scrunched up her face as her eyes rested on Cantrell. "What happened to him?" she asked quietly. "He's ugly..."


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

Alegain frowned and shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. I never knew about it before. Perhaps the cooks used this doorway to leave in a back room we never knew about, to drink or smuggle or something," Alegain lied. He was the one that helped teach little Eva to go through it, amongst other different escapes.

Lorathin smiled, a cross between indulgently and affectionately, at Rimoru calling him her Lorathin. He was his own person, thought she did have a long-term lease on him, to an extent anyways.

"You'll have to ask him, but I believe that you both share a common opponent." He replied, "Now what's taking Harlin so long..."

"Maybe someday," Rimoru said softly. She sighed before twisting again so her back was facing Lorathin, giving her the perfect view of the others. She noticed Ixair watching the two and she gave him a wink. Ixair had a look of slightly surprise and began walking off elsewhere. Kalzog, meanwhile kept his eyes on the palace.

"Azzy...I don't know what I'm going to do. Magic was my life...and Habdebza took it all," she whispered sadly, tears once again dripping down her cheeks. "No one is going to listen to me anymore. I'll never be Empress again. I don't even know if I'm...going to age..."

Lorathin let Rimoru use him as a bit of a chair as he watched the others also over her shoulder. "Magic is not the sum of the universe." He replied softly as it was something he'd had to learn, seeing friend and foe alike consumed by it, thought not in the harsh manner that she had. "We shall see if we can find the problem and restore your powers. There are no absolutes in existance, nor in eternity and I'm certain that somewhere out there is the solution."

As she began crying, he gently brushed the tears away, "You'll always have me, our relationship has no relevance to your powers or mine."

Rimoru nodded and turned around again so she faced Lorathin. "Azzy, I'm glad I met you...I've missed you so much," she whispered. She began to wonder how she would live, however. Any task she needed done, she could do with a mere thought. And now she was a mortal, just like anyone else. Anyone else...

"Azzy...It's just...I can't seem to do anything anymore...I can't even give my child what she wants...to clear her face...a simple spell. Azzy, in the dungeon..." she broke off, muffling her cries in Azrael's chest, before looking back up. "My own guards defiled me, Azzy...my own guards...Habdebza told me he hadn't told them to, nor had he stopped them... I was barely able to keep myself from bearing one of their children..."

Rimoru let out another burst of cries as she realized that there was probably no one left to carry out the family names of those guards. Should she have born children to them? It was her fault that they had not married and it was her fault that a lot of good people no longer existed.

"I missed you as well." He replied as he held her. "You simply have to learn a new way of doing things, like I did when I got adopted by Lúthien, but you can count on me to be there to help you and your family."

His eyes blazed when she confessed she'd been raped, but decided that comforting Rimoru was more important than vengence. "Do you really believe that that demon wouldn't lie, simply to hurt you? I don't doubt that he wasn't taken an opportunity to rub salt into your wound. He is the one that attempted to get you to commite suicide fifteen years ago afterall, and for his many trangressions he will be brought to justice."

Alegain frowned and shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. I never knew about it before. Perhaps the cooks used this doorway to leave in a back room we never knew about, to drink or smuggle or something," Alegain lied. He was the one that helped teach little Eva to go through it, amongst other different escapes.

Horatio frowned at the elf, not believing him, then turned to some of the demons, "You three, ransack that pantry and find the passage, go to any means necessary." He then looked around the dungeon, there was only one entrance, but that hadn't stopped the other being pinched by some invisable and apparently immaterial invader.

He would have to relocate somewhere else, somewhere they would not look because there would be no reason to. "Some of you stay here, the rest, gag the elf and the woman and come with me. Bring something to bind them."

"I can't imagine you changing much," Rimoru chuckled weakly, sniffling as she did so. She buried her head in Lorathin's chest as Habdebza was brought up.

"I don't know, Azzy...I don't know anymore," Rimoru said quietly, just wanting this all to be over. She wanted none of this to happen...but she had just been swallowed up by something big. And she feared it may escalate into another "Gate War"... And Lustria is not ready for another one...

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

The demons complied, a few remaining, a few releasing Fala and Alegain, only to bind them again and carry them over their shoulders.

Alegain wished he could do something, perhaps saving his fireball for this time, however, he was drained and barely able to keep conscious.

Lorathin gently stroked Rimoru's hair, "We'll get throught this together, alright?"

Rimoru nodded and gave Lorathin another squeeze. "Azzy, I love you so much," she whispered.

Kalzog sighed at Rimoru and Lorathin. "You guys are attached to the hip, aren't you," he grumbled. "However, I would like to ask where Luthien and Beatrice are."

"And I love you." He replied in a whisper of his own.

"Not at the hip, at the heart." Lorathin replied with a grin. "The girls are back where we met."

Kalzog rolled his eyes and sighed. "Harlin had better hurry up," he grumbled, not sure how much more of this 'lovey dovey' stuff he can take.

Rimoru giggled quietly and gently rubbed her head against Lorathin's chest." You have a way with words, Azzy," she said quietly, wishing that perhaps once, Lorathin would go one step farther in their relationship.

Cantrell laughed at the ugly comment. He got it alot. "Don't mind me Emperess. I'm a friend."

"Agreed, he should. He needs to rescue the others afterall." He replied to the ogre.

"Thank you." He replied, hoping that Harlin would hurry up for a couple reasons, namely as he didn't want to have to try and comfort Eva and Rimoru as well as removing the worry that Rimoru would go further and result in something of an appearence of a compremising position when her husband appeared.

Rimoru looked at Cantrell and smiled weakly. "Pleasure to meet you, friend," Rimoru replied. Although she technically was no longer empress, she still enjoyed the title. "I thank you all for coming to save me. I don't know if I would have ever left alive if it weren't for you guys..."

Rimoru brought her hands out and gently placed them around Lorathin's keeping his hands around her bare stomach. She lay her head back and closed her eyes. "Azzy...I wish I had some clothes," she whispered quietly, before a devious smile crept up her face. "But I'm sure some people don't." Her hand gently stroked Lorathin's chin and brought his to her lips and kissed gently.

(Regenius had boatloads of homework, that's what took Harlin so long. Sorry)

Harlin had reached the room after the prisoners had been relocated. Looking around he cursed himself for being to slow. Still, he was not with out tricks of his own. None of them could be used inside the Shadowfold, and from the dim shadows, it appeared that there were several demons in the room.

Thinking quickly, Harlin jumped to the ceiling and grabbed a rafter. Flipping on top of it, he left the Shadowfold. Taking a small pouch from his belt, he poured out a small pile on the rafter. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on what he wanted to know. Then, he blew lightly. As the dust spilled off the rafter, a small arrow was left behind. Quickly, Harlin reentered the Shadowfold just as the dust fell lightly on a demon's nose.

The creature sneezed, and then looked at the ceiling in confusion.

Sighing in relief, Harlin ran in the direction the arrow suggested.

"Would you like some, or are you content as you are, using me as a source of heat?" He asked after the kiss ended. He knew she enjoyed flaunting her body and he, as well as most, enjoyed the sight of her beautiful body, but he offered nontheless on the chance that she'd developed some self-consiousness do to her ordeal.

He did concentrate for a second thought as he cast a spell to create a veil, one that disguised her features but also enhanced her beauty, for Eva so she didn't have to cover her face. "Eva, could you come here for a moment?"

"Sir Sebastion, one question will not get me to trust you, however because Ikara believes in you and we are desperate for hands, you can help aid the southern defenses, as that's what needs the most help. Apparantly, a troll chieftain leads three regiments of the barbarian forces. If you see him, elimate him. It will greatly release some of the burden our forces have to deal with."

"Ah, good," Sebastian said, relieved his opinion on the matter had found favor in the mind of the Master General. "I could ask you nothing more than to give me a chance to earn your trust. Such a prized possession cannot be given freely in times like these times that try men's souls."

He saluted with a gauntleted hand and remounted on the back of the giant lionoid creature, Grael. "I shall depart immediately and shore up the southern defenses. I wish you luck. May you always find honor wherever you go." With that, Grael reared on his hind legs and then propelled the duo forward off of its powerful legs. At a sustained speed greater than that of a horse, the beast roared into the southlands...

"It'll be me honor, to offend ya another time miss. And this," he said as he loaded up his pistol. "Is an offense ta ya," he growled, taking aim...and shooting.

The other pirates laughed and taunted before they too began to shoot at the cloaked individuals. The townspeople dived for cover, shouting and screaming the whole way.

Ar'mai's eyes had immediately honed in on the rogue's finger as it moved to trigger the weapon's firing mechanism. As his muscle tensed in preparation of squeezing home the trigger, Ar'mai reacted as only one of the elven race could. She flipped backwards, her cloak flowing in all directions yet maintaining the secret of her identity. In midair, before landing behind the bar counter, her hands reached to a pair of elven crafted throwing blades insider her cloak and unloosed them on the drunken pirates with deadly accuracy. Soon her bow was from about her shoulder and arrows flew from behind the bar into the enemy ranks.

Bael'ther, for his part, had grabbed up a table and began to use it as a shield only to find that the strange metal propellents were capable of penetrating the wood. However, their force was greatly decreased and thus they only dented his armor, occasionally leaving bruises, instead of outright piercing the metal. Slowly, he began moving towards the band of drunken pirates with the table in front of him as a barrier. Once he was close enough he planned on throwing the table upon the rogues and unloosing his mighty blades upon them.

Venisar, light and agile as he was, leapt from place to place before the pirates could target him. His constant movement was well beyond their speed, especially in their drunken state. Ocasionally he would disappear into the stairway that led to the second level only to reappear and strike one of the pirates with his unique stave.

The priestesses were not much for fighters and immediately took cover beyond the bar or a wall to the side. However, just because they were not fighters did not mean they couldn't participate in the battle. They prepared to begin healing any of their elven companions as well as innocent townsfolk that got injured in the conflict. But for now they would remain in the relevant realm of safety away from flying bullets.

The six Royal Guards were the elite of elven forces and no doubt more skilled than the pirates in any facet, but for now the pirates were drunk and had the advantage of strange and powerful weapons. The guards had to take cover to avoid being shot, but began returning fire. With bows notched, they began firing off arrows at incredible speeds in the pirate’s direction. However, they were ready to advance with swords at the first sound of the fire stopping.

The young mage had entered the palace for the second time in as many days, but soon the group decided to split up. After a short mental debate, Loki decided to follow Eva as she was the first person he had met in this land and apparently it was her home. The young girl and the other elf began hurrying off, so Loki made to follow...

However, the two elves were swift of foot... much more so than Loki. Nor did it help that in his hast, the young mage kept tripping over himself and had to keep picking himself up and adjusting his clothing. It was not long until he came to a corner and there was no sight of the two in any direction. And not soon after that, the young lad was completely confused and lost. He spent a while wandering the corridors in search of the two he was following, but to no avail. At one point, he even found himself in a dark closet and struggled for many minutes to find his way out.

Many times, unbeknownst to either him or the other parties, Loki nearly crossed paths with the elves and the rescue party. But still he was lost in a seemingly endless maze of hallways and rooms. He wandered for much longer than necessary, but not once did he meet up with another living being; not Ixair or Eva, Kalzog or Lorathin, or even any of the demons. Not a single soul did he cross paths with.

However, he eventually made his way out through the same entrance that they had arrived from, but not due to any wit or plan, but rather simple dumb luck. Never... ever... going in there again.

The young mage walked slowly up the grassy hill outside the palace to where the others had gathered...

Cantrell asked a question. "So, we saved the Emperess, and her daughter. So, where to now?"

"You dragon, you," Rimoru purred seductively as she wrapped her hands on Lorathin's thighs and gently stroked downwards. "Perhaps we should...lessen my clothes instead?" she giggled quietly into Lorathin's ear, so as not to let anyone else hear.

Eva didn't know about the spell, but was spreading mud on her face, before she looked up and silently walked over to her mother and Lorathin.

Rimoru instantly straightened herself up and crossed her arms across her waist, over Lorathin's. "Eva, you don't need to hide your beauty," Rimoru said soothingly to her daughter. Eva only snorted, but there was sadness in her eyes.

Ixair had been watching the palace when another figure came into view. A short one, one that he met within the palace who attempted to follow him.

"Well, we need to wait for Harlin to bring Fala and Emperor Alegain," Ixair said to Cantrell along the way to the small figure with the large hat.

"Well, greetings, little one," Ixair said cheerfully as he walked over to Loki. "You hurt? I thought you were following us!"


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

The Master General watched Sebastion ride towards the southern walls and sighed. "Lady Ikara, I place him under your watch. If he does something wrong, you know the order."

Ikara frowned and nodded. The last few that she felt were 'men of purity' had failed her miserably, getting killed, trying to go to bed with her, or were not true people of good. But she felt something different with this Sebastion. Perhaps the same difference she felt within Sarik...

She leapt onto a horse and galloped behind the much faster creature.

*******

The southern Wall had recieved quite a bit of damage from earlier battles. Corpses were scattered along the grassy planes, some fresh, others quite old. Ruined siege weapons lay scattered throughout the planes, the only other proof of their use being the smashed rocks that littered the wall.

The troops themselves seemed as though they had low moral, down trodded and weak. It seemed as though age had little to dissuage the armed forces these days.

As the large, strong figure of Sebastion galloped through the land on his mighty lion-like creature, the troops looked up at him, some faces filled with hope, others with passiveness or sadness, knowing that this could be the last few months of his life.

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

Several of the blades flew at Conroy, but even in his drunken state, he was a force to be reckoned with. His saber found it's way out of his sheath and he deflected one, sending it into a nearby wall.

A pirate behind him, however, was too drunk to react fast enough and fell to the ground, blood seeping through his chest.

Conroy snarled, as he reloaded his weapons, yet as he reached for his ammunition clip, he noticed the elegant designs of the throwing blades. He snarled as he pulled one out of his crew member and tossed it back at the woman who leapt behind the bar.

"Where are ya, Brotinz?" Conroy shouted over the hisses and pops, along with the screams of several of his men, who immediately upturned tables, using those for cover as well. Several of the arrows could get through the wood, but not enough to seriously damage any of the crew members.

The pirate captain sneered as he brought out a cylinder from his pocket and smiled. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted maniacally as he pulled a small item from the canister and tossed it near the wall where he noticed several priestesses healing their comrades. Upon touching the floor, the canister let out a hiss as scalding steam rose out from several holes on it.

A skinny, pale, robed man crept up next to Conroy and smiled, several teeth seeming to be made of gold.

"Give em somethin' ta munch on while we reload..."

"Of course, capt'n," the man said, before smiling at the elves. He let loose a few fireballs in their direction, catching the wood on fire.

Lorathin looked at Rimoru slightly strangely as he wondered why she called him a dragon. "If that's what you'd like, thought perhaps you should hold off on that. We don't want Ixair or the others to be rendered insensible, now don't we." He replied with a smile.

"Eva, do not put mud on your face, unless you're doing it as a beauty treatement. If you'd like, you can use this veil to enhance your mystic and beauty." He offered as if it were worn correctly, it would give her an additional aura of mysterious sensuality.

Rimoru smiled at Lorathin, giving him a wink, but saying nothing as Eva watched the veil curiously.

"I don't want any masks...I just want to get rid of these," she grumbled, flashing a glare at her mother, as it was her own spell.

"Eva, I didn't put it there just to get you. Imagine it could have been a lot worse," Rimoru scolded, her brows furrowed.

Eva was about to counter her mother's words, but instead, took the veil and put it on, grumbling to herself. "What do you mean enhance my mystic?"

"Your mother's right. The palace had me belching frogs for a while." Lorathin commented with a smile as he reached up and adjusted the veil slightly. "Go try talking with Ixair, see how well he can form a coherent sentance." He suggested as the veil enhanced the aura of mystery women sought to cultivate, as well as adding an ample amount of sensuality to her.

Rimoru chuckled as she tried to imagine Lorathin burping out frogs. "That must have tasted bad," she giggled.

Eva frowned underneath her veil. "Who says I want to talk to Ixair? And how does this fix my problem? My pimples are still here!" she growled angrily. But she turned around anyways and walked towards the elf as he talked with Loki.

"Ixair," Eva cooed, as she looked around, making sure no one else was close by. Loki would be alright, considering he or she seemed to be confused by everything.

Ixair slowly turned to look at Eva, his mouth open slightly. "Y-y-your highness?" he stuttered. He could feel his mouth dry up as he noticed that Eva was beyond beauty than she was before. Almost like her mother...

"Ixair, may you hold me?" she asked quietly. Ixair almost ran over to her, putting his arms around her. Eva smiled under her veil and felt the elf's muscular arms wrap around her waist. She closed her eyes, almost a splitting image of her mother in Lorathin's arms. But she could feel herself just wanting to bring her lips to Ixair's. She ached to be with him, in fact. She wanted something now, that very instant.

Ixair, on the other hand, was entranced by her. This teenage girl, daughter of the most beautiful woman in the world and nemesis, had just as easily held him in her grasp as she could a bug. He felt her relax in his arms and he gently rubbed along her sides. Eva moaned quietly, before he moved his hands to her stomach, inciting a series of giggles from her.

"Stop that! I'm ticklish!" She giggled as he gently rubbed her belly. Ixair laughed as he continued to make her squirm and giggle out of his arms. When suddenly, as if moving towards it this whole time, she was in his arms again, him in hers. She stood on her toes, her lips planted against his, as she took her time with the elf prince.

Ixair gently lifted the princess upwards to him so it would be easier for her. The princess moaned and held on tighter to the elf, unable to take her hands off of him. Soon, if not stopped, Ixair would find himself losing clothing...

Rimoru frowned and looked at Lorathin. "What's she doing? Why haven't you offered one to me?" she asked sternly.

"That's a bit of an understatement." He replied with a grin. He smiled as he watched Eva go talk with Ixair and the subsequent reactions.

"She's doing much the same as what you do. She really does have a crush on him afterall." Lorathin commented, "Do you mean a kiss or a veil?" He asked before giving her one of the former.

"If you want the truth," He added conspiratorially, "The veil only has a smidgeon of magic, but it restored Eva's confidence and made her think she had an edge, which was all she really needed."

Rimoru frowned again as Eva was getting a little too intimate with Ixair. She pushed Lorathin away and spun around. "Are you suggesting that my bloodline get mixed with that of a rebel?" the ex-empress hissed. "Someone who wanted me ousted? Who probably would have imprisoned me?"

Rimoru sighed angrily, giving a glare to Lorathin, before spinning around and stomping down towards Eva and Ixair. "That's enough!" she growled, pulling Eva away from Ixair. Eva screamed and kicked as she held onto Ixair's hands. He remained unsure of what to do, but Eva's screams seemed to be getting on him. He looked between the goddess and the possible demi-goddess of beauty and frowned as he knew not what to do.

"Mother...get away from me!" Eva screamed as she tried to get out of Rimoru's grip. "Ixair!"

The Elven prince finally snapped and rushed over to the Empress and princess. "Rimoru, get off her!" he said rather harshly, pulling at Eva's waist.

"Get away Rebel! You've done nothing but hurt my family," Rimoru returned with a shout, trying to push Ixair away.

Ixair, however, dodged Rimoru's hand, noticing she was now unbalanced. He took advantage, and pushed her away.

It seemed slow motion as Rimoru felt herself fall backwards. She panicked as she desperately searched for a spell to cling to, one to give her the guiding hand she needed. But not came to her. She felt her bottom land into the soft mud, the brown water seeping and staining Rimoru's undergarments.

Eva and Ixair stared at Rimoru briefly, as if realizing what they've done. What could have happened...but what won't.

The Princess turned to Ixair and led him away, to nearby trees. Yet deep inside Ixair's eyes, there was worry, sorrow, and fear.

Rimoru remained sitting there, abandoned and betrayed. Bruised, battered, defiled, powerless. Rimoru was no longer of any significance to the world...

"That wasn't what I was suggesting, thought if she loves him, it's her choice. Unless you restrict those she can date..." He replied as Rimoru went over to get the proverbial garden hose for her daughter and Ixair.

Watching the altercation he saw, in a bit of horror, Rimoru fall and quickly crossed the distance to help her. As he helped Rimoru up, he looked over at Eva and said in a voice that would brook very little discussion, a fathers voice, "Eva, come back here and apologise. When your parent tells you to do something, you do so." The irony that he'd been reprimanded for much the same thing by Kalzog wasn't lost on him, but was immaterial.

ooc: She got a kiss, not a veil

ooc: fixed

"Get away! I haven't lost my muscles!" Rimoru shouted angrily. She pushed away from Lorathin again as tears dripped down her face. The empress picked herself up, only to slide onto her stomach, her face in the mud.

"I am my own person! I do what I want. And I especially don't follow orders from random strangers!" Eva shouted to Lorathin, picking up her pace with Ixair.

When they reached a small clearing, Eva looked back at Ixair, who remained wide eyed and unsure of himself.

"Your highness...I just pushed your mother into the mud. I-I-"

"Shut up and forget about it," Eva growled as she wrapped her hands around Ixair's waist. "Kiss me, Ixair. That's all I want right now."

Ixair slowly lowered himself slightly, bringing his lips to Eva's. The girl was quite good at kissing, much moreso than many people Ixair had been with before. But Ixair felt wrong about all this. He knew there was something terribly wrong...

"I'm sorry that you do not want my help." Lorathin replied as she fell back into the mud. "If you wouldn't like my offered assistance, I guess I could go speak with your daughter like she needs."

Eva was going to apologise, even if it took her getting bent over his knees and her behind paddled. Corperal punishment quite often did wonders for those like Eva.

Rimoru frowned as she stared at Lorathin. But she did want his help. She wanted him to help her anyways...But she didn't want to say it. She stopped struggling and just lay in the mud, defeated, sobbing.

"Lack of an answer is an answer, or a sorts." Lorathin thought as he stepped into the mud and bent down to scoop Rimoru up. Since she seemed in the mood to sulk, he'd let her sulk, but not in the mud.

Rimoru glared at Lorathin, but none the less accepted his help this time. Her ego had been demolished, smashed, and obliterated within a few minutes. As if losing her powers wasn't bad enough.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. She stood glaring at Lorathin with her mouth open, before crossing her muddy arms across her muddy stomach and stomping off, back to the palace.

"Rimoru, where are you going?" Lorathin asked calmly, if slightly coldly. "You have duties to concern yourself with here."

"Somewhere other than here," Rimoru barked. "Somewhere I am cared for." Somewhere the attention is mine.

Rimoru let out a angry shriek and kicked off some mud on her foot. She growled something to herself, eventually turning around, facing Lorathin. "Somewhere with someone who cares for me!"

"I have no duties whatsoever. You're the one that created this problem, you deal with it!" Again, she began to stomp back towards the palace, trying to wipe the mud off of her.

"You are cared for here, can you not realized that?" He asked, "People who care for you came to rescue you, even one who allegedly hates you came to save you."

"I did help the problem along, but it was one that would've developed regardless of my actions." Lorathin stated, "Your daughter is at that age and for now she has fixated on Ixair, likely because he is 'forbidden' to her."

"Apparantly not, Azrael," Rimoru shouted. "Ixair and Kalzog has turned their backs on me. You seem intent on getting Eva to make sweet love to someone and my husband is not even here!"

"Alegain, where are you when I need you?" she growled, rolling collected mud off of her and tossing it towards Lorathin, but barely making it halfway.

"Rimoru, you're world's been turned upside down. I realize that it hurts. What you don't realize is that it is not the end of the world. You have to adjust and find the strength to perserver, not cry. I know you are strong enought to do so, if you can find the will power to do so." Lorathin said

"Your daughter is not making love to someone, she was making out with him. If Harlin doesn't show up with Alegain in the next few minutes, I will go get him myself. If you truely love anybody, you will find the strength within you and rise to the situation."

He was finding it quite hard to pull the tough love act off, but Rimoru needed it. If the option was her wallowing in self-doubt and pity or hating him, he knew which he'd take without a second thought, no matter how painful it might be.

"If this matters at all Emperess, I still respect you." Cantrell said. In reality, he cared not at all, but Rimoru was looking bad, so he thought he would try to help her out. "You are still the emperess, even without your powers. "

"Well, greetings, little one," Ixair said cheerfully as he walked over to Loki. "You hurt? I thought you were following us!"

Loki looked at the ground for a moment and adjusted the brim of his oversized hat as Ixair made a comment. He was just about to answer, though slightly embarrassed and annoyed about getting lost, however he was saved from having to explain himself as a series of rapidly changing actions occured. Eva had wrapped around him and was getting quite intimate, but then the mood changed as her mother became quite upset.

While Rimoru sat wallowing in the mud, Loki stood a little out of the way and on the dry grass. When the former queen threw a handful of mud, quite a bit got on the young mage, but he dealt with it quite simply; first he rapidly removed all of the moisture from it, leaving hard, dry pieces that had not been able to get deep into the threads of his coat, and then he merely flicked them away.

However, Rimoru seemed quite upset and distraught, but Loki had barely anything to say. He offered in his always pleased voice a couple of words, "Grandpa always told me to keep my chin up and mind open."

As the large, strong figure of Sebastion galloped through the land on his mighty lion-like creature, the troops looked up at him, some faces filled with hope, others with passiveness or sadness, knowing that this could be the last few months of his life.

In a land where despair was becoming a norm, the clad white figure of Sebastian riding forward must have seemed nearly angelic to countless of hopeless soldiers. The defenses were brittle and it seemed a strong attack could send them tumbling over at any moment. But if there was one thing the knight knew, it was that an army filled with moral and purpose was stronger than any stone wall and barricaded gate.

He slowed to a steady trot as he rode parallel to the soldiers along the wall. "What plague has befallen these ranks?" Sebastian called out in a booming voice. "What dark evil hath caused the armies of justice to lose hope..."

The pirate captain sneered as he brought out a cylinder from his pocket and smiled. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted maniacally as he pulled a small item from the canister and tossed it near the wall where he noticed several priestesses healing their comrades. Upon touching the floor, the canister let out a hiss as scalding steam rose out from several holes on it.

A skinny, pale, robed man crept up next to Conroy and smiled, several teeth seeming to be made of gold.

"Give em somethin' ta munch on while we reload..."

"Of course, capt'n," the man said, before smiling at the elves. He let loose a few fireballs in their direction, catching the wood on fire.

The priestesses were burned, though not severely, by the intense heat of the steam spewing out of the canister. However, they immediately jumped back and out of the way, leaving the steam to hit the wall and waft away. They each began healing their wounds as they ran for new cover.

The elves in general were pinned in their positions by the volleys of speeding metal. It looked as though it would soon become a stalemate as neither side was able to gain much ground except to constantly pepper their opponents.

"Fire!" One of the Royal Guards screamed. However, he was not ordering another volley of arrows but indicating the fire that had caught hold on the bar. Soon it was spreading, aided by the tanks of alcohol that lay behind the bar.

"Everybody out!" Ar'mai cried as she began attempting to move to the back exit.

Bael'ther, for his own part, retreated with the table still at hand and after arriving to the ranks of elves he began bashing his way through the wall to create another exit.

"Azrael, you don't understand. Without my power, I am a no one. I can't change anything anymore. Not even my own daughter will listen to me. Ixair is no longer afraid to knock me down!" Rimoru cried. She could feel her knees buckle. "I have no more strength. And because of your vile veil, Eva won't listen to me. And don't think she wouldn't take her making out to the next step! How would you know anyways, Azrael? You're too scared to be in love!"

Rimoru glanced at Loki and frowned. "When you keep your chin up in a rain storm, you only succeed in drowning yourself," she growled. "And you...Cantrell...I don't believe you." She actually didn't know if she should believe the chain-man.

Rimoru glared at the others for a few seconds longer and once again spun around to head towards the castle.

"Armies larger than are own, our once mighty empire ruined, our own ruler, killed. War, is that dark evil," A templar replied as he walked by Sebastion. "Watch your step warrior. I've seen larger figures than you be torn apart like nothing out there."

Fala rode up to Sebastian and frowned. "Our people are losing it, Sir Sebastian. They are losing the sight of the goal. They do not see the light."


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

The pirates cheered and continued to shoot their rifles and pistols at the elves as they retreated.

"Git out ya bunch of dog-spat, cow dung, landlubbers!" Conroy growled as he shot his pistol at the retreating figures.

"Cap'n, doncha think we 'otta git out too?" one of the crewmates asked.

"Not until they are out. Then we go the backway an' run em down," Conroy growled. The other pirates nodded in agreement and continued shoot at the elves.

"No one is no one. Magic has nothing to do with your value of existance. Ask yourself, did you want to be treated with loved and respected out of fear, or out of genuine love and respect?" He asked as he walked over to stand in front of Rimoru.

"I'll be your strength until you can find your internal strength. The strength to look to the future rather than the past." He replied, "And if you'd like the veil gone," He concentrated for a second and the veil faded away like the morning dew on a hot day.

"While I may have never engaged in the act of making love, that has no relevance on love. I love you so much it hurts sometimes Rimoru." He replied and as she turned to go, he took her shoulders back around and gave her a passionate kiss.

Rimoru looked up at Lorathin as he asked him how she would like to rule over her people. At one point, it was love...then it turned to fear. She knew her people disliked her...she needed to show them why she was the ruler. And that was her change...that was when she realized she enjoyed flaunting such power. To be feared is to be respected.

"I...I don't know, Azrael," she finally stammered, not wanting to reveal her thoughts on it. She spun around again. "Just don't ever-"

Suddenly, she was spun around, and in surprise, she was about to slap Lorathin, however, he gave her a passionate kiss this time. Rimoru closed her eyes, feeling tears flow down her cheeks. When they finished, the former Empress sobbed violently, burying her head in Lorathin's chest. "Look at me, Azzy...I am a wreck..." she whispered.

"A bit, but that doesn't change the fact that I love you." He replied as, in holding her comfortingly, let her wet his shirt with tears and mud. "Would you like me to make you something to eat?" He offered as he imagined that she hadn't had anything substantial in a while.

Rimoru nodded slowly as she had just realize how hungry she was. Normally, she would just conjure up a snack...but now...

She sobbed again, not letting go of Lorathin, holding him tight.


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

Eva and Ixair were hiding within the nearby trees, engaged in constant romance. Eva continuously kissed the man she felt her crush on, while Ixair kissed Eva, as though tranced by her beauty.

Until, Eva began to undress Ixair.

"Princess...wait," he muttered, trying to push away, before Eva pushed herself closer, bringing her lips to his again.

When she kissed, Ixair felt himself forget things. He would lose concentration with everything except being with Eva. He pushed himself away again, gasping for air. "Eva...please...I cannot do this," he whispered.

Eva frowned and looked at Ixair. "Why not?"

Ixair looked up at the princess. "My heart belongs to someone else," he whispered.

Eva curled her lips and reached down for a fallen tree branch, tossing it at the elf. "Fine then. Try to live with yourself with the knowledge of denying the most beautiful princess in history," she growled, her eyes burning intensely, as though trying to burn Ixair to the ground.

She reached for her veil, only to realize it was gone. What trickery is this? What has that wretched fiend done to me? she thought angrily, looking in the direction of Lorathin.

Lorathin held onto Rimoru after she nodded and started sobbing. Deciding she might like a tasty treat to eat, he pulled a bun from a small pack of travel foods. It was about the size of a standard dinner roll but baked within were raisin like berries that when bit into would fizz before turning into a honey like syrup. "Here you go Rimoru. I hope you like it."

"Armies larger than are own, our once mighty empire ruined, our own ruler, killed. War, is that dark evil," A templar replied as he walked by Sebastion. "Watch your step warrior. I've seen larger figures than you be torn apart like nothing out there."

Fala rode up to Sebastian and frowned. "Our people are losing it, Sir Sebastian. They are losing the sight of the goal. They do not see the light."

Sebastian was quite taken aback by the Templar's pessimistic response. "Well then... we'll have to do something about that," the knight replied to Fala.

He turned on his heel to face the templar, now walking away, who had made the comment in passing. "And this is how you would honor his memory," Sebastian called out challengingly. "This is how you would defend your people and go down in history... too dejected to fight for justice and good..."

The pirates cheered and continued to shoot their rifles and pistols at the elves as they retreated.

The priestesses had evacuated out the rear exit of the tavern under cover of constant arrow volleys by the Royal Guards. The brave soldiers did the same again as Ar'mai made for the exit, going so far as to create a barrier of chairs and tables with themselves behind it to block any shots from hitting their princess.

Bael'ther had eventually managed to bash and slash his way through a side wall, causing the wood to splinter and give way to his forceful blows.

However, it was Venisar who seemed to have already disappeared as the elves retreated out of the bar. In reality, he had disappeared up the stairs and into the small second floor of the establishment. Finding a window at the rear of the attic, he pushed it open and leapt onto the roof. After moving across the roof to the front of the building, he lay crouched in wait for the pirates to exit. He would be waiting to cut them down with throwing stars and then if need be leap into their ranks and cut them down...

Rimoru looked at the strange food and took it from Lorathin, studying it slowly, as if wondering how she would make it herself. She sniffled a few more times before taking a tiny bite of it.

Immediately she closed her eyes as the barest hint of a smile played on her lips. The empress always enjoyed a delicious sweet and this was one of the best. She opened her eyes briefly and leaned on Lorathin. "Thank you," she whispered.


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

"If we were fighting for Justice, the Order would no longer exist," was all the templar growled.

"Malzious, please go to your post," Ikara said. The Templar glared at Sebastian before nodding and walking to a much farther side of the wall.

"He's probably one of the worse off. He was once a great fighter, as good as or perhaps better than my fiance. However, he lost his entire family during the first invasion of the unified tribes. He has never been the same afterwards..." Ikara said softly.



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

Conroy motioned for the pirates to begin shuffling out the door, taking as many townspeople hostage, to use as leverage or perhaps something else...

"Who are those people?" Conroy asked a scrawny old man who tried to escape from the pirates.

"I...I don't know," the man coughed.

"Rubbish!" the pirate captain growled, slicing through the man's neck.

Conroy and his top officers soon walked out behind the pirates, already formulating a plan.

"You're welcome." He replied as he watched her face and the faintest smile that graced it at the tasting of the bun, the bun known as a google bun in its own land. He was happy that the altercation had been weathered and Rimoru now seemed happy.

He was slightly worried that Eva would come storming in yelling about her veil thought and rile Rimoru up after all the effort to calm her down and get her into a goodish mood.

"Mind if you cook something up for me?" Cantrell asked Lorathin. "I lost a lot of energy fighting soldiers and demons and such."

Lorathin shifted one arm from Rimoru and mimed looking about his body. "I seem to have a distinct lack of cooking utensiles on me at the moment." He replied with a bit of a grin.

"I happen to have some molar breakers if you want any." He added

Rimoru stiffled a giggle, but otherwise let herself lean onto Lorathin, quietly munching on the 'google bun'.

"Azrael! You owe me something!" came Eva's voice from nearby. "You devilish demon! Just like all the others I've seen today!"

"Oh, and what pray tell do I owe you Eva?" Lorathin asked in an urbane tone. "And while I've been called devilish, and a demon before, I would ask that you not compare me with those that where in the palace."

"You tricked me! Why did my veil disappeer? You gave it to me as a gift! I thought you were being so nice to me, when you are just as bad, or worse than those demons inside the palace. Yeah, I said it! You act as though you are our friend, then you play you pranks, your jokes, and your lies. Mother? What are you doing?" Eva screamed.

"Eva, I may no longer be Empress, but I am still your mother! Treat me with the respect I deserve-"

"If I can't do what I want with Ixair, you can't do what you want with Lorathin!"

"Eva! I'm going to slap you so hard, you'll never forget-"

"Yeah, slap me because I'm right! Slap me because you can't do anything else! You've lost it all, haven't you? That's why you seem so helpless and weak!" Eva growled. Luckily, Kalzog was not around to hear, or else he'd probably rub it in their faces as well.

"It disappeared because it was either not needed or you were not ready for it. As evidenced from your actions, I would envision it was the latter, thought perhaps it was both." He replied, "It is still yours of course, but when you are ready for it."

"Pranks and jokes I do, lies I do not. I may omit, gloss over, deceive obscure or let people draw inaccurate conclusions, but I do not lie." He added, "And you will treat your mother with respect Eva." He stated calmly.

Turning his head to Rimoru, speaking to the empress but his words directed fully at Eva. "Where is the princess that you told me about, I had such a nice gift for her, but it seems that you've misplaced her and so I can't give her her present."

"You confounded imbecile!" Eva screamed, her face turning red. "How would you know if I wasn't ready for it? You even told me to do it! You blasted, lieing, fiend!"

"And that gift? I bet it's a lie as well! I doubt you ever had anything for me!" Eva shouted, stomping her foot at times and balling her fists.

Rimoru frowned. "I don't know...this isn't the princess I remember," she said quietly.

"I told you to go flirt and play kissy face, not to try and rip his clothes off." He replied, "There is a line between the two that you couldn't see. That's how I knew you weren't ready."

"You can ask Lúthien or if you don't trust both of us, I guess I won't be able to convince you, but I did have a gift for you. If you behave and your mother says yes, you'll get it. If not I guess it'll have to wait. The birthday after next might be good." He replied trailing off slightly.

"Eva, if you'd like after we get home, I'll let you take out all your frustrations, fears and worries out on me. Believe it or not, I know what is like to have the world you know completely up-ended and then trampled on."

"I didn't try to rip his clothes off!" Eva growled. She didn't know how Lorathin would know, considering she and Ixair had been hiding within the trees nearby. "And it's not my fault that your veil did it to me! Do you see pleasure in playing with my mind like that, then scolding me for it? Are you happy with what you caused?"

"Luthien is your child! She probably takes after you in lieing, cheating, and telling half truths! You probably never knew my birthday, and you probably don't know how old I am, nor what I want. And I seriously doubt you have anything for me!"

"You don't know what it's like! You haven't been in my shoes and you never will be! And who's home? And why there? Why not here? When our memory is fresh from your cruel...deceptions!" Eva continued, tears falling down her cheeks.

Rimoru looked between the two, realizing that her daughter had begun to take it all out on Lorathin rather than her. She continued to nibble on her roll, awaiting a turn she could take to join in the argument...if she wanted.

"Your veil didn't do anything to you save give you confidence. You were feeling unattractive and it enhanced your appearence, nothing more." He replied, "As to enjoying playing mind games. I do enjoy them, both the challenging ones and those that mess with peoples minds, but I was not playing one with you. Am I happy I accidentally caused you pain, of course not."

"I do not lie and neither does Lúthien. There is a difference between deception and lying, a subtle one at times but a difference nontheless. I do know your birthdate and your age. I was around your mother when she was carrying you afterall. I'm not addle-brained enought to be unable to do basic math." He replied

"Healthy doubting is a good trait, but in this case your doubts are misplaced. I had something, but for now, its deliverance into your hands is dependent on your actions and Rimoru's decision."

"You're right, my feet are much too large to fit into your shoes. On the other hand, I know exactly what it is like to lose my whole world." He said, his voice cool but still ever so slightly pained by memories. "My home, and because we'll have as long as you feel you need. Why not here? Because while we remain here, there is still a risk that we will be attacked."

"Now where is Harlin and why hasn't he gotten them out yet." Lorathin thought to himself. He was getting slightly vexed with the thief for his delay as he wanted to get moving.

ooc: Gone for the night.

"You lied to me either way," Eva growled. Her tone, along with the way her lips curled over her teeth, the way her strange red eyes glared at Lorathin, was peculiar, as it almost made her out to be a demon. "You told me it enhanced my beauty and 'mystic'."

"You dirty, lieing, cheating, decieving, rat! Go back to the dumpsters in which you belong! I'm tired of you!" Eva roared, kicking a puddle nearby at Rimoru and Lorathin, making sure she got a little mud along with it.

She stomped away from either of them, ignoring any pleas or comments they might make and passed by Cantrell and Cobiesel with neary a look.

Kalzog had his back to a tree, his eyes closed as he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

Eva came up over the hill and watched the ogre for a few seconds, before grabbing a medium sized rock and tossing it at the ogre's head.

Kalzog, however, brought up his large meaty hand and snatched the rock from the air, before it smacked him in the nose. He squeezed and the rock fell apart into pebbles.

"All that pent up anger can be directed more efficiently, little Eva," Kalzog said, not opening his eyes, however giving a large yawn as he stretched his arms.

"Wake up and do something, you tub of lard," Eva growled, picking up another rock.

"Do what, Eva? Yell at people? I do that enough," Kalzog smiled as he opened his eyes. His eyes fell to the rock in her hands, giving him a chuckle as he reached for a much larger rock. His muscles bulged as he raised it over himself and tossed it at the princess.

The girl let out a shriek and leapt to the side, dropping her miniscule rock to the floor as the much larger one reached the ground with a loud thump, splattering mud all over Eva.

The princess wiped her mud covered hair from her face, glaring at Kalzog with her twin red eyes. "You could have killed me."

The ogre smiled back at her. "I could have...I could have killed you and your friends the day we met. But I haven't, Eva."

Eva frowned. "You should have...why do you spare me? Especially since you don't seem to care much about my mother."

"Oh? You seem to care as little about your mother as I do."

"I don't...it's just...they are all hypocrites and liers...they don't see as I do. Self-satisfying pigs," Eva growled, picking herself back up.

"We see eye to eye, Eva. I've noticed most of the world is like that...but I do something about it."

"You kill and devour?" Eva asked, mocking the ogre.

"Right. How else do you get people to see your way? Lorathin nor your mother listened to you and denied any claim you made. From what I've heard...your mother is in a weak position and Lorathin...well, who knows. There are ways of damaging him," Kalzog replied with a smile. "Fear is a tool against the ignorant."

"Look at me! I can't fight or kill or anything! I'm a princess! I don't want to!" Eva shouted, sitting down next to the ogre.

"You don't have to...but it would be easier, no? I noticed you speaking with Teralynn while we were first in the palace. She offered you safety, no doubt, as she had you within her grasp of fear. Am I right?"

Eva raised an eyebrow. "Yes...And I'm guessing you're offering the same then."

"No, I am not. I am offering you your own protection. I didn't kill you, Eva, in a much different way than I didn't kill Luthien. However, Luthien had helped show me the way. She showed me how to see potential. Within you, I see limitless potential. You are the daughter of a goddess and a supposedly 'Incredible Wizard'. You have incredible beauty, but your eyes...your eyes demand respect. They demand fear. You can be molded into the perfect killing machine, Eva. Something I have seen little of."

Eva stared at Kalzog, her eyes wide. "Are you trying to flirt with me?"

Kalzog chuckled and shook his head. "I do not love."

"Well, then you're joking right? I thought I just said, 'I don't want to kill things'. Are you deaf?"

"Nay. You seemed like you wanted an explanation...I gave you one," Kalzog replied before reclining once again, resting his head on the trunk of a tree.

Eva frowned as she sat staring at the ogre. Perhaps he was right...perhaps she needed fear to get what she wanted. Afterall, Ixair seemed to fear her mother until recently, when she had nothing to back up her words.

"Why does Luthien call you uncle? What is your connection to her?"

"I was going to eat her. I didn't," Kalzog replied lazily.

"I'm guessing Azrael came and took her away."

"In a way, yes. I chose not to eat her. However, I saw too late what I see in you. She has become yet another 'Azrael'," Kalzog continued.

"So you regret not eating her?" Eva asked curiously, leaning slightly closer.

Kalzog remained silent for a few awkward seconds than usual. "In a way. I regret giving her up. I love her like a...a...young child-friend, but in no way do I feel as though I am family with anyone besides myself."

Eva looked at him strangely. "Why does she call you Uncle, then?"

"Because of that. I love her like a friend, and that is how she feels back, I suppose," Kalzog replied, smiling slightly.

"I would have eaten her. I don't see why you haven't."

Kalzog opened his eyes slightly and stared down at Eva, however, his smile still remained. "Is that revenge talking or your actual feelings?"

Eva thought for a second before responding. "Both."

Kalzog closed his eyes again and sighed. "Perhaps you are fit in my position than I am, Eva."

"Unlike you, I enjoy love, to the fullest extent," Eva returned hotly. "And I am still a Princess, ogre."

"So be it, princess," Kalzog replied with a yawn.

Eva sat in the proceeding silence and stood up, wondering where to go next. Perhaps Kalzog was right...perhaps she should change her whole outlook on life. Or perhaps that was her purpose in the first place...That would involve drastic changes in her life. No more love, no more kindness. Hate, chaos, and rage will be her emotions.

Eva didn't like those ideas...and she didn't like the way her mind was swaying either...

"It did and does. It made you feel more beautiful and so you were, and did enhance your mystic by giving you an additional aura of mystery." Lorathin replied as Eva stamped off.

He did wonder what she was going to do, but seeing she'd headed in the direction Kalzog had departed too, he figured she'd be relatively safe either way.

Cantrell was at the point where he was close to pummeling the princess. However, it wasn't his position, so he held in. But it was hard to, and it wouldn't be the first time he had beat on a brat. Cobiesel must have known what he was thinking and said "Don't." Cantrell merely said "Wouldn't dream of it."

Rimoru frowned and looked at Lorathin. Her appetite had diminished rapidly and each time she looked at the google bun, she felt slightly sick in the stomach. "Azzy...what has gotten into her?" Rimoru asked quietly, worry in her voice. "I thought you two were getting along fine when you first came here..."


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

Eva was pacing in a small enclosed area, fury ebbing into madness in the princess.

"All they need to do is apologize...to admit their deciet and lies...to bow and accept their pathetic lives," Eva growled, kicking at the dirt again.

She let out a furious screech, staring angrily at a small pink flower just barely blooming. Suddenly, it lit aflame, catching the princess off guard, making her stumble onto her bottom.

"What happened?" she whispered as she looked at the shriveling plant. Did I do that?

She angrily knocked the plant away, spreading it's ashes and dust in doing so. All she could think about was revenge and destruction. No longer was it clothing or love. Perhaps this is what the ogre spoke about. Perhaps this is what the ogre did...

She curled her lips and screamed again, grabbing a thin tree by the trunk and shaking it until it no longer possessed leaves or bore fruit. Afterwards she began ripping the branches off, leaving nothing more than a dead-looking tree.

But she never saw the tree...all she saw was Lorathin, flashes of Luthien, Habdebza, her mother, her father, Kalzog...everyone that got in her way...most of all, Lorathin.

"I'm not sure." He replied thought he had a partial theory. He looked at Rimoru and, in a low voice directed solely at her, asked, "Is Rothargut her father?"

If his suspicions as to Eva's parentage was correct, he was almost certain what had 'gotten' into her.

Rimoru looked up at Lorathin and frowned slowly. She wrapped her hands around his neck and inched her way to his ears.

"Yes," she whispered, gently pulling away and resting her head on Lorathin's chest. "But that shouldn't do anything, right? I mean...Rothargot wasn't angry a lot...and...it can't be passed down, can it?"

"If we were fighting for Justice, the Order would no longer exist," was all the templar growled.

What is that supposed to mean? Sebastian thought as Ikara bid him to take his post. I thought the Order was supposed to be a land of Justice.

"If they have lost their way..." the knight began as he turned to face the lady templar. "We must show them there is still reason to stand up against evil and fight for justice. We must show them that the light will prevail. We must inspire them to victory..."

The Lord turned to study the defenses. "We need to begin by shoring up the defenses and make an emphatic and resounding cry that we are here to stay."

"It is time to pool our resources, bring the brightest minds forward from the ranks, and begin making some changes in strategy."

As the pirates exited the tavern with hostages in hand, Venisar cursed silently to himself - it would make his job only that much harder... but not impossible. The rogues gathered outside of the door and spoke for a minute, giving the elven warrior enough time to take up aim with his throwing stars. Without any warning he let loose a flurry of eight blades at the gathering before disappearing from the edge of the roof.

In the back, the priestesses were healing the injured guards and the few innocent bystanders that had made it out with them. However, they would waste little time in dilly dallying as the pirates could be planning another strike. Once again the guards took up bow and arrow as Ar'mai gave orders. Bael'ther would lead three of the men around the neighboring building to the left, while she would take the other three around the neighboring building to the right. That way they would catch the rogues in a crossfire while limiting the chance they could be ambushed.

He looked sadly in the direction Eva had gone off in upon hearing Rimoru confirm his suspicions. "It might not be anger so much as traits that were passed down manifesting. Most likely due to the stress and proximity of the various minions of Valtrox." He replied

"But what is more important is what kind it is." He replied, not mentioning some of the more worrysome possibilities.

At every turn, Harlin repeated the process of the dust arrows. Until finally, he saw the trails of someone being dragged in the dust on the dungeon floor. Entering the Shadowfold, he raced down the tunnels until he saw a small flame floating in the air signalling that someone was carrying a torch in the real world. The tracks emanated from two spots on the ground. Walking between these, Harlin kept pace, waiting for the opportune moment to snatch them.

"What kind of traits?" Rimoru asked with worry, still a bit lost with Lorathin's theory. She didn't like the look of Lorathin's face when he stared out after Eva.

The empress hoped that nothing would befall her child...

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

The pirate Captain Conroy cursed loudly as he saw something slip to the roof after a few of his men dropped dead, throwing stars in their chests, necks, or heads.

"Come out you coward! Fight us like a man!" Conroy shouted, his pistols in the air. He made a small motion for the others to look by the roof, but also keep themselves on alert...as much as a the drunken pirates could...

All this fighting, however, distracted the pirates from hearing a deep rhythmic thumping however...
***********************************************************

"Of course, Sir Sebastian. Our people are ready and willing to begin working, setting their minds off the terrible war for even the slightest," Ikara replied nodding to two nearby messengers, who immediately rode off to the officers and even to the master general to get requests made and hopefully, accepted.

"I'm afraid, you may need to wait a little while, Sir, as the Master General goes through several requests from all sides of the walls, accepting or denying depending on the how urgent the predicament. This wall is one of the relatively better ones..."

"It all depends how she mixed. Hybridation has a number of different methods of expression, from the various taur branches, to the half-species, like the half-orc and half-elf breeds to the plane-touched to the more estorics." Lorathin commented, "Rothargut being what he is, she'd fall into the plane-touched catagory."

"How it manifests, that's much harder to predict, but at least physically it hasn't done so yet and isn't very likely." He commented, thought he was in a sense talking to himself as he talked with her.

At every turn, Harlin repeated the process of the dust arrows. Until finally, he saw the trails of someone being dragged in the dust on the dungeon floor. Entering the Shadowfold, he raced down the tunnels until he saw a small flame floating in the air signalling that someone was carrying a torch in the real world. The tracks emanated from two spots on the ground. Walking between these, Harlin kept pace, waiting for the opportune moment to snatch them.

Horatio shrugged off the feeling that something was watching him and after another moments walking they had reached the armory he had been in earlier. "Right, bar that door, i don't want anything getting in or out."

He kicked several of the guns and armor into a pile on the floor and then added, "Throw the prisoners down here, if they so much as twitch, cut a finger off." indicating the clearing he had made. He could grow their fingers back... if he felt like it and he was quickly losing patience, perhaps he should try to put some form of seed inside them, might be able to track it later.

"Come out you coward! Fight us like a man!" Conroy shouted, his pistols in the air. He made a small motion for the others to look by the roof, but also keep themselves on alert...as much as a the drunken pirates could...

Venisar had no plan to jump down into the gray while the pirates still had hostages that could be injured or kill in the fighting. Therefore he stayed on top of the tavern, expecting that the pirates couldn't easily get to him, especially without him being forewarned, and being able to pick them off slowly until there were none left or they scattered.

They don't seem to be particularly intelligent, the warrior said as he studied their actions. Though their leader seems to be. It would appear that he is the brains behind everything. Take him out and they will flee like woodmice. However, it would prove quite difficult to get rid of the pirate captain as he was also the most skilled as well as the most intelligent. Perhaps the others are planning something... he mused as he moved to the back of the roof to see if he could spot the other elves.

Sure enough when Venisar glanced over the eves of the establishment he was able to see the dividing forces of Ar'mai and Bael'ther. One of the guards in Ar'mai's group caught his eyes when glancing over his shoulder and signaled to the warrior their plan of action. With knowledge of the coming ambush, Venisar moved back to the front of the roof and waited for the sound of arrows.

In only a minute's time, the sound of arrows cutting through the air as the wind blew through their feathers caught Venisar's keen ears. As the pirates were caught in the crossfire of arrows, the warrior once again began cutting them down skillfully from his roof top position...

"I'm afraid, you may need to wait a little while, Sir, as the Master General goes through several requests from all sides of the walls, accepting or denying depending on the how urgent the predicament. This wall is one of the relatively better ones..."

"Indeed... the problems we face when important decisions are at hand," Sebastian replied, wishing that they didn't have to make a requisition to the Master General who still distrusted him. "But I was thinking perhaps we could implore the citizens of yonder towns to aid us in their defense. Having civilians help in the reestablishment of these defenses would be a great burden off the backs of these tired soldiers. It would give them time to rest as well as increase the guard we can maintain... not to mention it would remind the soldiers what innocent and good souls they are fighting for..."

"As for the actual plans, I was thinking in addition to rebuilding the wall we could set up other defensive measures," Sebastian continued after letting his previous idea set in. "If we could build a large enough ditch right on the other side of the wall and fill it with spiked sticks or spears, we could then cover it like the land and when the attackers come, they will fall in and be run through. There ladders will also be to short in most cases to reach the ramparts if we make the ditch large enough, and then they will be easy targets for archers and spear throwers."

Again he paused as his idea sunk in. "But you know... I don't know. Just some random thoughts swimming through my head. I don't know what real military me- err... people like you would think of my ideas."

Rimoru raised an eyebrow and gently wrapped her hand under Lorathin's chin. "Azzy, I haven't walked to different planes since I found out how powerful I was," she said quietly, stuffing a bit of the google bun in his mouth as well, to keep him from spouting facts she wouldn't know or remember. She smiled again, a small giggle escaping her lips. "Now what is plane-touched?"

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

Habdebza had finally reached the castle walls, effortlessly and untiring.

"How...disgusting...undead," he said aloud. The demi-god continued through the ruined gates, examining the destruction. No doubt some zombies would be running towards him...however he did feel other things, far more powerful than zombies. But nothing he couldn't handle...because there was nothing he can't handle.

Alegain was about to say something, but he stopped himself. He didn't want this monster to take anything more of his...


Suddenly, another demon appeared, holding some sort of creature within it's hands. "We killed it, Horasshio" it said. The creature was gruesome. It had a series of scatches on it's face, along with a missing right eye. It seemed the poor bird had given its all trying to fight off the demon.

The ex-emperor shook his head sadly at the loss of such a valiant life. He didn't know the poor creature, but it was, none-the-less, a fighter.


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



"Shoot the roof of the inn!" Conroy shouted to the mage who had set the tavern on fire earlier. Mixed with the alcohols, a few explosions had manifested themselves within. What a waste of good rum.... Debris was flung out in all directions, some of them piercing through some of his people, however, in their drunken states, they continued to fire.

"Split up yer targets!" Conroy shouted, ordering half of the remaining pirates to shoot at one side, where the arrows came from, and the other half to shoot at the other side. The mage would shoot fireballs at the man on the roof and if he showed himself, Conroy's deadly aim will pick him off...

Suddenly, horns blared as the sound of many heavy things pounded it's way through.

Conroy searched around, somewhat worried at this new appearance. If it were part of these meddlers, the pirates were in deep trouble...

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

"The citizens would be more than happy to aid us. They have already done so much for us all. Would you want me to speak with them, or do you wish to follow me?" Ikara asked with a nod.

At his explanation of defenses, she frowned slightly but nodded anyways. "Master General would not like the idea so much. But I will authorize it. We have lost to many to keep to our old tactics," she said sadly.

"A plane-touched person has one parent or near-ancestor who was born on the prime plane, this one, and one who is an outsider. Since elemental/prime crosses are exceptionally rare, a plane-touched is either related to the celestial or infernal plane, respectively called aasimar or tiefling." Lorathin replied, or had been about to when he got a peice of the bun stuffed into his mouth.

After he'd chewed and enjoyed it, he restarted, "To summerize, someone who can trace half thier ancestry to a celestial or infernal, in this case Rothargut."

Once again, Cantrell was confused. "Who is Rothargut? Is he like the one you told me about before? What was his name, Habdezba or something?"

Horatio examined the demon that had just entered, then turned to the ones who had been in the dungeon. "It seems you demons can accomplish something afterall, let this be a warning, i will not accept failure again."

Then he turned back to the one that just entered, "Well done demon." He said as he reached out and carefully took the bird in one hand, placed it in a container, then dropped it in his pack. "Do you have a name demon?"

"Oh, dear no," Rimoru snapped at Cantrell, before softening up. "Rothargot was a noble, good demi-god, fighting for something he didn't believe in..."

She hoped, however, that Cantrell had not heard the part of the conversation of Eva being Rothargot's daughter. If news of it went out, who knows what would happen...


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

"Habdebza calls me Kre'tahn, master druid," the demon replied with a slight smirk.


The other demons frowned and glared at Horatio, however made no other threatening move.

"He was something that's for sure." Lorathin commented not quite agreeing with, nor refuting her assertation on the nature of Rothargot.

Rimoru frowned slightly, believing Lorathin wasn't saying something and gave him a look that said 'spit-it out'. Instead, however she burried her face in his chest again and squeezed him tightly, before kissing him on the cheek.

"I am going to go look for Eva," she said quietly.

"If you don't think she'd be too angry, I'd like to come along. If you do, it might be best to take someone with you." He replied in a whisper in her ear. "Eva might be a little unstable at the moment, both magically and emotionally."

"Kre'tahn... you are favoured by Habdebza then?" Horatio could only assume that Habdebza wouldn't name every demon, habdebza didn't strike him as the sort that would care that much.

He looked around the other demons, noticing the frown on some of their faces. He may need to kill one as an example if this behaviour continued.

Rimoru thought for a moment and nodded. "I think we have given her enough time to cool down," she replied. She worried however, at Lorathin's last statement. After her birth, she always dreaded a few things with her relationships. One of them being, how would Eva turn out and how powerful could she become?

Perhaps this was a time Rimoru would find out...and the worst time to find out as well...


Rimoru took hold of Lorathin's hand and slowly walked up the hill, avoiding as much mud as possible. She looked over at Kalzog, who was sleeping...alone. "Where is she?" Rimoru asked.

"Kre'tahn... you are favoured by Habdebza then?" Horatio could only assume that Habdebza wouldn't name every demon, habdebza didn't strike him as the sort that would care that much.

"You could say that, master druid. Habdebza named me that as an insult. However, I still stand as a powerful demon," Kre'tahn replied. His name, was, in a few demon languages, implying something of annoyance, low intelligence, or ugly, however Kre'tahn was named mostly due to his annoyance of the great demi-god.

Cantrell and Cobiesel followed with the two as they went to search for Eva. Cantrell wondered about the one they were talking about. He only heard snippets of the conversation, so he knew nothing about him and where he was.

"Alright." He replied as let her take his hand so they could go in search of Eva. He did notice that Cobiesel and Cantrell followed along.

Kalzog opened one eye and smiled wickedly. "I believe she went to the woods nearby," the ogre replied, jutting his thumb in a nearby wooded area.

Rimoru nodded and walked to the indicated woods, stepping lightly inside, revealing a beautiful little girl, on her knees, crying softly. In front of her, a stem of a flower, charred at the top of it.

"Eva?" Rimoru asked cautiously.

The princess straightened up and paused, sniffling slightly, before turning around. Her face was that of sadness, but as she noticed the others following her mother, it slowly formed into annoyance. "Come to subdue me?" she asked angrily. "Or to make more lies?" she added, glancing at Lorathin.

"I did not come to lie to you." Lorathin said slightly sadly, sad that a wedge had been driven between them. "Are you feeling better Princess?"

"You could say that, master druid. Habdebza named me that as an insult. However, I still stand as a powerful demon," Kre'tahn replied. His name, was, in a few demon languages, implying something of annoyance, low intelligence, or ugly, however Kre'tahn was named mostly due to his annoyance of the great demi-god.

Habdebza had not seemed the kind to tolerate an annoyance for long, and the demon seemed to wear it almost as a badge of honour. "Very well Kre-tahn, i believe we could be of mutual aid to eachother. If Habdebza doesn't kill me for the incompetence of these demons, would you be my second in command and advisor?"

"Leave me alone," she grumbled before she turned away from them again.

Rimoru frowned and looked at the others, before stepping closer. "Eva, please. We are trying to help," she said soothingly.

"Like Lorathin and his deceitful veil," she growled back. "Doesn't help with the problem does it? I still have the infernal pimples."

"Eva, if this is all about the pimples, don't worry! They will disappear soon, I guarentee it. I had crafted the spells to work for a short amount of time, I can-"

"It's not about my face!" Eva snarled, taking her mother by surprise. "I am tired of everything. Why do you all taunt me so much?"

"Very well Kre-tahn, i believe we could be of mutual aid to eachother. If Habdebza doesn't kill me for the incompetence of these demons, would you be my second in command and advisor?"

"It would be my honor, master druid," the demon replied with a short bow. "Whatever your wish, would be my command, as long as it does not interfere with master Habdebza or our glorious Valtrox's orders."

"I'm sorry if you feel like I taunted you. It was not my intention whatsoever." He replied, as he wondered if she was of the rarest type of hybrid, the kind where one form was internalized and had, occasionally, the power to subsume the primary personality and form. If that was the case, he really had to talk with Eva in private, and soon.

"It would be my honor, master druid," the demon replied with a short bow. "Whatever your wish, would be my command, as long as it does not interfere with master Habdebza or our glorious Valtrox's orders."

He nodded in approval. He is loyal, good, and yet his name is an insult, a rebelious streak? perhaps. We shall see. "Gather the demons which wander the corridors and do a sweep of the palace, my traps should have worn off by now. If you find any intruders, kill them."

Eva's face softened slightly, before reverting back to anger. "I bet," she growled sarcastically.

"Come on, Eva, I'll get you something. What do you want?" Rimoru said somewhat cheerfully, holding her hand out for her daughter.

Eva looked upwards, thinking of anything she wanted. A drake, her own castle or palace...her old life back. "That's a lie too," she grumbled.

"Eva, I wouldn't lie to you!" Rimoru returned.

"Gather the demons which wander the corridors and do a sweep of the palace, my traps should have worn off by now. If you find any intruders, kill them."

"As you wish, master druid," Kre'tahn replied with a bow, before walking down corridors, stepping over his dead comrade's bodies with little more than a glance. As he met his live ones, he would speak in their native tongue, barking his orders.

Eventually, he had atleast thirty that followed him about the corridors. There were still atleast forty more, he knew. There had been eighty before the battle but atleast ten had died.

"Eva, please take any anger you have out on me rather than your mother." Lorathin said as he gazed at Eva with eyes that seemed to reflect some inner pain.

Eva's eyes flicked to Lorathin's, challenging his with her red glare. "So you admit that all these problems are because of you?" she asked, poison in her words.

"Eva..." Rimoru began, however she didn't know how to finish her sentence. Was this some sort of trait from Rothargot? Or was she just...angry. Rimoru remembered herself being quite angry for a time, however she had several sources in which to help her with it.

"Well, I didn't have anything to do with Habdebza attacking your palace, nor what happened to you in the palace." He replied, "But you are angry and for some the only way to get unangry is to take out your rage on somebody, and rather than take it out on family, I'm offering myself. Since you already dislike me, it's the most expediant solution."

"And how does one get 'unangry'?" Eva asked, her brows furrowed. She wanted to pounce on Lorathin and wrap her tiny hands around his neck. But she didn't know what would happen to her. Perhaps Lorathin would attack back...or she would break a nail...or someting terrible.

"It is different for different people. I try to examine what made me angry and see if it is worth getting upset about, or if it is not. Since most of the time it turns out that it is not worth it, I just put it out of my mind. Those times that I feel it is worth it, I ask myself, will doing something to who or whatever got me angry fix the problem or only let me vent and will I regret it later." He replied

He would let her hit him or what have you and in all but a few areas not protect himself. If she attacked magically, he'd defend himself but in neither case would retaliation come into the picture.

"I don't think that'll work here," Eva growled, watching Lorathin intently. "I don't see my anger as pointless...because I see it as you guys messing with me or fooling with my mind!"

"My method doesn't work for everyone and you may have to find a method that works for you. I apologise if you feel that I've been messing with you. Any messing with you I've done had not been intended to cause serious distress." He replied as he met her intent gaze.

Eva frowned, stood up, and slowly walked to Lorathin.

"Eva?" Rimoru asked quietly, unsure of what she was doing.

Eva stood a few inches away from Lorathin, before giving him a gently hug.


Rimoru smiled warmly as her child was finally able to accept Lorathin, just as she had so long ago.

Lorathin watched Eva, wondering what kind of punishment he was in for. He heard Rimoru questioning, but put it out of his mind as he mentally braced himself for whatever Eva intended.

Her hug greatly surprised him, but he returned it with the same gentleness. He'd always held that females were mercurial, but Eva's mood shift caught him off guard.

Just as Eva's hug was being returned, the girl brought up her knee to Lorathin's nether regions.

"That's one way I can get rid of anger," she growled, backing up slightly.

"Eva! What was that for? If we were home, young lady, you'd be in a load of punishment!" Rimoru cried as she rushed to Lorathin's side.

As Harlin waited between the two prisoners, he saw his opportunity approaching. He'd have to take both at once and hope for the best. Perhaps he'd leap frog back to the hill with them. That would leave a trail though. he though for a while before he decided on the proper course of action. It would be a great sacrifice on his part, but he had to try. His one life was certainly worth that of the two who now sat in a gap in the supplies of the armory.

Preparing himself, he drew a small bunch of kinga root from a pouch at his waist, the root restored a small amount of energy, and Harlin knelt down, his hands hovering above where he thought the prisoners would be.

Taking a deep breath, he left the Shadowfold, grabbed the two who sat on either side of him, and wrenched them back into the Shadowfold with him. The sheer effort of it left him too exhausted to stand, and he collapse on the floor, barely retaining his consciousness. Looking at the other's he'd rescued, Harlin whispered, his voice hoarse with exhertion, "We must get out of the palace. Carry me with you, or you will not be able to leave this realm. If you do not, we will all die."

Lorathin's eyes bulged slight as he felt her knee impact and while he felt like doubling over, he managed to remain mostly upright, in part due to the fact that Eva had chosen a poor instant to attack and only scored a glancing blow.

He waved Rimoru off and replied in a slightly weezy voice, "It's alright, I did give her permission afterall. I didn't expect her to go for that region, but I did give her permission."

Rimoru chuckled slightly and stayed away as Eva continued to laugh.

"Can I do it again, 'Azzzzy'?" Eva asked with a wicked grin.

"Are you asking are you physically able to do it again, or are you asking for permission?" He asked in a still strained voice. "I'm pretty sure you still have the capacity for it, but I would prefere that you didn't."

He wasn't exactly saying no, nor was he exactly saying yes. "If you wish to continue beating me up, I would prefere you target the jaw-waist sections and the sub-knee areas." The areas he was requesting she avoid were anything above the throat, and the pelvic areas.

"Guess, Azzy," Eva chuckled as she walked towards him again.

Rimoru looked sadly at Lorathin. She didn't want him to get too hurt, especially in his lower regions, however, she would comply with his request for her to back off...for now.

"Oh, but that doesn't help anyone, Azzy..." the princess chuckled as she readied herself for another blow.

Rimoru closed her eyes as she braced for impact.

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

Alegain was caught deeply off guard as Harlin pulled him up. "Wha-? Where?" he asked rapidly, looking around him at the dim images. The demons began to search the area, shouting and screaming in their horrid speech.

Then he remembered his wife and Maverion disappeering one by one...perhaps he was part of the force sent to save him?

He had no choice, as it seemed he was stuck in this strange dimension until he complied with the man's orders. "Alright," Alegain whispered, getting up weakly, however still able to do so.

Alegain gently lifted Harlin and began to his trek through the maze, along with Fala. He constantly looked to make sure both were alright, despite his own ragged self. Along his stomach was a thin scar, what was left of the near lethal blow Habdebza had dealt him. He wheezed as he walked through, before setting down Harlin and leaning up against a wall.

But the wall wasn't there. Or atleast not like it usually was. The emperor simply fell through in surprise.

He picked himself up and wiped his sleeves, as if to dust himself off, before once again lifting Harlin and carrying him out of the palace with little interference.

"I don't think that'll yield the most tolerable results." Lorathin commented as he watched Eva. Excepting the fact that he disliked pain, she couldn't really do anything permenant to him, no matter how many times she kicked in the groin.

"It helps me Princess." He replied as he prepared to twist or move slightly so to help reduce pain.

"Well, that isn't the purpose, is it?" Eva chuckled. She finally found a spot to satisfy her rage and Lorathin wasn't going to do it. Best of all, she gave Lorathin a bit of deception herself.

Rimoru put her hands over her eyes and winced as Eva once again, attempted to knee Lorathin in the nether regions.

"It is part of my purpose in self-preservation, but in terms of the purpose to let you vent and calm down, I guess it is sort of self-defeating." He replied

When she attacked him again, he twisted ever so slightly to catch at least part of the blow in a less painful area. As it was, the second strike caused him to tear up slightly.

Eva laughed again and clapped her hands. "Can you handle another one?" she giggled.

Rimoru opened her eyes and frowned. She knew she didn't teach her daughter that...or atleast she doesn't remember teaching her it...

"That depends, are you satisfied now? You certainly seem happier." He replied

Horatio had just dismissed Kre-tahn and was turning back to the prisoners when he saw a man materialise between them and grab them, he got a glance at the face, The man from the tavern, what was he called... Harlin.

"Get hi..." He had begun moving forward but trailed off as the man and prisoners disappeared. He whirled round and ran to the door, "Damn it, spread out, cover the palace, seal any door you find. Do not let them escape!"

He picked a direction and ran, he knew it was probably a futile effort, but it gave him time to think. Harlin was with the others i met at the tavern, the ones who attacked earlier... They must still be together and if they are together then i can still find them. Nature has eyes everywhere and even powerful people cannot hide forever, and even then, an ogre cannot be hard to trace.

"Alright, one more," Eva said, turning around with a devious smile. "Are you ready for it? It's going to be a big one..."

"Eva...you'd better not hurt Azzy too much..." Rimoru said uncertainly.

"If I'm ready for it, it'll be less effective, so I'm not ready." He replied, "But it's nice to have some warning."

"Oh, of course," Eva replied as she almost ran at Lorathin, bringing her knee up in a small hop.

Rimoru closed her eyes, worried she may hear a crack or something...unpleasant.

Eva was exhilerated. She was able to knee her former boyfriend in the nether regions for his cheating on her, but if time permitted, she would have enjoyed doing this on him as well...except he probably wouldn't have been so lucky. The princess was, however, beginning to feel sorry for Lorathin, but she continuously reminded herself that he did deserve it. Now if only she could do this with a few others...

Lorathin let out a little yelp as her knee connected, again slightly molified, but still painfully. After he regained his breath, he asked, "Do you consider me suitably punished now Eva?"

Cantrell watched as Eva kneed Lorathin over and over. He could hardly contain his urge to smash his chains into the princess, but he did. "So, is that all the punishment to be given out, or do we still have to wait?"

As they emerged from the Palace, Harlin used his last strength to leave the Shadowfold, and hung limp in Alegain's arms as the world returned to living color.

Lifting his eyes, he said, "They are on the far hill, get help." Slowly, his world faded to black.

"Yes," Eva said sweetly, her eyes round and her smile joyful. The little decietful devil...

Then, just as suddenly as Lorathin put his defenses down, she gave him one more, just for a bit of fun. "That's another for your lies," she growled, before wiping her hands and looking at Cantrell.

"And you...do you want to be next?" Eva asked Cantrell.

Suddenly, a pale figure with bright red eyes and hair burst through some foilage, panting heavily. "Harlin...below hill...must get farther..." Alegain gasped as he leaned heavily on a tree, his hand over his scar.

"Ally!" Rimoru cried, running over to her husband and wrapped herself around him, kissing him on his cheeks as he tried to gain his breath.

"Rimmy, my love," he panted with the hint of a smile, his hands wrapping around the scantily clad empress. "My poor Rimmy..."

He addressed the others next, Rimoru still kissing him gently, arms still wrapped around each other. "We must get Harlin and Fala back. They are at the bottom of the hill..."

Lorathin had turned after Eva had said she was done, so her kick hit him in the shin rather than where it was aimed. Hopping on one foot, he noticed Alegain. After hearing the situation, he began limping down to get Harlin and Fala so they could get away from the local.

Alegain watched the man limp down before turning to hold Rimoru's face in his gentle hands. His eyes examined her face thoroughly, studying every inch of it, as a mage would study the pages of his spellbook.

He smiled again, Rimoru replying with her own smile, and she slowly leaned on him, each wrapping their arms around each other. "Are you hurt, my love?" Alegain asked quietly in her ear.

"Not so much physically," she replied quietly, her eyes falling to the floor. "Except..."

"Yes...I know, my love...I was forced to watch..." Alegain said sadly, however, putting his hand gently on her chin and raising her tear filled eyes to his. "But no matter what happens, you will always be a goddess in my eyes," he whispered.

Rimoru smiled and let out a weak chuckle, before inciting a passionate kiss.

Alegain pulled away afterwards and smiled, turning to the girl who had walked nearby, her dress muddy and torn, her delicate shoes she loved so much falling apart, and her hair clumped up and dirty.

"Eva, my little love," Alegain smiled, letting go of Rimoru and lowering himself a short distance, wrapping his muddy daughter in a tight embrace and getting one in return.

"I missed you, Father," Eva cried. It was perhaps the third time she had ever truly embraced him. The first time was when she was very young, as Alegain had helped her on the subject of 'men'. The second time she remembers was when her father had given her the gift of several beautiful dresses, of the finest quality, with matching shoes, ribbons for her hair, and a white horse.

"I missed you too, Eva," Alegain said, holding back tears as he kissed his daughter on the cheek. "And how are you? Are you hurt?"

Eva furrowed her brows slightly and looked to the floor. "No...not really...not so much anymore. But I am stuck with a few incompetent fiends that mother seems to know."

Alegain looked up at Rimoru and chuckled quietly. "Your mother knows many people." How she knew them, Alegain probably did not know...

Cantrell smiled at Eva. "Bring it on. What you can do to me is nothing compared to what I have faced." He turned and saw a man burst out of nowhere. He must be the husband and father.

Eva glared at Cantrell once she pulled away from Alegain, before smiling sweetly when Alegain looked at her.

"So who was that man?" he asked, looking down at the limping Lorathin.

"He is Azrael," Rimoru said with little emotion, hiding her feelings for the man. She told Alegain about him, but never about her more intimate interactions with him. She knew that her husband would dislike that very much. And now she had no way to protect her lovers.

"Oh? The one you write to? How sweet to finally meet him in person...despite our rather unfortunate predicament," Alegain said cheerfully, masking his inner sadness. "Come, let's go help him."

The red haired elf took hold of Rimoru's slender hand and they both walked down after Lorathin, Eva following behind, before stopping in front of Cantrell. "That's because you have nothing down there," the princess snickered before trotting down next to Alegain and taking his free hand and looking back at Cantrell with a sneer.

"Do you need any help, Azrael?" Alegain called out.

"We need to get those two back up on the hil so I can get us away from here." Lorathin replied

Alegain nodded and let go of both girl's hands, giving them a smile before he slowly walked to Fala and picked her up gently, leaving Harlin for Lorathin.

The elf winced slightly as he began his trek up the hill, his wounds still aching, however he got her up soon enough, Rimoru walking behind him in case assistance was required...and to keep a watchful eye on her husband's hands. Not that Alegain had done anything before. He was completely loyal to Rimoru.

Rimoru sighed to herself as she thought of what Lorathin said. If she still had all her power, she'd been able to bring them to the strangest plane and back, much less several thousands of miles. However, if she still had all her power, she probably wouldn't be in this predicament...

She wiped away a few more of her tears, remaining silent so as not to attract any more attention to herself.


Eva waited for Lorathin, a smirk on her face. "So, how are you feeling, Azzzzzy?"

Lorathin went and partially picked up, partially dragged Harlin up the hill.

At Eva's snide comment, he replied, "I've been better, thanks for asking."

"Oh, I always look after my friends," Eva replied, skipping behind him and lifting Harlin's feet. Might as well help him for now. I'll gain his trust and knee him again! She giggled again, but stopped herself and tried to keep her face serious.

"I'll be sure to let Harlin know he has to watch his fingers and toes around you." He replied with a grin, "After I inform him that you helped him of course."

Cantrell laughed at Eva's comment. She was wrong, because he was freed from his torment before the cult ever reached the area. He would get vengence later when the time was right. For now, He merely followed the others. "So, if you are marrie to the Emperess, does that make you Emperor?" he asked Alegain.

"Azzzy, now why would you say such a thing? I don't bite," Eva giggled happily, gently swinging Harlin by the legs.

"No, It makes me her slave," Alegain chuckled, bringing Rimoru close to him.

"Of course," Rimoru laughed, kissing Alegain in the neck. Alegain rarely made national decisions, however, he did perform most activities Rimoru requested, so he was, somewhat truthful. She giggled and nuzzled at his neck.

"Not yet at least, but your legs are fairly useful as weapons." He replied

"Only when they need to be," Eva replied with a gentle smile. She was already getting slightly red in the face and was definately uncomfortable. "Hurry up!" she huffed.

"I can only move as fast as you are and I can." He replied, "And considering you beat me up, albeit with my permission, I can't move that fast."

Eva grunted and began to push Harlin's limp body, her legs moving faster and faster as she attempted to push the body into Lorathin. She giggled wondering if it was discomforting.

"Beat you up? Why...would...a...princess...beat...you up?" she panted with a smile.

"Princesses don't always need reasons for thier actions." He replied as he picked up the pace somewhat.

Eva began to sprint, believing this time, she'd drive Harlin into Lorathin with a crash, not hurting them, she believed.

"I suppose not. But I will say that you deserved whatever you got," Eva replied, trying to hurry the process. The less time she spent overlooking her former home, the less time she remained homesick.

Harlin would get scrunched and Lorathin stumbled, but Eva would find her attempts thwarted by physical dynamics. It was afterall quite difficult to sprint uphill while carrying something.

"So do you forgive me or are you planning some further beating?" He asked as they reached the top of the hill.

Looking around, he spotted Kalzog. "Hey can you tell if everyone's here?" He asked the ogre as he was the tallest and thus least likely to miss someone.

Kalzog opened his eyes slowly and gave a thin smile to Lorathin. "Yup, everyone's here," he yawned, stretching out his huge arms, barely looking for anyone.

Eva chuckled. "Hey Kalzog! Want to do something for meee?" Eva asked sweetly as she dropped Harlin's legs and walked up to the sitting ogre, crossing her hands behind her back and giving the sweetest pose a little girl could offer.

"What is that?" Kalzog asked gruffly, glancing at Lorathin.

"Azzzzy is having trouble in his..." She looked down and pointed to downwards. "His 'parts' and requests your assistance. He would enjoy a swift kick, as hard as you can make it, to give it a jumpstart."

"A jumpstart to what?" Kalzog asked, his smile broadening as he stood up and looked at Lorathin.

"I'm afraid if you give me a jumpstart, we'll be walking." Lorathin commented as he double checked the ogre's vague person check. As long as there were no absences, he commented, "Alright, please gather over here everyone."

Alegain switched his burden to Maverion, letting his wife pick up Fala, for a short time atleast.

"He wants his jumpstart after we are teleported or whatever," Eva replied with a wink.

Kalzog chuckled quietly and smiled at Lorathin. "And I thought you two were getting along quite fine in the palace..."

Ixair soon made his way up the hill, his face stoic, however his eyes filled with worry.

"No, I don't want one at all as it wouldn't help." He replied catching the wink. "We were, to an extent." He added as the others gathered where he indicated.

Once they were gathered, he began walking in a circle around the group.

"I'm curious as to how your friendship ended," Kalzog said as he looked at Alegain. "Nice eyes," he commented before straightening up.

Eva stood in front of him, next to her mother and watched Lorathin. When he got close, she stuck her foot out in attempt to trip him up, however, Kalzog pulled her back without a word.

"Eva doesn't seem to like your friend," Alegain whispered to Rimoru.

"She is having some problems," she whispered back, hooking her arm around his and Evas. "I'll tell you when we are gone."

"Less said, sooner mended." He commented as he finished the circle, glad Kalzog had messed up Eva's attempt to mess him up. While it'd be unlikely, if he'd been forced out of path they might have ended up who knows where.

Muttering a few words, and with a faint almost shimmering, they were in the clearing where the girls had been left, fortunately not exactly where the girls were thought.

ooc: Night.

Eva looked around her and frowned. "Back here...but now where do we go? And where are the others?"

"Others?" Alegain asked quietly. Rimoru seemed to be asking the same question as she looked around her, holding onto her family tightly.

"Aye, others. Azrael's daughters," Kalzog grumbled with a very subtle negative tone in his voice.

Rather than answering, Lorathin took the opportunity to fall over with a mild thump. The fight in the palace, Eva's beating, the spell had all taken thier toll on him and he was functionally out of it.

A very short while later, Lúthien came out of the house carrying a steaming flask with a quicksilverish compound in it. Cocking his mouth open she poured it down his throat.

Sitting back on her heels to wait, she looked around and said, "Hello."

"Greetings," Alegain replied with a raised eyebrow.

Rimoru frowned at Luthien, looking her up and down, before walking out of the circle. "You must be Luthien?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest, debating whether she should hug the little girl or keep to herself. She was, of course, competing with her for Lorathin's attention.

Eva pulled away from Kalzog, giving him a glare and a slap to the stomach, before walking off to the edge of the clearing. "I forgot my backpack," she growled.

Lúthien looked at Rimoru, "And you could only be Rimoru. You're even more beautiful than Daddy said."

Alegain shifted slightly, but Rimoru immediately smiled. "Well...thank you, Luthien," she chuckled, lowering herself next to her and giving her a hug anyways. "It's nice to meet you!"

"So how long until Azrael wakes up?" Alegain asked impatiently. He couldn't deny that Rimoru was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, however, he also did not want anyone else to have her but him.

Lúthien returned the hug. "Daddy'll probably be out of it for a couple hours. We should probably get him home so he can rest and we can get something to eat."

"Home...I see..." Alegain said, scratching his chin. Eva rolled her eyes and sighed.

Rimoru pulled away and stood up, but said nothing. She figured the girl knew what she was talking about.

Kalzog, however shook his head. "No thank you, Luthien. I have disliked staying in other's homes for too long. I will remain out and about, and perhaps, elsewhere."

Ixair raised an eyebrow. "Not coming with us, Ogre?" he asked as he walked away, closer to Rimoru.

Alegain watched the strange elf whom he could not study earlier and immediately let out a growl. "Rebel scum, this is your doing!" he shouted, leaping up at Ixair.

The elf yelped quietly, and made an attempt to move away, but was too late as the former emperor fell atop him and attempted to pummel him. Ixair, however rolled atop Alegain and tried to pin him down.

Eva immediately ran towards them, ready to help someone. More like her father, as Ixair had defied her earlier..."Get off him, you piece of cow dung!" she screamed as she leapt on Ixair's back.

"Eva-Ow! Get off of me!" Ixair shouted.

"Glurp to the rescue!" came a screech from the canopy, as something that looked very much like a sack of potatoes with appendages fell from the sky and landed atop Eva.

"Demons!" she screamed, rolling off Ixair and landing right next to her father, and atop Glurp.

"You don't want something to eat uncle Kal?" Lúthien asked with a mischevious smile as food was one of Kalzog's weaknesses, at least to her.

"Both of you stop that." She exclaimed as the two male elves began fighting and then Eva joined in, followed soon after by Glurp. "That's Glurp, not a demon." She added almost as an after thought.

Kalzog shifted his weight slightly at Luthien's bait. "What kind of food?" he asked, as he was, contrary to popular belief, picky of what he eats. His eyes turned to the elves, but disregarded the idea of helping them, as he was rather impartial should any loose a tooth, break a nose, or lose a life.

"Gerroff!" Alegain growled at Ixair, trying to kick him off. His wounds and weakness was certainly burdening him, not to mention Ixair's experience with melee combat.

Rimoru shrieked and ran to Ixair, wrapping her hands around his waist and pulling viciously. "Get off him!" she growled, however, she seemed to be making little progress, as when Alegain spun them around, she ended up on the floor as well, right under Ixair. She squieked when that happened and coughed as she tried to get out from underneath the men.

Eva got up and looked at the ground where Glurp lay with his eyes bulging. "Fat girl!" he chirped.

Eva's eyes went wide and she gasped. "You insolent, little pest!" she screamed. Glurp seemed to realize he was in over his head now, and he immediately got up and dashed behind Luthien.

"Various meats and sweets." She replied as those were things seen him eat, or be tempted by before.

"All of you stop fighting." Lúthien yelled again as she watched them fight. She wanted to use magic but wasn't sure if she had the accuracy to do so without hurting them,

She didn't noticed Glurp and Eva's altercation as she was preoccupied with the grown-ups.

What Luthien didn't see, would get her involved.

Eva leapt up at Luthien, her hands out, much akin to a tiger or lion, or other feline pouncing on it's pray.

Kalzog sighed and crossed his arms, letting the fighting play out a bit. Besides, it was slightly amusing to watch.

Lúthien got tackled and landed on Glurp. "What'd you do that for?" She asked the other girl.

"Get out of the way, dirt bag!" Eva growled as she stared coldly at Luthien. Glurp squirmed, trying to get out of the two girls. "Both elfs are too fat...squishing Glurp!"