NationStates Jolt Archive

Tavan sighed. "It's clean," he announced. "The only magic in it is that which is used to spy on those you see within the orb."

"Told you so," Gahlagæer said with a twisted smirk.

"Doesn't hurt to be cautious," Sevren said, then turned to Daniel. "Now you can test it out without fear of giving the room a new layer of blood-hued paint. Isn't that nice?"

Tavan held the orb up and tossed it to Daniel whom caught it easily.

"Well personally I wouldn't use it," the silver-haired man remarked.

Daniel peered at it. "So we test it to see the brotherhood then?"

"Or at least those two bastards that left us the ultimate nasty-gram."

"So long as they're still alive," Gahlagæer pointed out. "Knowing the brotherhhod, they took two randoms, brainwashed them then killed them once they were no longer useful or in the probably case they failed."

"Since we are still alive my guess would be that the latter would most likely be the case. Still, they're the only ones whose face we have, so maybe the Brotherhood is simply torturing them to death for amusement."

Daniel groaned, "Not something I'd want to see," he mentioned.

"But you would more likely want to see who's doing the torturing at the very least, along with whoever might be watching and 'getting their rocks off' on the whole shenanigan. It is not THAT they might be doing it, but simply a matter of WHO is doing it."

Daniel grimaced. "Katana can do it," he then said. "She's sadistic."

Sevren snorted. "Pansy."

Eating another nacho, he turned to Tavan. "If I remember correctly, Katana would also be outside rooting out hiding vampires? Or it might be easier for YOU to do it yourself. You would know how to operate the object far better than either of us I suspect. The people we wish to scry are pictured on that screen there."

"Hey, Gahlagæer gave it to you to use remember," Daniel replied.

He then lobbed the orb at Sevren.

"You are the one who took it first, however," Sevren replied, seemingly not acknowledging the approaching orb until it was several inches from him, whereupon his hand struck out with amazing precision to grab the ball from behind.

"Though I suppose now there's no real doubts as to the safety of this arcane device."

He took the ball into his other hand and focused on it rather intently, calling up the necessary images in his mind and concentrating heavily on activating the curious little orb.

For a moment the orb was cloudy, nothing could yet be seen. Then as it cleared, Sevren was given the face of death. Rotting flesh peeling from the womans face they had seen when the exploding tag had gone off.

"What do you see then?" Daniel asked.

"I wonder if I can get this thing to zoom out," Sevren said, eye quirking slightly at the exceedingly grisly display. "They were perfectly healthy the other day, it must be some form of magical effect that caused such acceleration of the process..."

Sevren turned to Daniel momentarily and replied with "Apparently they were rotted to death. Skin peeling off in layers, burst pustules of blood, maggots all over the place, so on and so forth. Generally the kind of stuff that would make you scream like a little girl. Excessively rapid decay, and this orb gives a rather close view of it."

Sevren tapped the orb lightly with his other finger and looked at it more intently. "Come on you... pan back."

"You can make the undead look alive," Gahlagæer explained. "But after awhile they begin to decompose, the flesh rots away."

Daniel grimaced.

The orb panned away from to show the two bodies were in a forest, no sign of anyone else around them other then a wolf sniffing around.

"Still kinda fast, considering their condition when we last saw them... aw... out in the bloody woods? Alright... lets see if we can get a panoramic."

He tapped the orb and focused on it again. "Gimme an eye-level 360 of the area around these corpses, wouldja?"

"Magic will cause the dcomposing to be rapid," Gahlagæer explained. "That is what you are seeing, there were probably already long dead since before they attacked you."

The orb moved around to show a 360 degree angle of the forest. Aside from the wolf which looked like it was staring at Sevren, there were just trees.

"Feh... dead end there, then. Although, can animals see the scrying? This wolf is paying an odd amount of attention to me..."

"Some animals," Gahlagæer nodded. "Wolves in particular are very wise."

"I wonder if it knows anything about these corpses... the accelerated rotting and the freaky thing hanging in the air have got to be freaking it out... Go on boy, try to figure out where these poor sods came from!"

"It is possible," Gahlagæer mentioned. "Do you speak to wolves?"

"If you mean anything other than 'Bark' in varying tones, I suspect no."

"The only way you'll get anything out of the wolf is to speak it's language," Gahlagæer explained.

"Luckily, I can record and replay what other people say. I might not be capable of talking to a wolf, but I can certainly go-between."

"So you know someone whom can speak wolf?" Gahlagæer questioned him.

Sevren gave Gahlagæer a momentary 'Somehow I saw that coming' glance, then turned to give the room another once over as if looking for something. "Tavan, you know anybody who speaks wolf?"

Tavan shook his head.

"Well I would suggest Robin, someone I know but too many vampire hunters around," Gahlagæer said. "He'd never come anywhere near here."

"Let me guess, reformed vampire?"

"Vampire yes," Gahlagæer smirked. "Reformed? No, Ravnos actually."

Sevren said nothing in response, though after a moment he simply ran his empty hand over his head while making a whooshing sound.

"Ravnos is a vampire clan," Tavan explained. "They're gypsies."

"Oh... kaaaaaaay. You know, if you are speaking of bar buddies you know from gloom'n'doomsville, I do not think the wolf will hang around long enough for me to go hunt down a proper interpreter, nor will any scent I would hope the wolf could follow."

"I would assume that the forest is in Dark Valley," Gahlagæer mentioned. "Robin will help if there are no vampire hunters around so the Cyredathems can't come with you."

"Hmm... the possible necessity of going into this 'Dark Valley'..."

Sevren gave Tavan a look along the lines of 'Is this worth it?'

Tavan just shrugged.

"Most people respect me there," Gahlagæer said. "Others fear me and the rest, well I think you'll know about that."

"Hate your guts? Presently occupy shallow graves? Serve as cheap undead labor? Add the pile of skulls next to the welcome mat? Meh... how far is it to this Dark Valley? Might as well stick with the only lead we have."

"Like the brotherhood, want me dead," Gahlagæer smirked. "Doesn't bother me really, I'm used to it. That area of forest is about fifty miles outside Dark Haven and it's a little hard to get to."

Sevren paused for a moment, thinking everything through, then he calmly set aside various bowls and plates to clear a space on the coffee table.

Then he smacked his head on it.

*Thud*

"Why is it..."

*Thud*

"Never..."

*Thud*

"Simple?"

"If it were simple I'd have been able to take care of the brotherhood along time ago," Gahlagæer pointed out.

Sevren's teeth clenched as he began his response. Throughout the entire tirade he did not stop even once for breath. Truth be told, he didn't need to, but hey.

"But this is not about the Brotherhood. This is about finding some guy who can speak 'Wolf' so we can ask a wolf about whether anybody else came into contact with these formerly undead automata that messed up a perfectly good order of garlic bread with a pyrokinetic nasty-gram not thirty minutes after I first hired a group of ninja in order to avoid making an international fuss which in all honesty has gone and happened anyway because those insane brotherhood bastages went and conjured DRACOLICHES at me and blew the roof off of my embassy and also placed a very goodly number of evil tricks and traps in my hotel room across the street just so they could attempt to cover all their bases even though its not ME who is the final target and I honestly do not think I have had a single bloody lick of sleep since I actually DID hire Daniel and the others. Just once, in all of this, I would seriously not have had a problem if somebody had simply said 'Oh, a guy who speaks wolf? I think Uncle Bob down the street can, lets head over there and get a slurpee while we're at it!' I do not know about the rest of you, but these bastards just do not know when to quit and it is starting to make me irritable."

As if to punctuate, his left eye twitched slightly. Suddenly, his expression went blank and his head flopped back against the back of his chair. His hand still clutched the Orb quite tightly, despite the curious change. Any questions about what happened were swiftly put to rest as he began to make snoring noises and an automated voice recording began to play.

"Stress and Fatigue levels have reached dangerous levels for Noncombat personnel. Brainsafe Mode initiated. Duration of dormant period eight hours. Do not disturb."

Gahlagæer raised an eyebrow as Sevren passed out and the recorded message started. "Now if he had not of passed out I could have told him that finding said speaker to wolves is easy, it was getting to the wolf that would be the hard part," he then said.

Daniel sighed. "Now we have to wait eight hours," he moaned.

"Then get some sleep," came Eamonns voice. He entered the room and sat down in front of Sevren. "I will keep an eye on him until he wakes."

Several hours later, Daniel had awoken and returned to the living room to see if Sevren was awake yet. It didn't appear so as he stood over him.

"Not awake then?"

Eamonn just shook his head.

In one fluid motion, Sevren rather abruptly came to a standing position from his chair, eyes open as though he had never been asleep in the first place. He smoothed his hair back and took a great breath before looking around.

"I never see that coming."

Smoothing his coat, he turned and gave Eamonn a wry grin. "Well then. Shall we prepare to depart? I wish to learn how to speak wolf."

"Daniel get the other two," Eamonn then said. "We'll meet you outside."

Daniel nodded and rushed out to get Katana and Katsuo. Evidently, Gahlagæer was nowhere to be seen as Eamonn led Sevren out to the car..

By the time Daniel reappeared with Katana and Katsuo, Gahlagæer still hadn't shown up. With everyone in the car, Eamonn drove away from the Cyredathem mansion.

Sevren rolled the All-Seeing Eye in his hands as the trip progressed, seemingly defying making the orb defy gravity at several points during his 'fiddling'. Then, stopping as if struck by a notion, he called the device back to life.

Calling back the image of the corpses, he rubbed his chin in thought. "I wonder how far back I can pan this thing..."

Daniel looked back at him from the front seat. "You mean like an aerial shot of the area?" he asked. "I don't remember hearing any distance limit."

"But it'll be limited to how much it can show before the detail gets tiny, like in real maps," Katana pointed out.

"I do not need to see the detail. I am thinking one step above an Aerial survey. I'm thinking more of a Satellite shot, primarily looking for significant features. I could just superimpose a world map over it and work from there.

Come on you, pan back... lets kiss the sky."

The viewing angle moved back until it showed a satellite shot of Dark Valley, the area where the two bodies were was dead central on the viewable area.

"So?" Daniel asked.

Taking a mental snapshot of the information, he started sifting through various geographical files to hunt down a map of the Dark Valley.

"Good news. We will not have to leave Dark Valley once we find the translator. Happy days! A small bit of simplicity. I suspect this also means that Gahlagæer has a local chapter of these Brotherhood folks to deal with, which he may or may not already know about."

"For your safety it would be advisable not to stay in Dark Valley for long," Eamonn said rather coldly.

For a moment he concentrated on the road ahead as the county road began to twist and turn.

"Then again going into Dark Valley in the first place probably isn't a good idea. I suspect Gahlagæer will already have been trying to deal with them."

"Very true. No doubt he has had no end of trouble trying to get them out in the open. I suspect that both Gahlagæer and the Brotherhood will know of our arrival. It is something of an slim hope that the two will intercept each other, specifically because our going in will bring the Brotherhood out. Who knows, maybe Daniel will be able to actually participate in a war of magicks and necromancy and werewolves clubbing each other over the head and whatnot."

Daniel sighed.

"So you're planning to use Gahlagæer just as he plans to use you," Katana said. "Good idea, hopefully he and the brotherhood wipe each other out."

"Precisely, though I very much doubt that they will wipe each other out. I do hope that they keep each other busy. In any event, I suspect that things might get a tad hectic about... what..." Sevren looked at Eamonn for a moment in thought.

"... thirty seconds after we arrive?"

"It's possible," Eamonn said. "No doubt they will bring out a welcoming comity, but whether or not they show up themselves is an entirely different matter."

Sevren snorted slightly. "More Zom-bombs?"

Eamonn shook his head. "With the brotherhood who knows?" he shrugged. "Just be prepared for anything, even nothing."

"Nothing is about the only thing they have NOT thrown at me."

"So they've thrown the kitchen sink at you?" Daniel pondered. "That's always the only thing they don't throw."

"Like I said, you don't know what you're going to get with them," Eamonn mentioned. "And besides, I arranged to meet with Gahlagæer one of his castles before he was removed from Cyredathem land."

Sevren snapped his fingers as if remembering something he had previously forgotten. "Oh good. I suspected such a visit would be key as I was unable to ask for directions to the wolf-speaker-person-vamp-et cetera before brainsafe mode kicked in. It would have seemed a tad foolish to wander around in the Dark Valley like a bunch of lost tourists.

"And I believe one of the Psions was thrown into a fountain during the fight with the Brute, so I suppose one could say that yes, a sink was involved, though more along the lines of 'we were thrown at it' than 'it was thrown at us'"

"There's your sink," Daniel said, pointing to a sink painted on the side of a plumbers van that passed them heading in the opposite direction.

"Before we do get to Dark Valley we have a long journey ahead of us," Eamonn warned.

Sevren looked at the plumber's van as it passed by, raising an eyebrow as Daniel replied to his earlier comment.

"Are there any towns between this point and the Dark Valley?"

"Quite a few," Eamonn replied. "Why?"

"Just making sure. Plumbers usually stick to the towns they work in, but if there are towns in close proximity I suppose one could work both."

"And of course there are other houses out in the countryside as well," Katana pointed out.

"True, my only worry was whether we were in relatively sparsely settled lands, such that there would be little to no reason for such a vehicle out this far. No matter. Just paranoia speaking."

"Now if Namus was here, he'd get his computer out and hack into the plumbers computer to find out what he was up to," Daniel grinned. "That would have alleviated your paranoia."

"Its hard to alleviate paranoia when they really ARE after me," Sevren replied with a smirk.

"Well you wouldn't still be paranoid about the plumber van," Katana pointed out.

As the crested a hill, they could see the countryside spread out in front of them. The motorway was just ahead.

"We'll be safer once we get onto the motorway," Eamonn mentioned.

Sevren snorted and smiled to himself as if responding to some personal joke, and sat back in his seat, keeping his eyes on the surroundings.

A camera watched them as they headed up onto the motorway. There Eamonn could change to automatic and let the car do the driving. Behind them a drone camera appeared and followed, flying just above them.

"Any of you ever feel like you were being watched?" Sevren commented while looking at the side view mirrors.

"You mean the drone that's following us?" Daniel asked. "It's checking to make sure we're not wanted criminal or something."

Daniel wrote 'Hello Salazar' on a piece of paper and held it up at the rear window.

"Ah. Nice to know people care," Sevren replied before settling back into his seat and dozing.

As the journey wore on, the sun began to grow low in the sky. Then came the heavy rain clouds and it wasn't long before it was raining heavily. The car however could easily cope with the wet motorway since it didn't use wheels.

Daniel and Katsuo had started playing cards while Katana too had dosed off. Eamonn meanwhile kept his eyes open, waiting for their exit to head deep into the Dark Forest.

Rather curiously, as Sevren dozed, a curious little electronic tune began emanating from him, only slightly above the sound of the car moving. A strange tune indeed, with occasional springing sounds and jingling noises interspersed in the music...

Of course, few people nowadays would recognize the Super Mario Brothers theme...

"Judging by him Godular must be a strange place," Katsuo remarked.

Daniel laughed.

Their exit came up and Eamonn retook control of the car. The road was rather less well travelled as only those going to Gahlagæer's castle. Katana opened an eye.

"You shouldn't make fun of our client like that."

The two boys just shrugged at each other.

"So we like the classics," Sevren commented. "A big benefit to this body is whenever I wish, I can simply close my eyes and select from a significant array of ancient games. If I were to have a holoprojection module, I could actually play movies."

"Normal people aren't like that," Katsuo remarked. "We're not meant to be games machines."

Daniel nodded in agreement.

"Just like normal elves don't have fur and a tail," Katana pointed out.

"I'm special," the young elf protested.

"take it how you will, but we left our 'normality' behind long ago. Gene-pool overhauls, Cybermods like mine, all bent towards leaving our original human biology behind. Pretty soon, we will develop some means to transfer our minds themselves to some mechanical vessel that will allow us even more maneuverability and potential. Ever-evolving are we."

"So you're a nation of cyber nuts big deal," Katana remarked.

The road leading deep into the Dark Forest was now living up to it's name. Eamonn had turned on the headlights to see where they were going.

"According to his directions we should nearly be there," Eamonn said. "I warn you now to be prepared for anything, we cannot trust him."

"Well, we WERE cyber-nuts. We loved our computers, yes we did, but as we went we discovered how to digitize more and more of one's physiology to the point that these cybermods are capable of standard procreation, which is something of a monumental achievement considering the sheer complexity of every interaction involved. I do not think we are so much 'Cyber-Nuts' now, more like we are focused on learning how everything works."

Sevren looked out the car window.

"My... it got... 'dark' fast."

Katana just rolled her eyes.

"That's the Dark Forest for you," Eamonn explained. "You feel that? That is the sense of the evil that fills this place."

"You mean the tingly sense down the back of my spine? Like a bunch of squirrels dancing about on it? Or just the strange urge to run away screaming?"

"Both," Eamonn replied.

A dark figure was briefly seen stood alongside the road leaning against a tree as they drove past. Eamonn took no notice, no doubt just one of Gahlagæer's goons watching out for them.

"If you run away screaming I'm not going after you," Katana muttered.

"I cannot. I would go into brainsafe mode in the event of a panic attack."

"Meaning you'd get captured easily?" Katana remarked, rolling her eyes.

"No, actually. It has self defense protocols in line, namely I stand stock still until the panic attack passes, and beat the crap out of anything that tries to touch me. It is rather difficult to get me to panic anyway, but in the event somebody attempts some form of terror effect on me, I become somewhat... more dangerous."

"Right," Katana replied, rolling her eyes once more.

The car pulled into a clearing and Eamonn brought it to a halt.

"We're here," he said before getting out of the car.

Stood before him was the dark outline of a large castle against the night sky. One could see many lit windows.

Sevren looked in the general direction of the castle with a smirk. "You know, it would have been more intimidating if it had been a big bright glittery mansion with lots of lights and dancing and singing and bunny rabbits hopping about, simply because it would have been the last thing people would have expected."

"I'll keep that in mind," came Gahlagæer's voice. "I'm pleased that you have made it."

From where they were stood outside the car, Gahlagæer was walking towards them. The ninja's readied themselves just in case.

"No need, we are currently on the same side remember."

Sevren turned to Gahlagæer as though he knew the necromancer had been there the entire time. "It needs a circus too," he said with a grin, "Clowns freak people out."

At that point he began to hum a typical county fair tune while looking around at the surrounding forest, then rooted his eyes on Gahlagæer again after the second stanza. "We forgot to ask directions to that dude you told us about. You know, with the thing he can do? So we can do that thing with the thing in the place about finding the whozits that wanna do that thing?"

"I have a tendency to kill clowns," Gahlagæer said rather coldly. "Besides I already do have a circus round back."

He watched Sevren for a moment. "He's waiting for you inside," he said. "Should be up now the sun has gone down."

"Oh good! So nice of you to get that little issue out of the way then."

Daniel leaned over at Sevren, "He means a Draconian circus, people get killed in those," he whispered.

"Now come inside it's getting cold out here," Gahlagæer suggested and turned to head inside.

Eamonn looked at the others and nodded before heading in after the damned child, mindful to watch out for traps.

Sevren whispered back, "I was talking about the wolf-speaker," before following Eamonn to the castle.

"Riiight," Daniel replied.

Once inside the castle Gahlagæer led them to a sitting room lit only by candles and a large roaring fireplace. All four walls were adorned with paintings that seemed to watch them. The room was devoid of life however.

"Hmm looks like he isn't up yet after all," Gahlagæer sighed. "You wait here, make yourselves at home while I go and find him."

Daniel folded his arms and scowled. "I don't like it in here, it smells like death," he said.

Eamonn shook his head.

"I smell vampire," Katsuo said.

As soon as he had said that a figure appeared from one of the painting, a young boy of perhaps twelve now stood in front of the fireplace. He had white hair and violet eyes, he scowled at them as he spoke.

"So you are the ones he went to see."

"I smell dust," Sevren commented as well, before noting the textbook example of albinism standing at the fireplace.

"Do I detect a sense of jealousy?" Sevren replied with an upraised eyebrow and a generally confused expression.

The boy tilted his head over. "Why would I be jealous?" he replied. "You have nothing anyone would be jealous of, who'd want to be marked by the Brotherhood of the Wraith anyway." His eyes glared at Daniel. "I just have his friends after me."

"Not of me, but of Gahlagæer's ability to go out and about? You seem all snarly for what seems no other reason than he came out to talk to us.

"But I digress. I seem to have some difficulty getting along with sentient paintings, of which there seems to be an inordinate number of in the places I have most recently visited."

"I can go out when ever I want," the boy grinned, baring vampiric fangs. "Just not when the sun's up."

His eyes turned to Sevren.

"So if someone comes out of a painting it's because they're a part of it? You are wrong in thinking that."

"Albinism DOES complement Vampirism rather well, when one thinks about it," Sevren replied. "Paintings with holographic memory pastels, paintings that work as portals to other parts of the castle, refridgerator magnets with clocks on them, whichever. If you only came here to snort and scowl and be nosy in regards to my evidently black-marked self, please save me the generalized aggravation. Soon as the reason for our presence wakes up, we will all learn how to bark intelligibly and be out of your decidedly colorless hair."

"Why would I give you the satisfaction of leaving, I heard I was needed," the boy smirked.

"There you are," came Gahlagæer's voice. "I see you've met him then."

Gahlagæer calmly walked back into the room, staring at the white-haired boy.

"Meet Robin Graves, the wolf talker I told you about."

Sevren gave a long sigh as he turned and walked to a nearby wall and banged his head on it several times.

"Some-" *bonk* "-how" *bonk* "I" *bonk* "Knew." *bonk*

With another sigh he turned back around with a decidedly neutral expression. "That is the problem when nothing is ever simple, the few times it actually is you trip right over it."

Robin folded his arms and smirked at Sevren. "So how do we find this wolf then," he asked. "I do hope you have the location, I'm not going on a wild goose chase."

"I do not know where it is right now, but I can point out the forest it and the corpses were in on a map and work from there. I have seen the wolf, I can scry it and do what I did on the way here."

"So from what I understand I have to talk to this wolf and find out what it saw," Robin said, raising an eyebrow.

His eyes turned to Gahlagæer.

"I know, I can find the location," the damned child sighed.

"Well I can find the wolf with this orb you gave me," Sevren said, bringing out the All-Seeing Eye. "There is no apparent limit to how far this scrying effect can pan back to show surrounding countryside, so I suspect we might be able to conduct a little marco-polo with the creature in order to effectively intercept it."

Gahlagæer raised an eyebrow. "Good to know you are getting the hand of it," he said.

Robin placed his hands behind his head, he didn't look to happy having them in the castle.

"With Robin, it won't be difficult to intercept the wolf."

"It is nothing," Sevren replied. "In my youth I served as a sensors adjutant, and we Godulans take pride in our surveillance capabilities. I can just operate it like I would any other orbital sensor... although this little device is more effective for personalized searches, without a doubt.

"As for where to start, I know the location of the forest we should start looking, and maybe if we get some kind of flag or something brightly colored to work with, we should have no trouble whatsoever in locating our furry friend."

Gahlagæer nodded. "We should leave as soon as possible then," he said.

"Preferably while the sun stays down," Robin mentioned in a rather bored sounding voice.

"Indeed... um... your car or ours?"

Gahlagæer smirked. "Well I don't have a car..."

"So ours then," Eamonn then said.

"Then lets go. We might be able to use road flares or some such in order for me to get a proper read."

Gahlagæer was gone in a flash. Robin rolled his eyes and headed out with the others. Once everyone, including Gahlagæer, were in the car, Eamonn drove away from the castle.

"Just lead the way Sevren," he then said.

Sevren sat in his seat and pulled out the all-seeing orb, staring at it rather intently. "Show me the wolf."

The orb showed the wolf. It was currently feasting upon the carcass of a dear. Feeling it's meal being disturbed, the wolf looked up and seemed to directly look at Sevren.

"Anything?" Eamonn asked.

"Well, we know it is not going hungry, at the very least..." Sevren replied without taking his gaze from the orb. "And once again its staring right at me. All right, I shall give the canine its space... pan back... pan back you..."

The orb panned back to reveal dense forest.

"Maybe it hates being disturbed," Daniel remarked.

"Pan back further... come on you, you went all the way to satellite footage, I want to see us in the picture..."

The orb panned back further, all the roads in the area could be seen. Problem was there were none near to the wolves location.

Sevren took a mental snapshot of the image, then started fumbling about with his free hand.

"Road map, road map, where's the road map?"

"Road map?" Eamonn asked.

He pressed a button on the dashboard and a map lit up in front of Sevren. A small blinking dot showing their current location far from the empty area of forest where the wolf was.

"Oh good, much better... I am not entirely certain it will still be night by the time we get there though. Its something of a rather large distance from us. Still in the valley though."

Robin didn't looked pleased at the thought of it being daylight by the time they got there. "Good thing I brought by day robes with me then isn't it," he scowled.

"It's good not being a vampire," Daniel grinned. "I can go out in the sun and no Cyredathems try to kill me."

Katana hit him. "When you have someone willing to help you, you don't try and make them turn against you," she warned.

"Speaking of robes and shelter and what not... something of a burning question," Sevren said, only taking his eyes off the orb to look at the map and give directions.

"Does sunscreen help at all?"

Robin folded his arms. "No it doesn't," he replied.

"So what is it about sunlight that makes vampires burst into flames and die and whatever other forms of unpleasantness might occur? I never did understand what exactly it was that caused such things."

"Fuck knows," Robin replied. "I'm not a scientist. Legend has is it's a curse placed upon us by the Norns."

Daniel sighed. "It's always them."

"Norns?" Sevren cocked an eyebrow but did not move his gaze. "Pray tell, who or what are these Norns?"

"The Norns weave the destinies of all those whom are in Draconis Nightcrawlis," Gahlagæer explained. "Including the destiny of you at this very moment, once you leave Draconis Nightcrawlis and it's colonies then your fate is then out of their hands. For a Draconian however, they shall always control our destinies no matter where we might be."

"Oh, so I can blame them for the destruction of my embassy as well?"

"Yes, but I would advise against going after the Norns for any reason," Gahlagæer warned. "The consequences are dire indeed."

"Go after them?" Sevren replied with a smirk. "No, I would merely send them a bill."

"That would be making contact with the Norns," Eamonn said. "You should ask the King what happens to those whom try to contact the Norns."

"Meh, I could just ask the boss to send them the bill. They would not dare touch *him*, as doing even that would likely cause irreparable damage. Of course, at the moment there's somewhat more tangible fish to fry... or at least hunt down."

"You'd be surprised at who they'd dare to touch," Katana warned. "Don't get too cocky about the Norns."

Up ahead the road split into two. Eamonn slowed as they approached.

"Which way?" he asked.

"Oh, I doubt Skye would care too much. He has faced similar before, but I suppose the operative word is whether he would care. He would be just as likely to chew me out as he would to go throwing paperwork around or even as he would go to get a hotdog. He is the Phage of Chaos after all, thrives upon spontaneity an unpredictability as you or I would thrive upon pizza. The one constant that seems to hold when one has been in contact with the places we've seen is one should NEVER consider themselves the most powerful. No matter how strong you are, there is always something out there that is stronger.

"Some old Pantheon long ago tried it with Baron Skye and the rest of the phages... the only one left of that Pantheon of old is Ares, and that is simply because the rest did not trust his loyalty, so they left him behind. At least that is what all the historical entries say. Ares never responds well to questions about that time...

"Oh... um... turn right here.

"The simple fact of the matter is that ascendant type beings seem to romp around with aggravating frequency, secure in some form of self-assured superiority that they and only they seem to be the most powerful creatures in all of reality. Cocytans, Eshirans, Theurges, Chaos Gods, those blasted creatures we ran into in Protospace that hold a grudge against the universe because some fluke of nature spawned it from their own essence... There are so many that it is honestly hard for me or even the boss to care one whit whether they float about in some pompous haze as if they're playing some form of roleplay-based storytelling game where they have to go back and forth improvising situations and reactions based on what the other puts forth... or if they just hang around on the periphery and watch... like lurkers on some form of chat board..."

"Interesting way of putting it," Gahlagæer, somewhat agreeing.

Eamonn turned right as instructed. "Anymore roads down this way?"

"Different to the Norns then," Gahlagæer then said. "They're very much hands on and get very annoyed when people try to meddle or even politele ask to have their destiny changed."

"Some would actually take offense to having another decide their destiny at all. It is taken as something of an massive insult by those in the Chamber, to be manipulated at such a fundamental level. I believe that is why Sojun seems to recieve an inordinate number of worshippers nowadays. Those soulmarks of his are in relatively high demand among such circles.

"There are three roads coming up, two to the right and one to the left. The road curves around a lake before the junction to the left. You will be wanting to take that one.

"The other theurges do their own as well, but Sojun appears to be the only one who is relatively proactive in their enforcement."

"Right," Eamonn nodded.

He continued driving toward the lake.

"All lives are dictated by the actions of others," Gahlagæer mentioned. "Most people never think about that."

"And even fewer recognize that the actions of those others are dictated by the actions of yet more others and so on. While one's identity of self might be in how they interact with these purported others and react when presented with outside stimuli, it is important to note that even these external stimuli are set into place by all manner of circumstance and that even those who would seek to control such would find that their actions are guided however subtly by outside forces as well. It is a chaotic cascade of happenstance and probability, and for the most part we all have only a few choices.

"As the tides of time wax and wane, we can either opt to lazily go with the flow, engage in fruitless enterprise as we swim against the current, or push the boundaries and try to take advantage of the rushing waters and see where they lead.

"When one has lived as long as Skye, Sojun, or other notables in the Chamber have survived, the latter becomes the only real option. Screw the rules. Screw fate. Waiting for death to come from choking on a piece of sushi is just plain boring, let us go start shit. What will happen if I put money on this stock? What will happen if I take a firehose to that demigod of fire? Gee, I have never done a smuggling run through an asteroid field choked with fusion mines. Lets see if I can do THIS... and live!"

"A single person can change the universe," Gahlagæer then said.

Eamonn could see the clearing that indicated the lake up ahead. "There's the lake."

Gahlagæer looked up to see the clearing. "Well whether or not you live through this is up to the Norns currently, so I would advise not to say anything bad about them until it's over."

"Everybody changes the universe," Sevren replied. "Even if one simply chugs through life, as if waiting for death, that person still interacts with the universe, and with each interaction there spawns a great butterfly effect that can span entire universes and beyond.

"Next left then straight on until I say to stop.

"It is unfortunate that I am purportedly powerless before the meddling of these Norns... had we been given the opportunity to acquire soulmarks from Sojun I suspect a great many would have taken it. But being championed by the natural predators of the gods themselves causes a small amount of tension between us and Him. Just knowing his name and purpose roots your soul to yourself, preventing anyone from redirecting it from any path other than that which leads to 'Just Rewards'. The soulmark, though, that is a declaration of fealty on our part and an oath of protection on his part. A few years of work after death in return for the knowledge that if anybody attempts to screw with our path in life that He will very actively seek to 'rectify the situation'. I understand there is a distinctive glow involved too, so those meddler types realize exactly what they're dealing with and 'Not To Mess'. I would not know for sure, however, as I do not have one.

"But I can appreciate the attraction, now..."

"Right," Eamonn nodded and carried on looking for the left turn.

"At the end of the day you don't notice the influence of the Norns," Gahlagæer said. "You think about what you're about to do most of the time anyway. Besides without destiny there would only be chaos and someone does have to look after those destinies."

"Who says they were not overseen before? Like it or not, there are rules that folks instinctually follow, whether they know why or not, even the Norns have rules to follow, even the gods, even -- for something of a relief -- the protospace monstrosities. Whether it is simply the fundamental laws of reality or the machinations of some heretofore undiscovered entity, it is not known, and many simply do not care.

"And why would anybody wish to have their destiny laid out for them? Why would anybody wish to lay another's destiny for them? The former implies that the person wants to be manipulated, and the latter implies that your Norns are doing this as little more than a game with which to amuse themselves. No, better to have the rules set by natural law rather than by some external force, as then it is known that the rules are just there, careless of whether anybody has an issue with it. When such is the case, it becomes an issue not of 'What do these others want of me?' and more of 'What do I want to do with my life?' Such does not lead to chaos and disarray, as there remain simple regulatory forces such as government and society. Some feel that the establishment of order is comforting. Others find it binding and seek to strike out on their own. Many simply seek novelty as an occasional respite from monotony."

Once around the lake, Eamonn saw the left turn and took it.

"That's the beauty of it," Gahlagæer replied. "You never know what your destiny is or when it was decided. It could have been decided a thousand years ago or ten minutes ago, it's what keeps the seers in employment."

"Which begs the question of why there would be such a ruckus about seeking to present them with a bill. After all, they would not only see it coming, but they would also be sufficiently equipped to pay."

"Most likely they'll either make it get lost on route or have the sender killed on the way," Daniel pointed out.

"See, that is the other problem with creatures that attempt to manipulate the flow of happenstance in some area or the other. Through their own actions they would be held responsible for everything that happens upon this world, focusing primarily upon allowing bad things to happen to unfortunate people, yet if somebody seeks to call them on it they get all snooty..."

"So they're a little eccentric," Gahlagæer replied. "The pressure of controlling destiny leaves them rather on edge."

"How much further?" Eamonn asked.

"About an hour, really," Sevren replied. "And if they want to control destiny, they should be ready to accept the consequences. Anybody who plays around with causality should understand that every cause has an effect, even with them."

Gahlagæer smirked at him. "Oh they do accept it, they just throw all bills and lawsuits in the bin," he replied.

Eamonn just nodded and settled in for the long drive ahead. "Last road before we have to walk?"

"Essentially. I can see us on the orb if I look reeeeeeeeeally closely. And they better well learn that there are powers out there that would take very unkindly to 'unsolicited weaving' as Sojun calls it. If they try to pull something and irk one of those powers... they had better be ready to ante up.

That's the other problem with these bloody ascendant types. They are so 'secure in their power' that they do not see it coming when somebody brings in the big guns. Metaphorically speaking of course. Now, for the most part, those powers can spot that meddling without much effort at all. It actually IS possible for us to recognize when outside influence is being exerted on an individual, and a great amount of resources are invested into maintaining the 'sanctity of potential' in even the most unlikely things.

"Were this world to be a part of the multiverse-spanning stock exchange in Chamber Central, there would be all sorts of angry entities popping in to clean house. Such manipulative entities as the Norns... would be held in no small amount of contempt. Only slightly above the League, now that I come to think of it.

"They see it as insider trading."

"Right," Gahlagæer replied. "There are always outside influences influencing things, most people just don't notice it. They accept the Norns controlling destiny, others on the other hand try to take destiny into their own hands, the King for instance. He has the Gods themselves on his side when it comes to controlling ones own destiny."

Daniel wasn't listening to them. Instead he was watching dark shapes with red eyes watching them from within the forest. The shapes appeared to be following them.

"No, actually, there aren't. At the basest sense of the term I suppose you would be correct, as I mentioned already that simple quirks of probability and circumstance provide external influence for one to react to, but when it comes to some overriding force controlling the destiny of various people in order to fulfill some form of convoluted agenda, I believe that you will find it quite rare.

"Departing from that particular argument, however, my thermal readings just started picking up a rather large amount of activity nearby. Either we are being escorted... or ambushed."

Gahlagæer leaned over and looked out the window. His eyes traced the dark figures watching them. "Local vampire population watching us," he said. "Gangrel, they tend to like these out of the place rural locations."

"Savage bastards they are," Robin remarked.

"Should we worry about them if they are still about by the time we get to where we need to get out?"

"If they do yes," Gahlagæer nodded. "Most likely they'll get bored before we get there, we've got what an hours drive ahead?"

"They won't last another ten minutes," Robin scowled. "Filthy and lazy they are."

"About an hour or forty-five minutes, yes. But what if, against what would appear to be all probability according to Robin, they paid attention to us all the way up to where we get out? Do they require some form of tribute, or should I be ready to faceplant a few vampires?"

Robin looked out the window and glared at the Gangrel vampires. "I'll use Sabbat law against them if they try anything like that," he said. "They won't want to break Sabbat law."

"I have no idea what Sabbat law might be, but if it prevents a fight from breaking out I am all for it."

"It will," Robin promised.

"Strange coming from vampire, vampires like fighting," Daniel remarked.

His eyes met Robin's and they glared at each other.

"Fuck you Cyredathem shagger," the vampire snarled.

"Robin quiet," Gahlagæer said placing his finger to his lips.

Robin just sat back and folded his arms, quietly glaring at the blue elf.

Sevren's eyes widened for a moment in surprise that a vampire would use such vitriolic language, but said nothing and remained intent on the orb.

After a few minutes Robin leaned over. "You see they're buggering off now," he pointed out.

True indeed that the number of Gangrel on the roadside were thinning out, giving up the chase.

"By the state of the road I guess traffic doesn't usually come this way," Eamonn said.

"Likely anybody who ventures this way is scared off by the locals."

"Well you'd have to be pretty stupid to come out to these parts of Dark Valley anyway," Katana remarked.

"The orb show anything of interest down this way?" Eamonn asked.

"Well, nothing obvious from this satellite view... I wonder if this thing can display topography so I can see if there's any cliffs and whanot in the way..."

Sevren stared intently at the orb, hoping it might be able to do such a thing, and making sure that the wolf's position would be clearly marked in any case.

No cliffs, just rolling tree lined hills that ran for miles around. Though there was an area that looked like it hid a large mansion.

"Gahlagæer, would you happen to know of any mansions out this way? I seem to have spotted somebody's house..."

Gahlagæer thought for a moment. "To be quite honest I don't remember of any mansions out this far," he admitted. "Of course it is quite possible that it's one that has laid abandoned for decades."

"Zoom in time then, let us see if it IS abandoned!" Sevren said, willing the Orb back into visual readings and having it zero in on the mansion.

Upon zooming in the mansion looked quiet, there was certainly no sign of any life around. It was in a rather sorry state but it did look as though someone had been there within the last few weeks or so.

"Gangrel lair?" Robin wondered.

"Hard to tell... I do not know what Gangrel do in their camps. It does look like some signs of recent habitation are there though..."

"They make a mess and leave corpses around," Robin told him.

"Technically so do these Brotherhood of the Wraith folks, but I shall try to investigate further to see exactly what the nature of these previous inhabitants were..."

And with that, Sevren decided to go on a room by room orb-tour of the mansion...

The mansion wasn't to bad a state, no bodies and no mess caused by Gangrels. Although in one room there remnants of a small camp-fire and evidence of someone having slept there. A squatter no doubt.

"Well thats the last of the Gangrel's," Robin announced.

"Old campfire, nothing else." Sevren relayed, then pulled back up to continue his satellite's view tracking.

"Adventurers then," Gahlagæer expected. "They'll come through these parts looking for a challenge."

"So the Dark Valley equivalent of squatters?"

"Squatters don't leave until dragged out by the police," Eamonn pointed out. "Adventurers would have left willingly unless chased out by something nasty."

"This is the Dark Valley, though... are not the 'police' exactly that 'something nasty'?"

"No the police are generally like those in the rest of Draconis Nightcrawlis," Gahlagæer smirked. "It's my guards you want to watch out for."

"Really? What a bloody let-down," Sevren said, still staring at the orb. After a couple minutes, he held up a hand and said, "Stop here. This is as close as we are going to get on the road."

Eamonn saw the road disappear into the trees he slowed down to a stop.

"Contrary to popular belief," Gahlagæer began, eyeing Daniel. "I am not just some uber evil being who likes to have people beaten at random."

Eamonn quietly got out to look around. Being dark there wasn't much to see, the moon lay hidden by clouds.

"Bah. We have fifteen foot tall armored sentinels that can tear a man in half with their bare hands and a minimum of direct effort. Of course, they are also surprisingly laid back as long as they do not sense danger or wrongdoing, and they make surprisingly good inquisitors towards that exact purpose."

Sevren then got out of the vehicle himself, still holding the orb, and looked around. He pointed into the forest and said "The wolf is that way."

"That is the difference between our cultures then," Gahlagæer replied before getting out of the car.

As Robin got out, he put on a heavy hooded robe. Eamonn looked over and nodded at Sevren.

"Lead the way then."

"Indeed," Sevren said, setting off. "Of course, when the Gendarmes are not roused into 'hostile-combative' status, or whatever they call it, they are generally quite amiable. Friendly even, if somewhat difficult to hold a decent conversation with. They are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they can sense deception and general intent quite well..."

"They are also slightly clairevoyant, which would have served me wonders in the embassy had I not been forbidden to bring even one of them."

"Well you already have pretty good security at the embassy anyway," Eamonn told him. "Those dragons they sent are very tough opponents."

"Yes, I suppose so. One thing I can say about my people with absolute conviction is we absolutely love fortifying things. Strange. Other folks prefer to play games and whatnot in their offtime. Us? We build things, and barring things to build, we make the existing things stronger. Some say it is simply our means of making art, but others say it is a constant dissatisfaction with the status quo. It is a habit that seems to have served us well."

Sevren stumbled slightly over a tree stump, but quickly regained his footing. "Admittedly, such preoccupations also mean that I am most assuredly not in my element when walking through undeveloped places."

"Don't worry you have locals to watch out for you," Gahlagæer grinned.

"And good ninja's in case the locals turn nasty," Katana remarked, glaring at the damned child.

Further through the forest they marched. The orb was their only guide.

"How much further?" Eamonn asked.

"Oh, bloody hell. Its moving away from us. We might seek to pick up the pace somewhat."

"Well pick up the pace then," Katana remarked, glaring at Robin and Gahlagæer.

She didn't trust them, knowing the damned child they were probably in league with the brotherhood. Eamonn did seem to trust that Gahlagæer wasn't however so she was less inclined to believe they were being led into a trap.

"Which was is it heading?" Gahlagæer then asked.

"Just further into the forest. It does not seem to be moving towards any particular site of interest. Its speed is somewhat slow, likely because its full, so we need not move MUCH faster if such is desired. If only we were in clearer surroundings or in daylight, I could run the entire way. As it stands I suspect that my next step will be something of a

DOOZIE!"

A thunderous crashing noise and several 'Oof's and whatnot accompanied the rather startling nature of his outcry, followed be a short silence in which only spooked birds chattered about the rudeness of the whole affair. Then, a lone voice cried up.

"Watch the ridge!"

Daniel and Katsuo ran over to the ridge, checking how much od a drop there was.

"You alright," Daniel asked.

The drop was approximately fifty feet or so, with liberal amounts of disturbed vegetation after Sevren's fall. As the two ninjas looked over the edge, they heard Sevren talking to himself momentarily.

"Hmm... so the contour lines merged here. A very tight drop indeed, looks like one line..."

Then his voice called up to Daniel and Katsuo. "I am fine. I impacted a great many things on the way down. I have renewed respect for my cyber-model's neutronium-carbonide chassis. I did not feel a thing."

"I'll pretend to understand that and just nod," Daniel remarked and teleported down as the others appeared above.

"What did you mean by contour lines?" he then asked. "I heard you mention them coming together."

"Each contour line indicates a difference of several feet. A gradual slope is indicated by several well-spaced lines, the steeper it gets the closer the lines get together. I failed to notice that multiple contour lines had merged together roughly around the point I just fell from, contour lines packed together like that indicate a severe drop-off. A small distance to your left is a more gradual downgrade, but I doubt you will find significant difficulty in just climbing down."

Daniel just nodded as the other nin leapt down, meanwhile Robin and Gahlagæer both appeared out of no where beside them. That unnerved the blue elf as they had made no sound unlike his own teleportation ability.

"Ok to go on?" Eamonn asked.

"Was just waiting for you," Sevren said before setting off again. "And I shall be more careful about the topographical map. I am somewhat used to having major dropoffs and geographical features marked out automatically, and it has been some time since I needed to do it all from scratch. No matter, the wolf has stopped again, so we should be fine."

"Right," Eamonn replied.

They walked further still, passing tree after tree and the odd fallen tree. Nearby something moved, causing bushes to rustle. With hearing that they stopped and listened.

"The wolf?" Daniel wondered.

"No. We still have a mile to go. My guess is either a warthog or a... um... what did you call those vampires?"

"Gangrel," Robin said.

He looked around for a moment and sniffed.

"Not a vampire."

Katana put a hand on her fan just in case. For now the forest had seemingly gone quiet once again.

"Well shite..." Sevren said, looking around at the sudden silence that had fallen over the group. "Let me check the orb... show me EVERY wolf... oh dear... Robin... that Wolf-Talking ability might be coming in handy very... very... veryveryveryveryveryvery soon..."

A growl echoed around the forest making them uneasy.

"How many are there?" Robin asked.

"Well, let me zoom in a bit... um... one... two... thrfrfvsxsvnghtnntnlvntwvthrfrt... many."

Robin grumbled. "Well that's bloody useful," he remarked. "How close is the closest?"

Sevren pointed down to a Wolf attempting to rip ineffectually at his leg. It made several growling noises and seemed to be getting increasingly frustrated at how unyielding the food's flesh was.

Robin looked over at the wolf, the wolf looked over at Robin. It released Sevren and walked over to the vampire. Robin knelt down still staring at the wolf. This seemed to be how they were communicating.

"Telepathy," Eamonn said.

Sevren dusted off the ripped portion of his right pantleg and watched the 'exchange'. "For some reason I expected howling."

Turning to Robin, he continued: "They wouldn't happen to know anything about unusual trespassers, would they? Other than us, that is."

"Well I could but it would increase the risk of us being brutally killed if I mistranslate and offend the wolves," Robin replied.

Several more wolves began to surround them making the young ninjas uneasy.

"Dark figures have been wandering these woods," he then said after a long silence.

"Different from the Gangrel vampires?" Sevren asked.

Robin looked at the wolf. "Undead beings but not vampiric," he said. "Necromancers, Lich's perhaps."

"The brotherhood," Gahlagæer told them. "Must be, sounds like a pretty close description of them."

"Do they know if they just roam about on various errands, or is there some place that they congregate? Like some cave or whatnot?"

Robin nodded and went back to speaking telepathically with the wolf.

"They aren't sure," he said after a long silence. "They did mention two dead people with them the last time a member of the pack saw them around. Jandon, King of the Wolves whom I suspect is the wolf you saw."

"Ah. Do they enter the woods from anywhere, or do they just sort of magically appear? Or should we ask Jandon about that?"

A quick glance at the wolf. "They magically appear," he said. "Well if Jandon is the wolf we were seeking then we should speak to him."

"Then I suppose we should continue on, then? Are we to assume that our progress will be somewhat less impeded by things attempting to rip my calves off again?"

"If you behave they will not impede you," Robin replied, looking over at Sevren.

"Tell them that I apologize if my falling off a cliff offended them," Sevren replied with an oh-so-slight tinge of sarcasm.

Robin turned back to the wolf and they spoke telepathically once again. A wide grin crossed the vampire's face.

"No they found it hilarious," he replied.

"Then why for did they bite me? Did they think I was the weak one of the group?"

"You're still a stranger in their territory," Robin pointed out.

"The same could be said for the rest of us... well, excepting you and Gahlagæer. In any event, we should get going. While I doubt another wolf attempting to rip my leg off would not hinder my general progress, it is nice to know that they will not try again... and that I gave them a good laugh. Must meet this Jandon, after all."

Robin folded his arms and grinned. "Well the wolf attacked the closest person who wasn't me or Gahlagæer," he said. "Could easily have been one of the ninja's if not you, but I guess it may well be that your scent isn't Draconian."

The wolf that Robin had been talking to looked up at him briefly before turning and walking away.

"She wants us to follow her, she will lead us to Jandon."

"Fine by me. As long as they do not lead me off of another cliff."

The other wolves growled at him.

"You've just insulted them by saying that, they are very good pathfinders," Robin remarked. "Watch what you say in front of them."

"I apologize at the misunderstanding. I meant in terms of being led off a cliff as a prank, as they found my initial drop to be of significant mirth."

"Once is funny, twice is just sad," Robin remarked. "They don't want to see something sad."

"Well then... shall we go?"

Sevren turned to depart... right before smacking into a tree. Just before he fell back, a curious mechanical voice could be heard issuing from somewhere in his torso:

"Balance compromised. Alert. Alert. Balance compromised. Timberrrrrrrrrrr..."

As soon as he landed he was back up again, and moved to more effectively avoid the tree.

"Not. At. Home. In. Forests."

As Sevren fell, the wolves seemed to howl with laughter. The wolf leading them then let out a solo howl.

"Congrats, the clan has given you their own name," Robin said. "Man from city who falls off cliffs and walks into trees."

"At least it is not 'Beefsteak'," Sevren replied before continuing on, taking significant pains to keep clear of nearby trees.

After a while of following the wolf through the forest, they came across a somewhat familiar part of the Dark Forest. There too was the wolf Sevren had seen in the orb.

"That is Jandon," Robin said.

"Sorry about spending so much time staring at you," Sevren began. "So far you're the only thing that might have seen anything whatsoever about those abnormally fast rotting bodies and very very very hopefully who might have put them there."

"It is an uneasy feeling to be watched by a person so far away," Jandon told him.

The wolf looked over them, he seemed to be smelling their scent to see if they were trustworthy.

Sevren leaves no real scent apart from the scent of messed up leaves and the oh-so-faint smell of relatively decent quality cologne... although wolf-ish chuckles and muted sentiments of 'that guy is funny!' from the other wolves might help to point out that Sevren isn't much of a threat at least.

"Well, I WAS just trying to see what had happened to the people who gave me the blasty-gram. You're our only lead as to who they were or who it was that killed them..."

"Hmm the heir to the Draconian throne, no scent of fear from him," Jandon said. "Which is good, no scent at all apparent from nasty cologne from the outsider." His eyes crossed to Sevren. "But I can't tell you are being tracked by beings nasty."

The wolf walked up to them.

"The two you ask of were already there when I found them, only recently left there but they had been dead for weeks, maybe months. I am sorry that I didn't see those whom dumped the bodies."

"What about the other folks that have been roaming around? The other wolves spoke of strange outsiders that pop in out of nowhere and seem to just mill about."

"The Brotherhood Of The Wraith," Jandon said with a snarl. "It is probable that they are behind the bodies, I fear they may have a meeting place in the area and that may be bad for my pack."

"they are rather bad for ME as well," Sevren replied. "I had hoped to simply avoid them or make them give up, but now it seems I am stuck on the course of hunting them down to bring them to justice and hopefully make them pay for the damage they did to my home."

"The only way you can do that is to destroy each and everyone of the brotherhood," Jandon said.

"And we don't know how many members the brotherhood have," Eamonn admitted.

Gahlagæer shook his head. "Their numbers are always changing."

"Well gee, if we destroy them they cannot easily pay for the damages. And I'm a diplomat, not a soldier... I'm the one who tries to stop the fighting..."

"They cannot be caught, they will only keep coming after you unless you can defeat them it is your choice," Jandon replied.

"Might it be possible that they have some higher authority they answer to? Somebody we can terminate that might cause the rest to back down?"

"It is possible but if you kill the leader a new leader will most likely take their place," Gahlagæer warned. "It could cause them to split into more groups which will mean more groups coming after you."

"Or kill themselves off in an attempt to seize the top spot for themselves. Of course, it might also be useful to drive home the notion that I am not a target to be trifled with, which would require a rather swift and systematic elimination of a significant portion of their resources, human or otherwise. In such a case, it would still be required to garner a great deal more intelligence than what we presently have. In order to do that, we need to know where to look, which requires knowledge of where THEY look."

Sevren held out the orb.

"Which means I need faces."

"Killing them off won't work, they're already undead, well most of them anyway," Gahlagæer pointed out. "They use necromancy for the purposes of immortality, they have to be destroyed to make sure they never come back."

The word 'Gaeedig' appeared in cloudy letters within the orb.

"It's not that easy to spy upon the brotherhood."

"Gaeedig?" Sevren said with an upraised eyebrow, commenting on the curious word that had formulated itself in the orb.