Lightning flashes silently across the starless night sky, over the palace of the Priest-King which has risen from the earth once more, a nightmarish form of its former glory, five spires rising from the top dome like bony fingers clawing toward the sky.

Kaela looks up to Envoy, standing near to the vine-covered archway leading out of the clearing. She signs, "You are certain you wish to come with me?"

The palace has a tiered, stepped pyramidal structure to it, its stonework having taken on a semi-organic appearance, suggesting veins and bony ribbings running across its outer surfaces … and pulsating lights shine from through the windows, cast by the glassy vessels that run along its interior.

Envoy nods, and says, "Your people have forgotten about all this once already. It should not be forgotten again, no matter the outcome."

Grey stone hands, thrusting upward from the earth, from the wrist up, surround the palace. One hundred and forty four, they number, and they alternate, every other one facing in and out. Those facing in bear a sign of warding. Those facing out bear the admonition, "Endure".

Kaela nods lightly. She signs, "Before we go, I must collect a few things. Will you come with me?"

Envoy nods. "Should we leave Isstan to rest here, or should I try to carry him out?"

Sprawled across a magical circle spelled out on the ground before the ring of hands and before the entrance to the palace is a Naga mage, whose form has knocked out and extinguished some of the candles set around his circle, while the others still flicker in the faint breeze.

Kaela pauses. She had forgotten him. She signs, "Can you carry him to the camp? I will meet you back here… "

Envoy nods. "You take the lantern, I can use one of his candles."

Envoy goes to heft the exhausted mage over her shoulders.

The snake, fortunately, is not all so heavy as he might look. But the length of his coil makes him rather unwieldy in terms of bulk nonetheless.

Kaela nods softly. "I will meet you here in under an hour," she signs, then moves back through the archway, and heads down the path…

Kaela swiftly makes her way towards the ruined monastery, climbing the steep cliffside pathway.

The entrance looms ahead, the lantern illuminating the way. Inside, the alcove statues await … and the corridors beyond and below.

The way inside is much different, now that Kaela can actually see her way with the lantern. In fact, she comes to realize that at some points, the snaking detours she took were just that – detours. A glance reveals a passage that cuts out a great deal of travel here and there. She makes her way down to the room with the hidden cache in record time.

Kaela pads over to the statue that conceals the cache and tugs at its sceptre to open the hidden space.

With a grating of stone against stone, the statue slides to one side. There behind the statue are the contents, just as she left them.

Kaela quickly changes from her current garb into the fine silken dress, then looks about for the sash, hoping that she merely missed it in the dark, before.

Unfortunately, there is no sign of the sash. Perhaps zolk does not come in emerald green.

The only trace there might be … would be the pile of dusty fragments that were perhaps once cloth, lying where they crumbled at Kaela's touch not so long ago.

Kaela sighs softly. Well. This'll have to do. She also takes and wears the necklace of pearl and emerald before closing the statue and turning and padding towards the exit.

Nothing obstructs Princess Emerald-Eyes' way to the entrance … nor back to her appointed meeting-place with the winged, horned lady.

Envoy has cleared away Isstan's circle and paraphenalia in the meantime, and waits with just the single candle.

Kaela pads over towards Envoy. She swallows a little bit, signing, "Are you ready?"

Envoy takes the lantern from Kaela, "Yes, Your Highness."

Kaela nods a little bit, looking quite uncomfortable at being called that. But she doesn't comment. Instead, she signs, "You will be safest, I think, if he thinks you are my slave… if you stay a few steps behind me, and do not sign anything. And especially do not speak."

Envoy nods.

Envoy takes her position behind Kaela, and holds the lantern high to illuminate the way for her.

Ahead looms the entrance to the palace, this time an upward climb to the archway which opens like the gaping maw of a crouching beast.

Kaela nods slightly. She doesn't know what she'll say, but she has to say something, and soon, or else the Priest-King will escape his prison… " Let's go," she signs, setting out towards the entrance of the ruins.

Envoy follows quietly and obediently.

Kaela stands at the entrance of the palace for a few moments, then marches into the into the jaws of the beast.

Up the steps the two proceed, and into the palace. Down the corridor, the glassy veins begin. Soon, the light of the lantern is not even necessary, for the light cast from these pulsing arteries. Glowing rubies drift along, slowing and quickening in time with a throbbing pulse of the very building around them.

Envoy examines everything without slowing down, and turns the lantern wick down a bit to preserve the oil.

Kaela walks along, paying little attention to the rubies. She walks as straight as she's able, hoping that she's headed in the right direction.

The walls become ribbed and irregular, less like a building, more like the interior of a living being – but still made of solid, immoveable stone. Here and there are signs that look even more organic – faces and clawing hands protruding through the surface of the walls and sometimes the floor. A shape that rises like a hunched-over feline who has been ensnared by stone tendrils and dragged down into the rock, his face frozen in an elongated, eternal scream.

Kaela carefully averts her eyes from the horrors of the interior of the ruin. Now is not the time for her to appear squeamish before the watchful eyes of the Priest-King.

The corridor begins rounding more to the point where it is more like a tunnel, tubular in shape. And ahead can be seen the three-part doorway that allowed Kaela and her companions in once before, then shut to deny her any escape.

Kaela pauses just outside the door, raising a hand to one side, signing, "We're here." to her companion, behind her.

Envoy nods, even though Kaela can't see it.

With movement just on the edge of what the eye can follow, the three, near-triangular parts of the door snap out and disappear into the walls of the tunnel, revealing a circular hole, and brighter light beyond.

Kaela steps past the door without hesitation and walks into the chamber on the other side.

Envoy follows, calm and confident in her mistress.

The floor just beyond the door is covered with winding tentacles of what appears to be solidified volcanic rock – obsidian, perhaps. The chamber expands, forming a great hall that looks to have been cut through the multiple floors of the palace, within the heart of the palace. And here the heart beats, in the form of a column composed of multiple glassy tubes that rise from floor to ceiling with branches radiating outward to the walls.

Envoy thinks, { At least it mimics an organic being. }

Up and down these tubes float glowing gems of all colors. And in the glassy veins of the walls can be seen many more such nodules drifting about. But there is something else about the central column. Part of it is encased in what looks like a great ribcage, with the spinal cord running down the back.

Kaela again makes a sign of 'remain back' to one side, where Envoy can see it. And also where the Priest-King can see it, if he's watching. It's an order, not a request.

The cage is elongated and distorted … not to mention greatly oversized. Atop this is a feline skull, wrenched back, jaw open, the tubes rising through its bony mouth on their way to the ceiling.

Envoy waits near the portal as commanded.

The light within the room brightens and diminishes at a regular pace … a regular pulse. And it seems to quicken ever so faintly at the intrusion these two present.

Sparks of blue energy leap from the column outward, striking against the walls. The glowing bands trace along the walls and then begin to curve and warp, twisting and reshaping themselves.

Kaela makes a large gesture. "Father," she signs.

The light in the room darkens considerably. The veins still glow with their own light, but they seem not to cast so much ambient light upon anything else. The glowing bands of energy slowly coalesce into a pair of ethereal, disembodied hands.

"You have returned," the hands sign.

Kaela signs, "I have, Father. You have awoken again."

The energy forming the hands pulses erratically, occasionally losing their distinction, but then it focuses again. "For what reason do you come?" they sign.

Kaela stalls for time, to work out what she's going to tell him. She signs, "To speak with you, Father."

The hands disperse for a moment, as if drawn aside, then form again. "Very well then."

Kaela nods softly. She signs, "You know I love you, Father… "

Envoy watches the conversation with interest.

Orbs of colored light continue in their upward and downward treks through the tubes of the central column, shifting out into the thinner channels that radiate outward and inward. The lights dance and flicker with the pulse. And for a moment, they jolt and flash, out of step. "That is to be expected of my daughter." the hands sign after a pause.

Kaela nods slowly, beginning to get an idea. She adds, clarifying, "It is proper for a daughter to love her father."

The hands make no response to this statement.

Some of the dark tendrils on the floor shift and rearrange slightly, on a point far across the chamber, and then they are still once more.

Kaela signs, "But… I fear that you are not truly my father, the Priest-King." She watches the central column carefully, certain that it won't be pleased with that.

For an instant, the lights all go black, then flicker and return to their normal pace. The hands take a moment to reform. "Your fears are unwarranted," the hands sign.

Kaela nods slightly. She smiles a bit and signs, "I had hoped they were… for I do love my father. But please… it would set my mind at ease if you would answer me one thing, to make me certain."

Some more of the dark tendrils shift, closer now, not far from the door that Kaela entered by. A memory places that pile of tendrils as the spot where she saw her mother – the Queen – last. The hands sign, "A question cannot be answered, even if it should please me to answer it, unless it has been asked."

Envoy eyes the tendrils.

The tendrils, looking like solid obsidian now, are motionless, though they writhed not so long before as if they were squirming tentacles, organic and quite alive.

Kaela nods softly. She signs, "If you are my father… why did you murder my mother, your wife, and my brothers and sisters, your children? I do not see how that would be a proper action for a father. And my father always acted in a proper manner." And she mentally braces for the inevitable impact.

The throbbing pulse is now audible, reverberating through the room. The periods of dark and light are more pronounced, and the pulse picks up in pace.

"Murder?" The hands sign, barely keeping their forms recognizeable as hands. "What prompts you to speak of such things?"

At several spots on the floor, the tendrils begin shifting restlessly.

Kaela stands very still. She signs, "I saw her, when you changed. Tentacles pierced her body cruelly and she screamed in pain, but you showed no mercy."

The convulsions become more pronounced. "Nonsense! The Queen – She is the most beautiful of any woman in the land! None surpass her beauty," the hands flick rapidly.

The hands keep moving. The signs they form are akin to babbling, when they can be deciphered. "… power… right … My right … Priest-King … Immortality … death … "

Envoy blinks, unable to make sense of the signing.

Kaela shakes her head sadly, a small tear coming to her eye. "Perhaps you were the Priest-King once. And I loved you. When you protected us… kept us safe. When you gave me this dress because you were thinking of me. But when you changed – when you killed the rest of the family for your immortality, the father I loved died with them. And," she swallows softly, "I would give anything to get him back… But I fear he's lost forever."

One of the glass tubes stretching from the central column to a far wall shatters, the fragments falling to rain down on the floor. In mere moments, though, the break has been sealed. But the agitation is evident. "Prove your accusations!" the hands demand. "This is … " the hands shake so much that it is impossible to make out the last sign.

Kaela looks down sadly. "I saw it with my own eyes. Where is the Queen, if she lives? Produce her, and see if she has not been destroyed by your own devices."

The tendrils twist and squirm dangerously close to where Kaela and Envoy each stand. But as they move, the evidence of the Priest-King's abominable act becomes clear enough – for there, kneeling, frozen forever in anguish and agony, is none other than the Queen. And there is one of her sons. And another daughter.

They are most certainly not alive.

Envoy shifts position slightly to see the remains, trying not to step on any tendrils.

The tendrils that had been touching each one of these petrified corpses suddenly explode, sending showers of obsidian flying. The others twitch and convulse so violently as to threaten to do the same.

Kaela flinches slightly at the explosions, then moves closer to the central pillar. She signs, "Father. If you love me, end this madness. You know it is not proper. The family is all but gone. The city and all its denizens are gone. All because of you. I know this wasn't what you wanted, but you have to let it go. Please, Father."

The ethereal hands flicker and fade, then reshape, the bands of energy concentrating to a point near the base of the column and coalesces into something vaguely humanoid.

Envoy blinks at this…

It becomes recognizeable as the proud Priest-King, formed in glowing blue energy. His proud visage does not remain for long. Distortions in his form, like those about the building, repeatedly trace him, then fade away, as if there is a battle raging over his very body – even one which is but a projection.

Kaela looks up at that something, an expression of sadness upon her face.

The hands sign, "Please, my daughter … forgive me." And with that, the image shakes and disperses into sweeping bands of energy again.

The room trembles, a rumbling filling the entirety of the chamber, as glass begins shattering, and pieces of stone explode.

Kaela turns quickly, looking towards the circular door. Did it close behind them?

The circular door, this time, is still open.

Kaela makes another quick command-sign to Envoy. "Follow." With that, she hurries through the door and back towards the exit of the ruined palace.

All the while, the palace continues rumbling, shattering and bursting, bit by bit, shaking all about.

Envoy runs after Kaela…

Kaela runs as fast as her legs will take her, darting through the crumbling passageways.

As Kaela and Envoy dash out of the building, the signs on the hands facing them read, "Victory", and "Run!".

Envoy fumbles with the lantern to make it brighter.

Outside, the sky is no longer silent. The wind howls like an anguished beast, as lightning crackles across the sky, dancing across the five spires of the palace. The clouds swirl and flow, forming a vortex directly over the ruined building.

Envoy pauses to look up at the storm…

Kaela runs to the edge of the clearing, well outside the circle of warding hands, then turns to face the ruined palace, swallowing. Are her eyes wet? Nah; It must just be the effect of the lantern's reflections in her eyes…

The lightning strikes come ever more frequently, until it is simply a constant burn of crackling blue running from the center of the swirling vortex above to the dome. Every window, every vein, every forming crack glows with hot intensity.

Kaela quietly signs, "I forgive you, Father." She continues watching, the shadows flickering over her face.

Envoy moves closer to Kaela, just in case she'll need to carry the girl through the arch in a hurry.

And then, it all explodes outward and a gust of shrapnel and fire … but is contained by an unseen barrier which redirects the forces upward and away. Even so, the winds twist and blow so hard as to send blinding sand scouring all within their paths.

And by the slow expansion of the blaze that represents the contained explosion … it looks like this may not be a very safe place to be for much longer.

Envoy kneels down and wraps her wings protectively around Kaela, keeping her own down as well…

Kaela looks to Envoy and quickly nods to the archway, hurrying in that direction.

Envoy rushes out of the area after Kaela.

With a deafening clap and an outward blast of wind, Kaela and Envoy are knocked down in mid-run down the street away from the palace. Some of the stone walls of the city collapse from the force, and trees are uprooted or even splintered.

And, a moment later, the air rushes back in again … and then silence.

Envoy helps Kaela back to her feet, and turns to look back over the city.

Kaela ooofs as she's knocked to the ground. Slowly she picks herself back up again with Envoy's help.

Wisps of smoke rise from the crater that was once the palace of the Priest-King, up to a starry night sky.

Kaela casts a faint smile at Envoy.

Envoy says, "I'm sorry about your family, Princess. Will you rebuild the city now that the others won't be returning?"

A rim of red glows over the jungle treetops to the east.

Kaela shakes her head softly. "Can't. Savanites are still slaves," she signs.

Envoy blinks. "Not the ones that live in the jungle."

The stars that haven't shown themselves for all that long yet slowly start to wink out, closer to the warming glow on the eastern horizon, as a new morning conquers the night.

Envoy says, "If they had a place to come to, maybe more would leave their masters."

Envoy says, "You could lead them."

Only the glittering Procession remains immutable, shifting from its nighttime sparkling beauty to the faint glow that hints at its presence during the day.

Kaela pauses a moment to look up into the heavens, towards the Procession. She watches it for a short time, looking to find a bright new star among its members.

A twinkle catches Kaela's eye. Could it be a new one? Or might it simply be a piece of debris floating within Sinai's ring, that happened to rotate the proper direction to more effectively reflect light in this direction for just a moment?

Kaela smiles faintly before looking back to Envoy. "Perhaps. Do not tell anyone of this. The expedition must leave tomorrow. Say… say that the Priest-King has broken free of the warding circle, and has reclaimed his city."

Envoy nods. "I don't understand these things fully, but I know that some things are important to keep secret."

Envoy says, "Will they make you a slave again if you come back to the camp?"

Kaela nods. "I am still a slave. And I must go back. For some time, at least. But soon we will return, and rebuild."

Envoy smiles, "Good. It is a beautiful city. What else do you need me to do?"

Kaela grins at Envoy. "You need to treat me as a slave. Perhaps more, later. But for now, that will be enough."

Envoy says, "I don't know how to treat a slave, but I will do what I can. That's a very nice dress."

Kaela looks down at her dress quickly. "I will need this, when I return. The others should not see me this way." She smiles softly. "I will return it to its hiding place, and then we can return to camp."

Envoy nods, and picks up the lantern again. She turns it down a bit, since the sun is rising.

Kaela smiles at Envoy and leads the way off towards the monastery as the sun dawns on a new day for the Savanite people.