Even though the assembly has been hand-picked, there's still quite a number of people gathered in the meeting room of Rookery's small town hall. Usually this is where grievances would be aired, announcements would be made, and in an era that seems so far away now, festivities would be held. At one end of the hall stands Sir Greyswand, flanked by two other senior housemen of the Midnight Murder. It seems they already had a way in. The middle-aged magistrate, a Korvid man named Yurevich who is still groggy but whose anxiety is quickly making him alert again, leads Umeko, Anisa, Xander, and Lilac through the double doors. Klaudia Von Horne brings up the rear, her spear resting on her shoulder and various accouterments jingling as she walks. Greyswand and his men tense visibly, but that tension remains subdued, for now.

Anisa takes a long glance and listen at the townsfolk gathered, and makes a sweep of the room. "Do we sit, or stand," she whispers.

Following the Murder's tension, Lilac walks ahead of the Huntress with a certain jumpiness that is uncustomary to the bard. The woman continues to glance behind her, mostly looking between her friends but occasionally shooting Klaudia a nervous look now and then. She speeds to walk ahead of the party so that she might stand between the two groups, acting as bridge between factions in more ways than one. Once a ways inside, she walks to stand near Sir Greyswand, having told Umeko and the others that she's making efforts to try to both calm and guide the Murder, hoping they can find some of their lost soul. "Well, here we are," she says, holding her hands out. "Every side that has been used and hurt, finally together again."

"And thus time turns full circle. The lost guard, Von Horne, returns home to finally end the long night that has draped these lands in sorrow," Umeko notes to no one in particular. "May she find welcome arms and at last, peace in her heart."

"As long as she keeps the pepper away," Lilac offers, smiling a little nervously.

Off at the end, the Lapi Fire Mage recharges his spells as quietly as he can. Although with the Murder outside and represented inside… it's not like he needs to be ready to defend.

Greyswand takes a step forward, cocking his head to look at the group of outsiders through one eye, then the other. His graveling Korvid voice is low and quiet. "We dare not hope, but… after so much bloodshed, does she… do YOU bring what may end this at last? Something that could break the unbreakable? Destroy destruction itself? Or something else?"

"If I may?" Umeko asks the others.

"Of course, Ummy," replies Lilac, who follows Sir Greyswand. She does pause when she passes the magistrate, though, telling him quickly, "I'm Lilac, the bard, by the way – I share the spirit of Dame Riesling and the curse of the Murder."

Yurevich looks equal parts perplexed and overwhelmed, just nodding numbly when addressed. "Y-yes… " He doesn't look sure as to whether he should speak up yet.

Umeko now steps forward and raises the padded leather bag that carries the skull of the former Lord Rook. "Void has taken your Raveness and imprisoned her in a waking nightmare where she knows not what she does, nor even the passage of time. How do you stop a nightmare? How do you end her imprisonment?" she asks those gathered. The Kiriga leaves them to ponder that as she undoes the ties of the bag, then gently withdraws the skull from within. "You do it by bringing her something that even in Nightmare would make her remember. You remind her of who she was and what she waits for. You bring her horrible, endless, waiting to and end. You return to her the remains of her husband. May I present to all of you the former Lord Rook, felled by Kantemir's treachery. With his return, this place will find its sunrise," she intones and holds the skull high.

All three of the cursed Korv stand up straight, their neck ruffs bristling out and their beaks gaping. They exchange glances. One of the housemen whispers, "That axe beak… it is… it must be him." The other clacks his bill. "But how?" Greyswand himself steps forward slowly, as if he isn't really aware he's doing so. "Could it be, after countless years… the Lord Rook would return home? How can this be?"

"His faithful servants, the Von Horne family, have long protected his remains," Umeko offers as the answer. It is her tale to tell you, if she so desires it. And with that, Umeko steps aside and nods towards the hunter.

Lilac looks curious as well, ears swiveling forward and brows raising. She doesn't show the same level of shock, having never known the Lord Rook, but she certainly looks interested – and a bit sad. "They know about the sword as well, Ummy. I showed Sir Greyswand the rubbing, and the remains of Dame Riesling. I think the remains of the Lord Rook and the sword will be enough," she says after a moment. After biting her lip a moment in thought as she gazes at the skull, she then adds, "I've had some thoughts about the sword, too, when we're ready to talk of such things."

The huntress drops the butt of her spear to the floorboards with a thump. Her mask hangs around her neck so her weathered visage can be seen directly, beak scarred and eyes hard. "I am Klaudia Von Horne, daughter of Hilde Von Horne, the only loyal survivor of the Lord Rook's host. It was my mother's wish that someday we would uncover the coup that seized the castle and cursed her kin, and break either the curse, or all who suffered it. To know now how we came to be put at odds makes my heart heavy, but… I have come to see this through however we may."

"Ahh!" goes Lilac when the spear thumps and her eyes dart to the Huntress. The bardess has to take a moment to breathe, putting a hand on her chest, and tucks her tail sheepishly for her embarrassing reaction.

Behind Umeko, Xander lets out a little squeak of surprise from the spear-thump as well.

Anisa just looks at Xander and Lilac strangely. "Seriously, you guys… " she whispers, placing a paw to her face.

Umeko quietly puts the skull away and shakes her head due to her twitchy friends. "Now that introductions have been made and positions understood, we have much to discuss. How many remain loyal to the traitor? Do we know why he chose to betray the Lord?"

"Um, sorry," Lilac offers the room in general. To the Huntress, she offers another "sorry," and smiles apologetically as well. "You're very scary," she adds, " … but I'm glad you're okay." And then, she smiles a little more.

Greyswand shakes his head. "We can't begin to fathom what would drive the most senior among us to strike at the house he swore himself to. Or what could possess him now. Those that remain of us are loyal… there is nothing else that we have left to exist for but to be stewards of this forgotten family."

"Maybe he wanted the Raveness to himself," Xander suggests.

"What skills does he possess? Does he wield magic or is he formidable with a blade?" Umeko now asks.

Lilac nods to Xander. "I had considered that, as well. He may also be using the Raveness as some sort of focus for the artifact and he's biding his time. A bit like how our, um, last encounter grew and became stronger. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything more about him, except that if the Raveness forbids his harm, the Murder can't move against him," she tells the buck.

The Korv mulls this over, face sober. "He's the equal of any of us, a skillful enough swordsman but not without peer. However, he was the first of us to be cursed, and it could only have grown in him. The Murder acted for him, but he is the beast within its den. Though we do not know of any sorcery he may have practiced, we know that it is he who has lived closest to and given the most to the unknowable abyss that we have imprisoned. His sword may be the least of your concerns."

"Any chance Kantemir belongs to the Cinders?" Xander whispers to Anisa.

"I wouldn't think so," Anisa says with a shrug, "I don't think they've been around long enough for him to have been a member, but I could be wrong. Gibson would know."

"Has he ever shown an ability to control the Darkness? Can he exercise any control over the curse? Oh, and is his beast form greater than ours," inquires Lilac after turning to face Sir Greyswand again. Her ears perk forward and she listens intently.

"My blade is equal, or better, to any who would stand against me," Umeko states flatly, "But when it comes to magic, I am at a loss. But … hm. If he lacks control of his beast form, that may weigh into our favor. Those who succumb to rage are ill-directed and foolish of action. We could trick him into his own downfall."

"Is he… fireproof?" Xander asks a bit timidly.

Greyswand and his two fellows glance at each other before the lead houseman answers. "It's difficult for us to understand, much less explain… with each of us, the curse gave us a little abyss into which to cast our regrets, our remorse, our civility and sentience, to take away and let what remained be defined by the curse itself, a piece of Sylvania wrapped up in this mess. And yet with him, we don't know where the abyss ends and he remains. That he lets more of the world fall into it would let him stretch it and shape it. I don't know if we would even call what he is now 'beast'."

"Just like Borham Kuenn became," Xander mutters.

One of Greyswand's retinue turns to Xander, his long beaked face grave. "If he is anything like our lady now, he may steal light and warmth with his presence, should he leave the face of the void unmasked."

"Still, he is of flesh and flesh can bleed and die. Wrapping it in unknown horrors serves only to strengthen its position," Umeko remarks. "He must be vulnerable to something." And there Umeko pauses … then gets a rather sinister looking toothy smile on her snout. "And I think I know what."

"So… probably not worried about fire then… " Xander notes.

As she listens to Sir Greyswand, Lilac's brows rise and rise, until he looks very startled indeed. "So, he never fought his beast? He just, fed it? He let it consume him, and in consuming the world around him, his abyss grows?" The bardess shakes her head in disbelief, undoubtedly reflecting on her own curse and what it has done to her life. When she recovers, she admits, "My own curse never felt quite like that, but maybe that's because mine is … second hand? I've thought that I've lost pieces of myself, I've definitely lost memories, but mostly what I think I've lost is restraint and some measure of my humanity. I once thought I lost it all and it scared me beyond belief. To have willingly embraced that loss … " She shakes her head again. "I have had a thought that perhaps the sword is also like me, and can call upon the ghosts to fight him, but I have no proof."

Anisa looks curiously to Umeko. "You have a plan?"

"Your thoughts wander a similar road to mine, Lilac. What would be the purpose of keeping such a shoddy weapon such as that used to slay the Lord Rook? Perhaps it is part of this curse in that it helped make it … and it can help undo it. Why else would Kantemir hide it away atop an inaccessible tower? Perhaps the only blade that he too be vulnerable to is a bite from the weapon that he ordered slay the Lord, mm?" Umeko offers.

The three Korvid retainers listen, and exchange glances. One says, "It could be that blood he swore to would be proof against him. But then, one sword against the Seneschal? Could there be aught else that would ward him?"

Lilac nods to Umeko's words. "When I handle the sword, I can feel the unrest in it. It resonates, like it remembers the treachery and longs for revenge – if a sword can long for anything. I think, maybe, it's a tool for him. That if he were to use it against the Raveness, she would, well, suffer the knowledge of her husband's death and of a double treachery, maybe plunging her into final despair, or bringing her to an end, in the way he wants. Or, maybe he fears it, and can't destroy it. Either way, I agree it's very important," she tells her friend.

"And when his curse is broken… then fire?" Xander asks hopefully.

"You can burn things when we get back to Rephidim," Anisa says, tweaking Xander's ear.

Greyswand's face is full of misgiving, but he nods. "We have no hope left, but yours will have to be pinned to it. Are there any other spirits that may yet protect you?"

"My ancestors watch over me and guide my hand along an honorable road," Umeko claims, "But they only protect those who protect themselves. If our path is one of honor, then we cannot fail."

Glancing at the Murder members, Lilac suggests, "If he's like us, then maybe he's vulnerable to the Huntress's tricks like we are? Freeing the Raveness might bring all curses to an end, as well, but that poses its own problem." The bardess's face sours, and she glances towards a window, gaze distant. "You see, if the curses all are lifted, Vandringar's forces will probably attack the castle as it appears. I think he always wanted Ummy to have the sword and left when he believed we had the pieces to end the curse. We end the curse, then he comes in and ends all of us, taking the Raveness's artifact for himself while we are weak." Thinking a moment, Lilac adds, "Dame Riesling may protect me, but I am no match for Umeko with my curse, and hopeless without it."

"Uh… are we overlooking something?" Xander whispers to Anisa. "I mean, something named Vandringar?"

Anisa shakes her head, "I think we're all keeping Hagen in mind right now, its just that you have to deal with first things first. We may even need his help. Still, this village should be ready in case he and his men take advantage of the situation."

Sir Greyswand frowns, leaning forward a little. "Yes, what of these outsiders? We thought the Cervani lord was with you."

"He is a sworn enemy, actually. A most dangerous and evil man, one who delights in the suffering of others," Umeko claims.

"We hate his guts," Anisa says with a nod to Umeko, "but he's an ally of necessity, and he's been assisting us up to now."

"I hate more than just his entrails," Umeko adds, "Though I am sure that they are quite slimy."

The bardess turns her gaze back from the window, turning to regard the people present. "'The 'cervani lord' only helps himself. He always knew we'd come here and I think he's used us to solve his problem here. I think he expects us to defeat the curse for him, so he can come in with his rangers and set upon us when the curse is gone. We will not have a unreachable place for the Murder to set from, I will be useless in a fight, and the Murder may, well, be reduced or even gone. We may even be hurt – or worse! – from the confrontation. He's used us, but I think I have a way to get him, even if I'm uneasy at the thought of fighting," offers Lilac.

"And he thinks he can steal the Void somehow," Xander offers.

The senior houseman ponders this for a moment. "Ah, but he does not have something which can ward him against the Seneschal, does he? Would he not wish to be on hand should he be so foolhardy as to try to claim a prize of our Raveness?"

Xander looks to Anisa, to see if she wants to tell the others about the crystals.

"That's where we come in," Lilac explains to Sir Greyswand, "You see, he doesn't even need to be here. We will defeat the Seneschal for him, and he will come once we have freed the Raveness and the castle has returned to the world. He will take it from our hands at sword point and I think he'd even threaten the villagers if we refuse. They don't care about people; Vandringar's armies ravaged the desert lands over a similar artifact not very long ago and many died."

"He does, in a way." Hesitantly, Anisa fishes out her own crystal, and holds it up for the assembled to see. "He has one of these. They allow us to… well… speak with the orbs of the kind that has your lady enslaved. He may use it to try and gain control, yes, but we made a pact that we wouldn't harm him as long as we were fellow prisoners."

"But is it not true your crystals could not talk to the orb earlier?" Umeko asks

Anisa nods, "They couldn't. I think that since the Lady has bonded with the orb, she prevents us from doing so. To be honest," the doe says, placing the pendant back underneath her collar, "I'm not sure I want to speak with this orb. It doesn't… feel like the others."

"What does it feel like?" Umeko asks

Anisa cocks her ears to the side with a grimace. "Cold. Let's just say that you feel like communicating with it would be a bad idea."

"Did that old statue say that it was somehow … broken?" Umeko asks next.

"I'd say let Vandringar have it, except he'd probably turn into something worse than the Seneschal," admits Lilac, looking grumpy with her ears flattened. "Anyway, I think we should attack his rangers now, before we approach the Seneschal."

"Something like that," Anisa says. "It said it was 'compromised' – but I didn't know if it was talking about the orb or itself."

"I disagree. There are far more of them then there are of us," Umeko says

Greyswand turns to Lilac, then looks at Umeko. "This is something we could do. It may have to be tonight, at any rate. I fear that Kantemir will eventually suspect something is amiss."

"There is if you attack them all at once. But if I learned anything about the way my beast fights, it's that how is just as important. They might be a thousand, but if we attack their camp one by one, before they can react, they're just twenty, over and over," explains Lilac. She looks rather sober explaining this idea, folding her hands and frowning between words. She nods to the Korv when he speaks up. "That's exactly what I mean. If the full strength of the Murder fell upon each camp one at a time, they may never know what happened until it's too late."

Umeko mms and nods, "If you cannot help in fighting Kantemir directly, then this is an acceptable alternate. It will protect the town from them."

"So… we can take Vandringar into custody after the dust settles?" Xander asks.

"Once we're free, all bets are off," Anisa says to Xander, grinning.

"We should probably bring the townspeople into the castle either way and the Murder should be careful, knowing if we break the curse while they fight there could be serious problems for them." Lilac wrings her hands, nervously. When Xander speaks up, she grimaces and tells him, "Knowing him, he already has an escape. He'll be watching from a safe place for the rangers to finish, then he'll come. He'll never risk himself."

"I was thinking you could blow him up," Umeko offers and flicks her right hand just so. "But the more honorable path would be to 'arrest' him, yes."

Greyswand lays a hand on the hilt of his rapier, though it's a wonder if he and the rest of the Murder even use their weapons. "If it will help you to carry your battle to the Seneschal, then we are willing to deal with the interlopers."

"I'm sorry to ask you to do it when I can't go with you," Lilac tells Sir Greyswand, walking back to him. "I can barely stand the idea of of fighting anymore, and my plan puts you right into it. It seems hypocritical of me to balk at using my beast while I ask you to use yours."

"It is reasonable plan of action if no one has any objections?" Umeko states as she looks to the others.

"Fine for dealing with the guys in the swamp, but it will alert the Seneschal?" Xander asks. "Do we need to deal with him at the same time?"

"Does it matter? They deal with those who 'snoop' all the time," Umeko points out.

The Korv shakes his head. "We would do no less. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we would go gladly to our last fight. And it is as your reptilian friend says."

"I suppose," Xander notes. "I mean… yeah, we have to deal with things while the Murder is still the Murder. If the curse is broken at the wrong moment, we could all be at a disadvantage."

"And we have Klaudia to help us defeat the Seneschal," the Lapi adds.

"I know, it's just … I know." Lilac gives a little, helpless shrug. "I even knew that when I offered the plan. I thought you would be glad to do it, that protecting the town would make you happy. I thought I believed it, but I still feel guilty anyway. Don't mind me, okay?" She smiles at the man, then adds, "I see why Dame Riesling thought of you as a trustworthy friend. Some things don't fade, whatever magic tries to eat them."

"Mm, could one of them perhaps send up some of those 'smoke' things the groups were carrying when the task is complete?" Umeko suggests. "Then we would know to act."

Greyswand looks down, nodding slowly at the mention of Riesling. "No… maybe some things don't." He looks up again. "If they have signals, then it may be that we can use them, yes. Though I don't know how you would tell whether we made the signal, or the interlopers."

"If we decided on a pattern," Umeko says … or our faithful mage makes you something to put in one to change its appearance and shape to something we would recognize… "

Lilac gives Sir Greyswand a big smile, and looks like she might try and hug him, but restrains herself. She steps back and nods to the others. "You could just set the camps on fire, too. The lights should show from the castle walls," she suggests.

"You want me to hand over something volatile?" Xander asks Umeko, just to be sure. "I… have some phosphorus still… "

"I am asking if you could craft a unique signal," Umeko answers.

One of the housemen says, "Could we carry these smoke things? If the intruders cannot fly, then you can tell it is our signal if we carry the smoke into the sky."

After looking between Xander and Umeko a moment as they work out the fire pattern, Lilac quietly steps past Umeko and makes her way towards the Huntress. Nervously, she offers, "H-hi, I'm Lilac. Do you remember me?"

"Oh, well, unique… " Xander ponders. "I could… uh… give them my familiar? They'd just need to send it off after they're successful, and it'll find me… "

"Hm. Will it last being separated from you by distance?" Umeko asks, "Perhaps simply drawing a pattern in the sky with colored smoke would be simpler. Say … the house coat of arms."

"That… isn't simpler," Xander notes. "To send up something like that, I'd need to be with them."

Klaudia doesn't angle her beak down to look at Lilac, instead looking past the black chisel. "I do," she says, after a moment or two, then dips her beak down. "I am sorry circumstances brought us together as they did."

"I am suggesting that they draw it without your help, you silly Lapi," Umeko says, "Smoke signals are for Korvs."

"I can make a colored-smoke signal bomb, but… just colored smoke. That should be fine, right?" Xander asks.

"As long as we can see it, yes," Umeko agrees.

"It's alright," Lilac says, folding her hands behind her back and tilting her head as she look at the Huntress. "This might sound silly, but I knew you were a hero. It must be so odd for you, to hear one of the monsters you hunted say so, but I didn't want to see you die. Even though we were on opposite sides, and putting aside my suspicions about why you hunted, you were a hero to Sylvania and I didn't want you to die. My people have always regarded Hunters well."

"Okay, one colored smoke bomb you can see at night then," Xander notes, and slips off to a corner to sort through his supplies and find a work surface.

"Thank you, Hotfoot," Umeko says. That might be the first time she has called him by that nickname.

"We have several hours before the end of Nightfall," says Greyswand, glancing out one of the town hall windows. "We would be expected back at dawn."

Von Horne shakes her head, looking away to unnecessarily check the hinge on her spearhead. "I'm no hero. I lived the only way I knew. I earned my living from the villages and towns, but… I seldom thought beyond the legacy left to me."

"Still, it was very brave of you to do what you did, alone, against beings that were greater than any average person. And, your fighting style is very clever." Lilac's gaze shifts to the spearhead, ear ears twitching a little, tail trying to hide between her legs until she pushes it off. "I think you're a lot like my friends, being modest when they deserve better for their heroism."

"You do what you have to, to survive," says the huntress, moving the hinge of her beaked spearhead with her thumb idly. The lower beak rings lightly against the upper, a tiny spark winking there. "But I wouldn't have had to kill you to survive. I was… single-minded in my determination, in my hatred. I must apologize to you, as I did to your friends, more than any." Von Horne dips her head a little, crest flattened and spear haft hugged close to her body, where it would be impossible to swing if she had to.

Lilac cants her ears, holding her hands out to urge the Huntress to stop, "No no, I understand – you don't have to apologize. Well, you can if it makes you feel better, but … " the bardess's lips twist into a frown "I, too, am guilty of the same thing. I once attacked an innocent person, so you could say I deserved the same treatment by you. So I can't be mad, and I can say I forgive you, but maybe I still deserved it. I'm just glad no one was hurt in the end; either of us."

Von Horne looks up again, her mask dangling from around her throat, the dim light playing off the many scratches in her black beak. "I am grateful, then. I suppose we must all be held to account for what we do. We all pay some price. So it shall be with the Midnight Murder, and with Kantemir."

"Yes, I think so too. And Kantemir has much to answer for," Lilac agrees. She glances towards Sir Greyswand, the closest thing she has to a friend in the Murder, and tugs him closer. "We should compare notes, from both sides of those who have seen the curse. Something about it bothers me; it's so different from the power of the Void, and I think it has to do with that Jupani hunter."

The Pieksvaldt houseman steps closer when beckoned, the others present still quietly conversing. There's an unspoken uneasiness between him and Von Horne, but it's peaceable. "We have sometimes pondered the nature of the beast… when it came to us, most of us simply accepted it. We were worn then, already."

Lilac nods to him, not expecting the man to look perfectly comfortable but inwardly glad for the peace. "And I received the curse from Dame Riesling's spirit, which is probably why all of … ," she gestures a hand at herself in a somewhat disparaging manner, " … this came about. But, we share the same beast. A black canine with wings, though mine are not feathered. My friends said that the Jupani hunter was somehow the … the inspiration for it. Do you think Kantemir has somehow been shaping the emptiness in the cursed, using other emptiness, like the heartless Jupani hunter? Didn't you know him Von Horne?"

Klaudia nods slowly, her face hard. "More than a decade ago. I knew of him, more than I knew him personally, had heard his reputation for effectiveness and for savagery." She leans on her spear, ruminating. "I do not know in what way he might have been used as a model, but I do know this, as a huntress… Sylvania gives birth to monsters constantly. The circumstances differ in each case, but she is always trying to twist, to shape, to find weakness or mutability, reflected in a thousand thousand ways, as I have seen. You have heard of the blighted land of Bosch, have you not?"

"Oh yes," Lilac says, ears perking. "I … um, vaguely remember trying to avoid wandering too closely to its boarders while I was traveling. My memory until I met Lady Umeko, after the curse, is fuzzy I'm afraid. But I remember. Plus, the stories."

Even Greyswand seems to recall, the set of his face grim. "You're saying that we… let something change us? Like the monsters of Bosch?" He looks down at the floor. "I knew… I knew we weren't properly Korv anymore, but… to think… "

The bardess frowns again, taking a moment to glance at the tail that sways gently behind her. "So, you're saying maybe that it's our growing weakness that made us like we are? The Void takes, and we are even weaker than most people in that regard, which lets the … the twisting in?"

"Where we give up pity, remorse, even fear entirely… " says Von Horne, her eyes growing distant. She turns her spear slowly, seeming to study the Korvid head wrought in steel. "It could be that we invite something else to take its place. Sylvania is watchful."

"How scary," Lilac concedes, looking a little unsettled by her own tail now. "And all the more so because I understand what you mean. As I said, I once set upon an innocent woman. I've burned airships and hurt many people. All for reasons I thought were good! But, … " the bardess shakes her head, "I don't think I was like that before, I've been slipping like the Murder."

Greyswand looks up again, as if looking at the castle through the side of the town hall. "Then perhaps we'll both find something to bring us back… maybe all of us."

From his corner of the building, Xander says, "Aha! These should work. Who wants to carry them?"

In preparation for confrontation, Umeko chose a secluded corner of the town hall. There she has settled down with her tail coiled about herself and gone about the ritualistic process of dismantling her two swords. The bamboo pins have been carefully knocked out and the handles removed and placed aside, along with the various components that make up the guard. So there she now sits, gently polishing away any light rust that may have formed using a fine talc and a collection of oiled rice paper.

She follows the man's gaze, staring for a long moment. "I'll miss being able to fly," Lilac says in an absent voice, biting her lip. Her gaze shifts to Von Horne and she says, "I'm going to have to learn how to be ordinary, boring Lilac again. I think I'm actually afraid of success, but not as much as failure. But in looking at you, and thinking on what I've lost, maybe being normal isn't so bad. I think if I become human again, I'd like to learn from you."

For her part, Anisa sits in one of the meeting hall pews, preparing the best way she knows how – with her feet propped up on the pew in front of her, leaned back, and brushing her ears.

Von Horne seems to mull this over. "If you still have the stomach to learn this unsavory trade, and I still have the stomach to teach it… perhaps we will see."

The bardess smiles a little, "That's all I can ask – and I have some ideas, too." She gives the Huntress and Sir Greyswand a little bow, then steps away and walks over to where Umeko is polishing her swords. She watches Umeko for a moment and says, "Ummy, do you still trust me?"

Umeko's movement stills for a time and then the Kiriga looks up. "That is an odd question," she says. Her tail uncoils and taps the spot in front of her, probably indicating for Lilac to sit. "For you to ask that means you believe I have," she then observes, "I have found some of your actions rash and that you often think too much with your heart … but that is what makes you, you. I have always trusted you to be what you are. I think you question yourself too much."

The two housemen that flanked Greyswand come to collect the flares that Xander has prepared, and prowl outside to deliver them to their fellows.

The Fire Mage wipes off his hands on his robe, and then pauses to recharge his spells, since nobody seems ready to have anything set on fire just yet.

Lilac obediently sits where indicated, then her left ear flops and right one goes askew, giving Umeko a 'hey, you tricked me' sort of look. The younger woman listens, then nods slowly. "It just seemed like you lost faith in me somewhere. We used to be so close," she admits, lowering her head. "And, I think I became jealous of Xander. I didn't want to share my only friend in the world – and maybe I was a little mad from loneliness." She takes a deep breath and exhales. "I just wanted to ask, and say that, just in case … Well … "

Xander's ears perk as he eavesdrops, but he does manage to refrain from saying anything that would get him smacked.

"I never wanted to be someone who controlled your life, Lilac. I know that I have a tendency to be a bit … I believe the word is 'pushy'. I did not want to encourage the demons that tell you that you are weak, or cannot survive on your own," Umeko notes as she sets aside the blade she was working on and folds her hands in her lap. "We are all artists in a world of blank canvas," she then describes, "Each of us wields a brush to paint our lives; to show others who we are. Some artists wield their brush with bold strokes. Such strokes tends to over-power those around them, masking the subtle lines and delicate details of the lives they touch. You are not like me, you do not try to force things around you. Your strokes are softer, more delicate. Around me … I have always been afraid I would somehow mask your brush strokes with my own. So … I have tried to let you define you life and path. Perhaps I have not been as available as I should have been. For that I am truly sorry and I also I also hope that you can forgive me."

By the time Umeko stops speaking, Lilac's ears have wilted and her eyes look a little glossy. "Of course I can! Oh, I'm sorry Ummy. Some day I'll tell you about Isabella, maybe you'll understand a little better." She takes a moment to wipe her left eye with the back of her sleeve, then leans forward to try and give the Jadian a hug. "I hope you can forgive me too. I've been hard on Xander and feel out of place. I thought your reaction with the Murder meant you had given up on me. But you know, I'll always be there for you if you need me."

Umeko always seems a little … confused, perhaps, when she is hugged. And her return hug is a little unsure; probably unsure if she's doing it right or giving off the feeling the target is an intended meal. "I cannot fault you for following your nature," she says as she releases the human. "And that too is something I've always known. A friend needs not ask if their friends will be there with them when times are dark; for all their true friends will be there without being bidden. Look around you, Lilac, and see who is here. You are not as alone as you believe yourself to be." There's another pause in her words. "You are afraid that some of us may not survive the night, are you not?"

"Are you afraid of anything like that?" Xander Lapi-whispers to Anisa. "I'm trying not to think about it myself."

Lilac is as emotional a hugger as she is a speaker and hugs Umeko tightly, like she's afraid the woman might slip away. "Some of us, and me too," Lilac admits as she leans back from the hug. She wipes at her eyes again. "We're up against Vandringar and a Void creation, plus whatever Kantemir may be. Vandringar is waiting for us to falter and even though we may have caught him first, we're still surrounded. Kantemir may be able to control me, the Raveness isn't even touchable. I just thought I'd better speak my heart, in case it's too late." The woman blinks, her right ear rotating, then she says, "Xander is ready now, we should probably get going?"

"I'm always afraid of that," Anisa whispers back in Skeek, "but you can't dwell on it, or it'll paralyze you."

"Right, forward to… uh… we're going after the Seneschal first, right?" the brown Lapi buck asks.

"In a moment," Umeko says as she begins the process of reassembling her weapons. "My … secret to remaining calm in most battles is to not dwell on what could happen, but to remind yourself why you are there. Think of the people you are fighting for. Think of what you are trying to bring to the land. In those thoughts you will find the strength to move forward."

"Before I could rely on my beast to make me forget these things. It was all very straightforward with it. Protect, fight, win. Sometimes the order got blurry, but usually that's it. Now I control my beast and I'm not so ruthless as it." The bardess nods and begins to stand up. "So, think like I thought when I rallied the Murder then, Ummy? I … I think I can do that. Thank you so much, and again, too. I'll let you get ready now." She gives her friend a smile, then steps away and begins adjusting all the ties that let her shape-shift without destroying her clothes.

Umeko sets the remaining pins in her weapons, then sheaths the blades. "And for the record of history," she says in perfect deadpan as she stands, "I have no plans to die this night, and neither should any of you. If any of you fall, I will personally go into the after life, bring you back, and kill you again for being frustrating."

"That's… uh… inspiring!" Xander claims, nodding vigorously.

"That's our Ummy," Lilac remarks. She kicks off her boots and tosses her gloves in a pile next to them, announcing, "I'm ready."

Anisa grins at the Kiriga, "And I bet you'd do it, too."

"Indeed," Umeko claims.

Anisa sits up from the pew, replacing her brush to her pocket. "I'm ready too."

"And I'd go with her," adds Lilac. "Let's go show the Seneschal and Vandringar betrayal doesn't go 'unrewarded.'"

---

With instructions given, the adventurers gather to make their return to Castle Pieksvaldt, past the beekeeper's house and returning through the secret passage that Tess had revealed. The castle is as they left it, dark and quiet, but dawn isn't far away. The castle's stillness is even deeper than before, as if it were holding its breath in anticipation. From the servant's quarters, Anisa, Xander, Umeko, Lilac, and their once-foe, the monster huntress Von Horne make their way to the stronghold's grand hall and it's broad, carpeted staircase, where House Pieksvaldt's tapestry hangs, still bearing the small bright spot representing Lilac. There's someone else waiting here too, a tall and familiar character dressed in white, a tall stag contemplating the Pieksvaldt arms.

"Hello Hagen," Anisa says, not even bothering to give a show of force. "Having a mid-afternoon stroll?"

The stag looks up as if pleasantly surprised, smiling broadly and spreading his hands apart to welcome the group back. "Simply waiting for the good word, my friends. I am pleased to see you've returned, and with good news I'm sure."

Lilac's ears shoot up as she spots the white-dressed stag man. She glances at Umeko, looking to the older woman for guidance. Her plan did not include dealing with the man inside the castle; she had thought he had left earlier.

"He is not an enemy yet," Umeko remarks quietly to Lilac, "But do not trust him."

"You don't have to tell me, I never trusted him. Not all monsters come from Sylvania," Lilac mutters back to Umeko. The bardess eyes the man a moment, then starts sniffing and looking around, in case he's brought friends.

"As good as it gets in the Star-forsaken place, yeah, I suppose," Anisa says, looking to Umeko. "We have a plan, at least – seen any sign of the Seneschal?"

"We may have a way to unveil the betrayer and awaken the Raveness from her slumber," Umeko offers, "But it is not without significant risk from being destroyed by the true monster of the keep."

The Cervani lord seems to be alone. He sets the foot of his cane down with a click on the marble floor, hands resting on the head of it. "Seneschal Kantemir has been moving. Almost all the Murder have left the castle, but he was accompanied by two. They've selected the night's… offering. You remember Mr. Carrow, I'm sure? The Khattan merchant we met at the banquet."

Anisa's ears wilt, "Oh no… the Khatta? Where did they take him?"

"Does that mean they're about to sacrifice him?" Lilac steps forward, then pauses, looking again to Umeko. "Ummy, you remember the dream, don't you?"

"I thought the Raveness did the choosing," Xander mutters, and turns to stare at Anisa's chest – where the crystal hangs, of course. "That crystal will tell you when she's near, right Anisa?"

Umeko nods, "The tower, the place that I died. We should not dally; the Khatta, while a strange fellow, does not deserve that sort of death."

"That's where she'll be, right Ummy." Lilac glances at Vandringar, and asks the others, "But what about him? I don't trust him behind me – or beside me, or in front of me."

Anisa nods, "It should." The doe grasps the crystal, focusing her attention on it. "Close is relative, though – but it should let me know when she's near." She looks up to Vandringar. "As should Hagen's."

"To the Raveness' tower, I believe," says Vandringar. "I haven't seen her myself, as yet, but I haven't been able to go so close to the noble's wing, for all that I've sought audience."

"Remember what we may face there, we will need all the allies we can muster, Lilac. Evil events make strange bedfellows, I think the phrase goes. Or was it Lapis make strange bedfellows? Your metaphors confuse me," the Kiriga notes. "Regardless, we should hurry to the tower."

"I'm not… I mean, Lapis… uh… " Xander falters. "The tower is up, right?"

"O-of course Ummy. I'll trust your judgment," the bard says. She then tells the others, "Please, let me speak to the Raveness first. I know now that she sees spirits, that's why she sees me as Dame Riesling. She trusts Dame Riesling."

"As you like, this is your canvas," Umeko says.

Anisa nods to Lilac, "Of course." She then turns to Vandringar yet again. "So, are you going to accompany us, or is that tapestry an all day thing?"

Vandringar bows slightly at the waist, sweeping a hand out to offer the door. "As splendid a specimen as it is, I'm sure it can wait until we're toasting our victory. Please, lead the way."

"Okay, then. Well, let's see if I remember the path. Follow me, everyone," Lilac tells the others – even Vandringar. She still looks like she loathes him when she passes her glance his way, though. Hurriedly, the bardess picks up the pace and starts jogging deeper into the castle. "This way!"

"Following," Umeko says bluntly as she darts off after Lilac. The Kiriga keeps herself low. At her right side is the battered sword of the betrayer, along with the pouch containing the remains of the Lord. Her left still carries her daisho.

Anisa quickly follows after the others, keeping behind and closer to Vandringar so that she can keep an eye on him – or rather, an ear.

The dream seems clear to Lilac still, even in the darkened, empty corridors. The same statues and paintings she and Umeko had passed on their way are still in their places even so many years later. Beyond a cavernous hall, successions of steadily narrower staircases climb up and up and up, one connecting to another until the group comes to one with sconces lit still, spiraling around a pillar under a high vaulted ceiling. Rain patters against stained glass windows, occasionally letting flashes of lightning illuminate scenes of House Pieksvaldt's lineage. This was the staircase Lilac and Umeko had climbed as their dream selves, accompanied by the Murder's honor guard. It leads to the same double doors Korv shaped into the wood banded with iron, the handles heavy rings. Even despite the thickness, voices carry through it.

"Heavy looking doors," Xander whispers.

"Do you wish to listen, or shall we enter?" Umeko whispers to the others. "I fear for the Khatta. The longer we wait, the more likely it is he will die."

Crouching several steps from the door, Lilac nods. "Nothing has changed – and I think I hear voices." She then nods to Umeko, as well. "I'd rather be too early than too late."

"It never hurts to get some intel before a fight," Anisa says with a shrug, "but if you guys think it'd be best, then lets go."

"Well, if you hear 'let the sacrifice be given', or similar, we charge in," Umeko offers.

"Uh… should we charge in just when the Raveness is ready to eat someone?" Xander whispers, and goes to press his ear against the door to hear better.

Anisa nods, and places her oversized ears against the door, trying to make any voices out.

"If we charge in, I'm going to yell I have important news, like I'm Dame Riesling – news of the Lord Rook. That should stop her," Lilac whispers, eying the door.

"It's been a fine stay, I suppose," comes the first voice. It's Carrow's. Another voice, Korvish and raspy but authoritative answers. The Seneschal's. "Is there aught you would care for, in your last moments? Do not ask for benediction… your peace with your god is your business, we do not answer to such now."

"No, nothing I suppose, but to offer my thanks for many a fine repast. I suppose it's only fitting I should be one, now," says Carrow.

"They're giving him his last request now," Xander whispers to the others.

The Seneschal again. "Kneel."

"Kantemir is asking if Carrow has any last requests," Anisa says. "He seems resigned to his fa- oh Dagh, we better get in there!"

"We're out of time," Lilac frets. She glances at the others, then charges for the door!

Anisa gives a squeak of surprise, and dodges aside as Lilac charges in.

"Then perhaps we should be his last request, no? A chance to defy death one last time," Umeko says. She draws out Sunlight through storm and follows after Lilac. "You cannot open the doors alone!" she remarks.

"We could knock?" Xander asks, dodging aside. "Let the big musclebound stag do it!"

When Lilac throws her weight against the doors, she finds they are indeed heavy… but not locked. They swing inward, slowly at first, then picking up speed, balanced well on their hinges, until they can't really be stopped, and the crash against the walls with a boom that resonates through the chamber beyond and lingers like thunder.

"And the crash of thunder announces the unstoppable storm," Umeko waxes poetic. "May it wash these lands clean."

"I'm not… letting … someone die … again," Lilac wheezes as she tries to shove the door open, using her shoulder. She puts all her weight behind it, leaving her staggering when the doors give away. She skids and lands on a knee, breathing heavily, then pushes herself to her feet, yelling, "STOP!"

"Uh, you want the escorts," Xander asks Klaudia, "or Kantemir?"

Anisa runs in after Umeko and Lilac, unfurling her whip and scanning the room.

Heart of the Raveness, Artifact Chamber – Castle Pieksvaldt: The chamber is large and round, fully sixty feet across with high vaulted ceilings and arches around the whole circumference that, in happier times, would have let sunlight stream in. The whole of it is lit now with racks of candles in the style of convents, the illumination weak compared to the cold flashes of lightning that make light flicker across the mosaiced floor. In the center of the room, a pedestal sits empty and likely long forgotten. On the opposite side, a dais elevates a perch near the largest of the windows, gilded wood seating the tall but stooped figure of Lady Raveness Margaret Pieksvaldt, her robes gathered around her and her scepter held in feeble-looking claws.

The rotund form of Carrow kneels awkwardly before the dais, balance difficult for the fat Khatta, and on either side of him stand a pair of housemen liveried as the castle guard. Before Carrow stands Seneschal Kantemir, his wings raised as if he were presenting something to the lady of the castle, and he turns abruptly when the doors crash open, his medallion of office swinging from his neck. Save for the Raveness, all the Korv look surprised, as well as Carrow himself when he looks over his shoulder.

"My friends from the banquet!" exclaims the Khattan merchant. "I thank you for seeing me off, but you mustn't come in! It was my time anyway."

"Stop," repeats Lilac, who has pulled herself up now, standing defiantly. When the Khatta man speaks, she glances at him but continues, caught in the moment. "My Lady Raveness, I bring word of the Lord Rook, and of treachery," she announces, then shoots Kantemir a accusing, narrowed eyed stare. "I, Dame Riesling!"

Umeko draws to a stop a few feet behind Lilac. For now she just waits for a signal to present either the skull or sword … and to watch for any threatening advances on the group.

Anisa places her paw on her pendant, focusing on it to see if her closeness to the orb gives any reaction. She glances at Vandringar to see his reaction.

The other Lapi has an angry red ball of magic in each hand, but doesn't look the least bit threatening compared to the others.

It's when the Raveness stands that Anisa feels something, a stirring of the First Stone that taps one end of Tess' broken hairpin lightly against her. A quick glance at the Cervani lord reveals him looking on intently, no sign of his customary facade of easy charm. A hand strays to the neck neck of his greatcoat seemingly subconsciously, but he does little else. Kantemir speaks first. "What's the meaning of this? You-… " but Margaret interrupts him, her whispery voice carrying even across the wide chamber. "Dame Riesling… and guests. So kind. You've come… to share an autumn plum with me?" A chill comes to the air in the room, a few candles guttering out.

Xander chants to maintain his spells.

"We may not have much time, see if you can awaken her memories," Umeko whispers to the woman in front of her.

"We have come with news, my Lady," says Lilac, stepping forward. "News of the Lord Rook. Please, my Lady, this is no time for eating." The bardess's voice is pleading and she nods to Umeko's words. "I'm trying," she whispers back. Louder, she continues. "You remember the war, my Lady? Of your dear Lord Rook? You have been waiting for news, my Lady. Waiting so long, please listen!"

"If you wish, I can present the sword and skull," Umeko offers quietly, "Perhaps tell her we found that he had fallen in battle and then I present … then you explain how… "

The Raveness seems to hesitate, drawing her scepter closer to herself and teetering a little on her feet. She seems confused, as though she would blink her eyes if they weren't simply deep pools of reflectionless black, of emptiness. "You… bring word of him? Of my husband? My lord, my love?" Kantemir looks furious, turning away from the dais now, his long coat swirling under his wings. "Remove them!" he orders, and the two honor guard begin crossing the room, wingclaws on the hilts of their swords.

"Anyone not fireproof had better stand down," Xander warns the guards.

Without another thought, Anisa sprints to Lilac, placing herself between the human and the guards. "Let her speak," the doe says, cracking her whip, "or there'll be trouble!"

"Step forward Ummy, get ready with the artifacts," Lilac whispers frantically back to Umeko. Turning her attention back to the matter in front of her, Lilac swings an arm towards Umeko, indicating her. She begins to speak, but pauses with sudden surprise as Anisa steps between her and danger, then continues on even stronger. "The Lord Rook is slain, my lady! Slain by friend and fellow, slain by one of our own – and we bring proof! Please, tell the Seneschal to step aside, my Lady – he will be judged soon," Lilac's raised voice cries, echoing through the lonely chamber.

The guardsmen don't stop, but they do slow down, crossing the center of the room and drawing sabers. The crack of that barbed whip and the ruddy glow in Xander's hands are enough to make them think rather than just try to hustle the intruders away. Lilac has her words.

"She speaks truly," Umeko says as she now walks around Lilac and forward. Her hands go to the worn pouch at her side, "I am truly sorry to bring you this news, but your husband fell in battle." The Kiriga then drops to one knee as she draws forth the worn skull of the fallen lord. As she holds it high, she says, "Little of him could be recovered, but what could was protected by one of his loyal guards and then by her descendant until it could be returned to you."

The Seneschal's expression suddenly changes, from one of simple anger to a suddenly incredulous but strangely calm look, beak opened slightly. The Raveness seems, if anything, even more lost. "… Slain? No… no, that cannot be. My husband… I must wait for him. I… keep the castle… for him." And then Umeko draws the bleached skull from her bag, holding it aloft, the black beak, heavy and strong still like a mattock, pointed forward. The chill air in the room seems to go still. For a moment no one moves, no one speaks, not the Seneschal, not the guards, not the Raveness herself.

Anisa looks nervously back and forth between Umeko and the Raveness, her free paw once again clasping the First Stone.

Lilac waits statue-still, breath held and eyes intent on the Raveness. The weight of the situation feels, to her, like a weight balanced on knife's edge. One false move and it could all topple.

"What's the crystal doing now," Xander Lapi-whispers across to Anisa through the side of his mouth.

Just as Xander asks, Anisa feels a stirring from the stone. Clasping it by it's chain, the doe holds it outwards away from her chest, allowing it to swing free.

"And it is with an even heavier heart that I must inform you he did not die by the hands of the undead, but by one of his own housemen. He was betrayed, as were you," Umeko continues. Her own head now raises up and she turns to look towards Kantemir. "Tell me, sir, did you feel anything at all when you ordered the death of Lord Rook? Any regrets? Any sorrow? Or was it pleasure?" she says slowly and strongly, her eyes locked upon that Korv. "Perhaps you would like to share those feelings with the Raveness."

The Raveness seems stricken, her hands tightening around the rod of her scepter. "I… I hear him. I hear him now. As if from… far away, but… Kantemir, how? How can this be? Tell me." Her voice is a hoarse but fierce whisper, and she begins to advance on the Seneschal, reaching out as if imploring. "Tell me!"

With Umeko having spoken on behalf of the Lord Rook and his remains and with the Raveness in doubt and advancing on the Seneschal, Lilac steps forward again. "Do not try and deny your crime, Seneschal! We have the sword and myself as well. I remember your jaws in my flesh!" Lilac can only hope Dame Riesling is pleased with her words, that she is not taking liberties. "He sought to murder me as well, my Lady, 'fore I had discovered the truth. Please, be careful!"

Anisa's fur frazzles as Lilac steps forward, and she places a paw on the girl's shoulder. "Be careful," she whispers, "it's still not safe to be near her."

The First Stone dangles from Anisa's twine necklace, the blue-green rhombus under it turning and the piece of chitin hairpin tied to it spinning with it. In her head, Anisa can hear the words-not-words she's come to know as the First Stone's voice. "Void Control Sample proxy containment pattern detected. Containment pattern: compromised. Pattern integrity: compromised."

Tearing his eyes from Anisa's crystal to the guards, Xander tenses… and then thinks to look back to Vandringar and Von Horne to see what they're up to.

"She speaks true, Lady Rook. The lord was slain by a footman's blade, from what Dame Riesling learned of it," Umeko offers and now draws forth that as well and places it on the floor before her. "A weapon recovered, and kept, by Kantemir for some reasons unknown. But that is not all we have. I also present Klaudia Von Horne, the descendant of the soldier who remained true and tried to protect Lord Rook's body can also attest to the matter at hand. She has long been trying to right this terrible wrong."

Klaudia Von Horne kneels in the strange way of avians, one foot forward and the other bent, the butt of her spear rested on the floor. Her beak is upraised, reverent, her mask hanging unused from her neck. "I bear witness as the daughter of Dame Hilde Von Horne! My mother was the only survivor of the Lord Rook's war host and was barred return! Oathbreakers fell upon them!"

Taking her paw off of the human girl, Anisa gives her a nod, then steps back. Closing her eyes – but keeping her ears focused on the guards – the Lapi woman concentrates on the stone. "How can I fix the patterns," she says in her mind – also accidentally whispering the words in Skeek.

Xander picks up Anisa's whisper, but can only glance in confusion and see if Vandringar is acting similarly.

The stone replies serenely, as it always does. "Disengage proxy containment pattern. Re-establish harmonic to Void Control Sample. Re-init stored primary containment pattern." Vandringar's ears swivel under his antlers, as if he were listening closely to something. His eyes are hard, focused on the scene before him, one hand resting on his chest and the other clutching his cane.

Seeing Klaudia kneel, Lilac takes a breath, nods back to Anisa as she retreats to deal with the First Stone, and then offers her last piece of evidence. "Finally, my Lady, the last truth of betrayal I have: I am not Dame Riesling," she tells the Raveness solemnly, gesturing to herself. "Look hard upon me, and you will see I am human. My name is Lisandra Dragomir, and I carry the spirit of Dame Riesling, slain by Seneschal Kantemir, not merely injured. I have come to avenge her, and everyone – we have come to set you free."

Anisa opens her eyes, glancing over at Vandringar. "I hope you know what this thing is telling us to do," she whispers, fairly certain of his answer.

By now, the Raveness reaches the Seneschal, her eyeless gaze going from her majordomo to the group gathered on the other side of the room. "You… you are not Dame Riesling… but I hear her with you as well. She cries out to me. The blood of my lord cries out to me. The spirits of his war host cry out to me! Why, Kantemir?! Tell me!" Crooked claws reach out to the Seneschal… and he bats them to the side with the back of his hand, getting the closest thing to a look of shock the empty-eyed lady of the castle can manage. "He is not back YET, Margaret. He is dead. He will NEVER return." And with that, he turns, striding down from the dais and slowly walking to the pedestal in the center of the room. "For so long as the Lord Rook cannot return to your embrace, my lady, you are sworn to protect this castle, it is for me to attend to it, and it is to the Murder to attend to me. Housemen, obey me! Remove these intruders!" But neither of the honor guard move, instead turning on Kantemir.

"Not since you betrayed the House, Kantemir, and it as become known," Umeko says firmly. "Your actions have proven you a traitor to the house, therefore you are now their enemy as well. You attacked and damaged the house. You are its greatest threat. Your hold over them is over and it is time for you to end."

"My Lady," Lilac begins, turning to the Raveness, her ears laid back, voice sad but insistent, "I have rallied the Murder with these truths. They have agreed not to attack us, but they cannot turn upon Kantemir without your blessing. Do you discharge the Seneschal from his post, and declare him traitor?"

The Korvess noble raps the end of her scepter to the floor, the clack carrying through the chamber. At Lilac's words, the Raveness' voice grows stronger, higher. "I am still lady of this castle, Kantemir! Traitor to the line of Pieksvaldt, oathbreaker, I strip you of your title, lands, and duties!" And that is when Kantemir's voice seems to take on an echo, as if it were coming from deep within some cavernous pit, some vast empty place. "Lady Raveness, do you think your authority is what grants me power here now? Do ANY of you?! You cannot act against me any more than you can control the void within yourself, the ceaseless hunger, any more than you can overcome your despair at knowing your husband is dead."

Xander turns his attention to Kantemir, and tries to sense any magic coming from him or an item he holds.

Anisa's nose starts to twitch insanely fast at the scene before her, and she drops into a defensive stance. Still keeping one paw on the crystal, she starts to wonder, and focuses on Kantemir instead of the Raveness.

"You underestimate your Raveness and us. That will be your undoing. If you believe yourself so powerful, prove it. Otherwise your words are but blustering wind," Umeko says in that cool, calm, way of hers. "The grace of Sunlight-Through-Storm will cut the bonds that snare this place asunder."

Lilac's ears shoot up at Kantemir's declaration, her eyes widening in surprise. She had suspected – they all had – that he possessed some greater power, some mysterious controlling force over the powers here, but she hadn't imagined it was so potent he would brush off the Raveness's judgment without even flinching. The woman turns her gaze to the honor guard beside him, and back again, wondering what control he may have over them as well – and perhaps, on her. "Then what is it, Kantemir? Why have you done these things, for what purpose would you throw away the love and loyalty of your friends?" she asks of him, her voice carrying across the room.

The Fire Mage blinks and shakes his head to break his concentration, muttering, "It's like he's got a Forbidden Zone inside of a tornado… "

"Why?" The Seneschal seems given pause for a moment, staring at Lilac. The two honor guard level their swords at him, and Kantemir barely seems to notice. He has his own rapier drawn, but the point is angled down at floor. "A lifetime ago, I would have told you that Magsbed had no place holding this seat. Gallis with her eye on Sylvania, incursion from every side, and Chronotopia marrying into our nobility… he and his misbegotten faith in the Gear, and everything he brought… his blood and his order had no place here. The Pieksvaldt name had no place here. But now… "

"Got that good ol' fashioned undead streak back," Xander whispers aside to Anisa, in Skeek.

The bardess's ears flick, and for a moment she edges back from the Seneschal as his gaze fixes on her. He is the one through which evil cursed her, bringing her to murder and hardship, the source of one of the greatest stains on her soul. His impassive gaze surely must unnerve her, to see such personal evil stare back. With effort, the young woman seems to rally, halting her edging retreat, holding her ground and setting her jaw. She narrows her eyes, and listens.

"So you betray your people, your lands, and bind them into darkness?" Umeko asks, "You became the destroyer of your people; no better than Gallis. Perhaps worse; at least Gallis was an enemy that would meet you on the field of battle; not one that would lurk in the shadows and strike as a coward."

Kantemir turns his gaze from Lilac to Umeko. "Bound them into darkness? They have always lived in darkness. You all have. My concerns were petty, yes… I have gazed into the abyss and seen the void. We are an infinitesimal speck on the brink of a yawning nothingness. True emptiness, true oblivion… and I have been the master of this castle atop it. I shall hold it for as long as I please, for the Raveness cannot release it… and even if she should, the line of Pieksvaldt will end in the unfathomable dark."

"The only thing that's going to end is you, Kantemir," Lilac tells the Seneschal with all the venom her travels have brought her. "I've seen things greater than you! Beings who claimed to know the truth, artifacts like the one you use, and of all of them there has never been a soul to make them worthy for carrying the 'truth.' You sacrificed everything for nothing – I'd pity you, if I didn't hate you! Some monsters deserve to die!"

"You have dwelt too long in the dark and cannot see beyond it. A lost fool," Umeko says as she readies Sunlight-Through-Storm. "No, I believe you to be a blind fool. Even a void can be defeated and the answer is simple; you fill it. Lilac is right. Why don't we see if your lifeless and soulless body can fill it, mm?"

"Come then," says the once-seneschal, his voice echoing from somewhere far away. "See if your slivers of steel can cut the endless dark, see if all your blood and tears can fill absolute emptiness." His rapier falls to the floor with a clatter, forgotten, and the shadows over his livery and feathers deepen, spread, and then swallow him in inky black, then swell outward. He seems to grow… or maybe it's that the patch of blackness around him seems to eat everything around him. The Raveness holds her scepter up as if to ward it off, but she's swallowed with it, and still the shape grows, until it seems to become more defined… wolf-like, almost like the Murder, but with no glossy pelt or violet eyes. Even with the size of the chamber, Kantemir… or what was Kantemir dominates the center of it. Carrow wisely scrambles away, but the honor guard don't… they raise their swords, and lashes of what look like smoke or ribbon stretch away from the dark mass, passing through the two Murder. They each fall in two pieces as if split asunder with an impossibly sharp blade, and when their bodies land on the floor, they splash outward as dust. "Everything that touches the Void is undone… what hope do your material bodies have against it?" The air in the chamber becomes rapidly colder, the temperature plunging and biting with alarming suddenness.

Anisa's fur stands on end, both at the scene before her, and at the sudden cold. Fishing into her collar, she pulls the First Stone, and takes a few steps back. "Everyone," she calls out, "be careful! Remember, its an orb we're fighting, and what they can do!"

Xander scurries back a bit, wondering where, if anywhere, the beast might be vulnerable…

While she had held her ground before, the human woman does back away now, almost stumbling. She ends up beside Umeko, giving her friend a pale-faced, deeply worried look. "I'll fight, Ummy," she says, backing away no farther, her voice unsteady. "I don't know if my own Beast can harm that … t-that thing, but maybe the ghosts of the past can. The sword, Ummy, let's try and call the ghosts of the sword."

"Anisa, Vandringar," Umeko calls out, "Do you trust me? You must somehow enter this darkness; use your crystals to shield yourself. Find the orb, and disable it. That is absolutely key. Or … somehow sync your crystals, then send one into the dark and use it from afar. I know not which, if either, will work, but I see little choice."

To Lilac, Umeko nods. "A fair plan," the Kiriga agrees. She grabs and holds out the crude blade before her. "Ancestors always watch over their children. If the ancestors of the land can hear us now, we need your help and your strength."

Anisa looks to Vandringar, then to Umeko. "I trust you, Kin… but entering that thing might be a bad idea – physically at least." She looks to her old foe. "What do you think – can we communicate with this thing as long as it's being controlled?" Meanwhile, the doe unfurls her whip. "Really wish I had my bow," she mutters to herself.

"That's right," Xander says quietly. "The Orb. It has a limited surface area, even if it may be a boundless abyss within. There's only so much he should be able to absorb at once… and I notice that the floor isn't turning to dust beneath his feet."

The First Stone speaks in Anisa's mind. "Reporting experiment 45001 cycles recorded: 3404.39 standard. Experiment resuming. Notice: Void Control Sample Containment Proxy compromised. Failsafes overridden."

"I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good," Anisa says, sidling up next to Vandringar. "Guys, I have a bad feeling about this… "

The bardess takes the sword and backs behind Umeko, being much more vulnerable in her human form. "I'll do my best, Ummy. Remember the Void is in me too; if that can help, tell me. I'll join you when I'm done." The woman cradles the sword in her hands, holding it before her like a precious relic, aiming it at the mass of darkness. "Please, help me Dame Riesling," she whispers to the ghost that resides within her, and then she begins …

Vandringar is looking on, and when Anisa speaks he doesn't take his eyes off the mass of black dominating the center of the room. "It's not good. I'd try to push through if we could, but we still can't connect to Void… my stone is telling me what it's doing, but I can't harmonize with it. The Raveness is still in there… she's still clinging to it."

"Wait… just… grrrr I need time," Xander grumbles, and sits down near the door. His hotfoot spell is now holding him back, so he just casts it at the shadow's feet – not expecting it to work, but at least those must be semi-solid. He then starts chant-singing a new spell.

Riesling doesn't answer with words… she's never spoken directly. But it's as if Lilac can hear the grand pipes from the chapel in her head, the hymn playing.

A multitude of voices speaks in Umeko's mind, the roar of a battlefield, Korvish war cries. Demands of vengeance and renewed oaths. The footman's blade shakes, and both Sunlight Through Storm and Grey Cloud seem to twitch in the Kiriga's hands, as if alive.

"So we have to get the Raveness away from the Orb," Anisa says, keeping her gaze on Kantemir. "If we… if we physically try… will our stones protect us?"

The First Stone doesn't seem to have an answer, but a voice much softer than the First Stone's speaks in Anisa's head, small and girlish but determined. "I won't… I won't let him hurt you. You didn't let the empty man swallow me up… I won't leave you defenseless!"

Von Horne seems to be listening to something, her beak opened slightly. "… Mother." Her beak clicks shut, and she grips her spear, lowering it, the iron jaw of the head swinging.

"Rally, rally, O soldiers of the Pieksvaldt banner, our Lady is in danger! Rally, the traitor is here," cries Lilac to the thunderous sky, her voice echoing throughout the chamber. "Rally, rally unto us! Rally against the traitor, rally for our Lord, rally for all we have lost! Rally, drive back the darknesss! Rally, rally!" In her hands the sword begins to vibrate, and in her head she can hear the hymn she had forgotten along the way. The woman blinks; she understands.

Anisa's ears shoot upwards, and she clasps the hairpin in her paw. "T-Tess? You're still there? Can you keep me safe?" The doe's ears splay sideways, unsure on what to do.

Umeko brings her blades to bear. "Each of you were forged to cut through darkness and bring light and honor to darkness," Umeko murmurs to her blades. "It is time for you to honor that name, let me guide you to victory."

Tess whispers, "I'll try my hardest, Miss Anisa! I can't hold him off, he's too strong… but I can let you push him back. I put my arms in yours, my hands in yours. Please, be careful, don't let him touch you!"

Anisa grinds her teeth, unsure on just what course of action to take. As Vandringar takes the west quadrant, she decides to head east, hoping to create enough confusion for the beast.

Von Horne glances back at Lilac while she looks for cover. "Behind me!"

"Thank you Klaudia!" The bardess snatches up the Lord of Pieksvaldt castle's skull from where it had been put aside, then ducks behind the Huntress for protection. And so, their story turns; the Hunter is now the protector. "I'm going to try and awaken the Lord, maybe his spirit can reach her – if that fails, I have another idea!"

Kantemir meets Umeko first, long forelegs and gnashing teeth snapping at her as if to swallow her up…

Umeko nearly falters, even her resolve taken to the max by facing down this creature. But … courage finds her in the knowledge she defends her friends; her family. Tooth and limb meet well-forged steel … and with the blessing of the warriors of old upon her, her blades prove more than solid enough to turn aside the attack; a crackle of white released each time steel meets an assault head-on.

Meanwhile, the smokey ribbons streaming off Kantemir's sides sweep out at her, flailing and slicing. It's a strange thing to try to fight.

As fast as her Lapine legs will carry her, Anisa sprints towards the east corner of the chamber, trying to flank the dark beast. Unfortunately for her, the creature seems to have more awareness than she anticipated, and the smokey tendrils snake out at her. The doe makes her best attempt to dodge, but the appendages just aren't like a human opponent, and she is forced to make a few swipes in retaliation. Strangely, her hands and arms are protected, and before she realizes what she's doing, she grasps at one of the stalks – which causes about a foot of it to break off.

The piece of tendril that snaps away vanishes abruptly with a loud crack noise!

The doe's ears shoot upwards in alarm at this – partly at surprise that she grabbed out at the tendrils, but also at the strange reaction. She continues to run, trying to get a better position.

Xander perks an ear at the noise, but doesn't interrupt his spell casting.

Klaudia cries out and joins the fight as well, keeping herself between the void beast and Lilac. She strikes and feints as if she were fighting any other monster, and is rewarded with a jab at the wolf-thing's shoulder, the spearhead dipping into shadowy substance and coming free with smoke-like streamers. The monster's head snaps at her in return, in a frenzy, and she keeps it prodded back and away from her.

Off to the side, the Cervani lord has arcs of blackness to contend with himself and he intercepts some reaching for Carrow as well. His cane sword hacks at any that come near, but the look of concentration on his face replaces his usual casual expression… this isn't any easier for Vandringar than it is for the rest.

Behind her once-hunter, Lilac tucks the sword under her arm, offhanding the skull as she digs around her belt with a free hand. What she draws forth is not a weapon, but a book, worn with age. The lettering on the cover is Chronotopian, with the sign of the Great Gear upon it; a hymnal. She lifts the book in front of her face, the skull balanced with her other hand, and calls out, "Lord of Castle Pieksvaldt, those who remember the Great Gear, for It has not forgotten you. Hear my prayer and hymn. O Lord, your Lady awaits. May your faith and my voice call you home." After taking a deep breath, Lilac turns to the hymn she had prepared and begins to sing.

"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,"

"Ein gute Wehr und Waffen … "

The bardess's voice echoes through the storm, carrying a hymn that has not touched these walls in generations. The fond, close hymn of a people who once believed in its words.

Nothing happens at first… and then the skull seems to move in Lilac's hand. It shifts slightly, feeling as though its weight is no longer resting on Lilac's palm.

The spell flung earlier seems to have a strange effect. At first, nothing seems to happen. Then there's a flare, and Kantemir's monstrous feet seem to go slightly translucent for a moment. They quickly re-solidify.

Umeko darts forward and tries to sink her blades into the great creature's limb. Alas, she found herself more on the defensive than offensive. She ducks and waves around two whips that almost get her. Instead of sinking deep, her blade merely drives the creature into defending itself.

Lilac's eyes dart to the skull in her left hand, and for the briefest moment her hymn pauses. With renewed strength she continues, eyes returning to the hymnal before her, bolstered by the knowledge her words are heard and by her own faith in her friends and the Gear itself. The Gear has not abandoned them, or her, and yet again it comes to her aid and lets her in when by all rights it should reject her. She sings on, stronger than before.

"Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,"

"Die uns jetzt hat betroffen."

After a deep breath and an unspoken prayer, Anisa sprints towards the creature as its backside swivels her way, the result of turning to face Vandringar. Dark tentacles lash out at her, and the doe does her best to dodge them, maintaining her speed. After what seems like forever, she swerves through the lashing stalks and throws her fist in a solid right hook at the beast's knee – which connects, blowing a part out from the form, immaterial, like a gust of wind through smoke. A loud "crack" results, like a small explosion, ringing painfully through Anisa's ears.

Vandringar seems to adopt a more defensive stance when the beast's head swings around angrily for him, Kantemir's voice ringing from somewhere within the depths, howling out, "What dweomer shields you?? Little matter!" Klaudia gamely jabs as well, but finds few openings in the daunting mass of flailing shadow-streamers.

But when Anisa's strike lands, one of the hind legs buckles, the shadowy creature seeming to lose support for a second. Though he should be immaterial, he reacts all the same to the crippled leg, bellowing. The chunk that was dispersed seems to gradually fill in again, but not before Vandringar and Carrow scramble out of the way of snapping jaws and grasping claws. The whole of the beast seems… slightly less deep somehow, shadow given form but not as intense as before.

Another flurry of angry lashes swings from the monster's sides and back, reaching at the defenseless merchant, and at the mage and bard, but they're repelled again. Vandringar circles north, and this time the beast cannot yet follow, still regaining its hind leg… but the Cervani leaves Carrow behind.

Shaking from the cold, Xander launches his spell with the words, "brand schild." His foggy breath glows, and then it seems like blue and green flames erupt around everyone but Kantemir, limning them in a hazy sheen. The chill of the air is held back.

The skull lifts out of Lilac's hands now, and hangs in the air, lifted high as if on the shoulders of a tall individual. The footman's sword tugs at her hand.

Looking across the room, Anisa watches as Vandringar moves away from his position of protection over Carrow. Cursing under her breath, her heart beating a million miles a second, the doe starts to make a sprint underneath Kantemir's legs – only to skid to a halt as a forest of tentacles streams in her way. She tries a different route, only to be blocked again, but finally sees a clear opening. Holding her breath, the Lapi makes a break for the gap, diving and rolling just inches away from a writing mass of smokey tendrils. Thankfully, this charge succeeds, and the doe finds herself next to Carrow, quickly spinning about to face Kantemir once more.

"Dagh's fiery nipple," Anisa yells to the feline from over her shoulder, "get the heck out of here!"

Umeko dances like, well, a serpent. Glide and twist, sweep and strike. The shadows find no purchase with her, but her sword seems to find purchase with them as bits of each cut and flicker away in small pops.

The Khattan merchant's jowls quiver, his eyes wide… he's thrown his arms over his head, preparing to meet his end, and the streamers that slice at him are brought short by the white rabbit suddenly springing up beside him.

As the skull begins to lift, the human woman's ears cant back and her eyes widen, but her singing goes on unabated. While she has rarely had a chance to sing on her adventures, the Bardess's voice is haunting and melodic, if untrained and imperfect. Her Sylvanian accent meshes well to the words of the Chronotopian hymn, but there is something more, a strength in her voice, and a conviction. Umeko remembers her friend had spoken well of the Gear for its lack of judgment, and the strength in her voice may be the budding seeds of a new found faith.

"Der alt bse Feind,"

"Mit Ernst ers jetzt meint."

When the sword under her arm begins to tug, the human eases her grip on it, allowing it to slip free if it may.

Von Horne takes a step back, and almost bumps Lilac… and then she refuses to budge back further. Her spear whistles and whines as she spins it this way and that, pushing back shadowy ribbons that threaten to slip under her guard. "Not like this, mother… " she says, her voice tight. "Not like this." And she whips the head of her spear in a long arc, fluid spraying from the steel Korv's eyes. Flipping the head up, the beak of the spearhead rings, and a spark catches, flames racing outward. The blaze pushes the shadows back, inky non-substance leaping back and Kantemir roaring, but all too soon they come again.

Alone in the north side of the chamber, Vandringar concentrates on his defense, his classical swordsman's stance keeping any of the grasping shadows from reaching him, but he does little to turn the tide.

Carrow hurries as fast toward the door as he can, ushered by Anisa who wards away several angry whips at him. Umeko keeps Xander safe as well, and as his spell springs to life, the adventurers can feel warmth returning to limbs that were going numb.

Ribbons of shadow arc at Lilac, sweeping in at her in oddly graceful curves. "No!" shouts Von Horne, pulling her spear around to bring the haft of it down on the lengths… which abruptly sweep back up unexpectedly. The Korvish woman spins, half reacting and half falling away, one of her wings separated at the shoulder. The spear clangs to the floor, the beak sparking, and Klaudia lands heavily on her side, clutching the stump of her arm. Crimson becomes the brightest color in the room.

The smell of Von Horne's blood reaches Anisa's nose, making her fur practically ache as it stands straight out. Frantic, she shoves the Khatta merchant towards the door, thankfully keeping the feline from harm - but at her own expense as the dark tendrils lash out at her. She manages to get a thump in as she flails wildly, and just barely makes it through the door and down the stairs. Collapsing to her knees, the doe pants heavily, trying to regain her breath. "Get… gasp out… gasp of here! Now!!"

Still chanting, Xander prepares to cauterize the Korv's wound with the Eye of Flame – good thing familiars don't need verbal instructions!

"Gro Macht und viel List,"

"Sein graus- NOOOOOO!!"

Lilac's scream pierces the room, her hymn cut off as Klaudia's blood sprays across her face. The human's eyes are saucers, hands trembling, mouth parted in disbelieving grief at her fallen defender. "N-no, no, no," she whispers, stunned. "NO NOT AGAIN NO!" Her gaze flicks to the void beast before her, her lips parting in a snarl. The sword drops from her arm, the hymnal beginning to slide from her hand as fur sprouts and bone begins to twist …

"By your side, Lilac," Umeko growls as her claws dig in and she sidesteps to interject herself between the human and Kantemir. Her blades dance, but she is unable to break his defenses … but he is able to get past hers. Umeko is fighting desperately now, blocking and dodging strikes as they rain down upon her. "You shall not have her!" the Kiriga growls.

And then Umeko is there. The warrior can just make out Lilac's blood and tear streaked face before she faces the monster. Behind her, Umeko can hear the woman begin to sing again, her voice quavering, but she continues on. What Umeko can't see is her misshapen hand and hunched stance as she retrains her beast, halting her transformation. The pain does not show on her face, only that wide-eyed disbelief.

"S-sein g-grausam Rstung ist."

"You think you can challenge the master of this castle and then flee into it?" roars and enraged Kantemir. One of his enormous paws swipes overhead, and rumbles through the mortar and brickwork above the chamber's door, mundane stone devoured by the void. Unsupported chunks fall free of the ceiling, the arch above the door collapsing and one of the doors falling off its hinges with a boom, but the frustrated monster cannot push Umeko back any further, the defiant Kiriga's blades flashing in desperate defense.

Von Horne's head rolls, but her hand remains on the stump and her talons scratch at the floor as she's hauled along by Xander, the huntress moaning… she's still alive, at least.

In the stairway below, it feels as though the tower trembles, streams of dust pouring from the arches above and raining on Anisa and Xander.

The storm howls now through a large hole in the domed roof.

With Kantemir's back to the Cervani lord, Vandringar takes the opportunity to redouble his attack, charging in and lopping angling a swing upward at whatever he can reach. It lops off the monster's tail, which disappears with a boom, making the Cervani duck back for a second. The tail begins regrowing, but slightly faded.

Still regaining her breath, Anisa's ears swivel backwards as Xander drags the prone Klaudia out into the stairwell. Her eyes go wide as Kantemir shakes the doorframe, but she manages to keep her composure. Spinning to help Xander move Klaudia, she pauses, and turns back to Carrow just before he starts to sprint down the stairs. "Wait, hold on! Take her with you!" The doe grabs Klaudia, and cradles her in her lap, flinching at the scent of blood. "She needs help!"

The fat merchant stops, his momentum almost carrying him down the stairs anyway, but he quickly wheels around. "Yes, yes!" he says, scooping up the fallen huntress as quickly as he can. "I'll get her down stairs and tend to her wound! Your Star and Anchor preserve you!"

"And may your… whatever preserve you," Anisa responds, handing the unconscious woman off to the cat. "Quickly, get out to the village – you'll find help there!"

The once-seneschal seems berserk now, digging and biting and clawing at the defenders like a rabid hound trying to dig a rabbit out of a hole… which he essentially is. His wrath is directed at Umeko, furiously trying to get at her.

Hurrying back through the crumbling doorway to cover Lilac, Xander spreads his arms wide, drawing out the Eye of Flame into a shield. In this case, a shield in the form of a blazing Great Gear.

The footman's sword lifts from the floor, moving to hover point-down beneath the quietly floating skull of Magsbed Pieksvaldt.

Umeko stands her ground. "Whatever happens I will now, and forever, be your friend," the Kiriga says softly, but enough that Lilac can hear. Her hands tighten on her blades and she stands defiant before the great creature. Lash after lash reign in and tear down Umeko's defenses. Her legs begin to buckle under the onslaught, but still she does not yield her ground. At one point she even turns away a blow, causing the great beast to stagger. This invigorates Umeko for a moment … and it's enough to turn aside one more barrage. "Awaken their hearts, Lilac. Fill the void. For Von Horne, for all of us," she actually pleads, her voice weakening.

The Jadian can hear the sucked-in breath of her friend as she narrowly dodges the Seneschal's lethal attacks, compounding the desperation in her hymnal song. The Bardess's voice sounds more guttural now as she strains to sing through a throat that steadily slips from humanity. She fights to retain her human form and sing, rather than give into the grief and fury that threaten to consume her. And then it happens, the last stanza …

"Auf Erd ist nicht seinsgleichen!"

The hymnal book drops from Lilac's shuddering hand as she collapses to her knees, her hand no longer human enough to hold it. Her body ripples, only the special construction of her baggy clothes keeping them from being torn from her frame as she changes. With a crack and a snarl, Lilac becomes her other self, her face twisted in snarling fury.

With the final words of the hymn spoken, the skull angles down, and the sword lifts its point up, as if held in salute. Looking at the relics for a moment, one can see the outline of a tall Korvish man, almost crane-like in his build… and that's when Xander's shield flares to life, the icon of the Great Gear blazing and hissing against rain coming in through the shattered dome's roof. Kantemir rears back, roaring… whether in pain or fear, or both, it's hard to tell.

Working at the monster's back, Vandringar seems to find few ways to attack, deftly holding his own, a look of concentration on his face.

"Xander … Lilac," Umeko says in a gasp of breath, "Hold the line. Forgive me, but I need a moment to center, I can barely stand." Though tired beyond belief, the Kiriga's expression is one of pain as she heads out of the fighting and down a segment of the stairs. There she drops to one knee, her sword tip resting against the floor. "Ancestors, hear me," she whispers softly, "I fight now for the greatest of all, my family. Give me the strength to defend them. I know I have asked too much of you, but please do not turn from me. If they fall, my soul could not bear it." The Kiriga then takes several deep breaths. "And if you will not listen to your progeny now … then let Dagh take you all," she says as her voice takes a harder edge. "For you will have abandoned all honor and all that should be held dear."

Turning his head, Xander gives Umeko a wink and a smile. Then he's back to focusing on the shield and maintaining the protection spell.

The glossy black form of Lilac in her beast shape brushes past Umeko as she pulls back, the Jadian can feel the transformed human's head press against her leg with affection before the bard is facing off against Kantemir, muzzle to muzzle. A hail of claw and fang rains down upon the much smaller void creature, Lilac's taloned paw meeting claws of pure oblivion and parrying them aside as the smaller monster evades attack. For the moment Kantemir seems to have the upper hand, his size and ferocity putting the smaller creature on the defensive, with Lilac's wild snapping and clawing sorely missing.

Like a white hot ball of fury, Anisa springs from the stairwell with a scream – not impressive coming from a Lapi, but it gets the point home. Zooming in on the creature's face, the doe fires off a volley of swings – but they are easily deflected by the monster, only one even connecting. The doe quickly springs back in frustration, losing ground as she fends off Kantemir's counter attacks.

The ghostly form of the Lord Rook and the very real forms of the footman's sword held in one spectral hand and the skull seen through his face advances through Xander's ward of fire, ignoring it. The beast shies back, swiping at the specter ineffectually. "N-no! What is this?! This cannot… you are not… you will not return to her!" There's a plaintive cry from somewhere far away, a Korv woman's voice, the Raveness, but too distant to hear properly.

The First Stone speaks in Anisa's mind. "Void Control Sample proxy containment link detected. Harmonizing… failed. Harmonizing… failed. Containment harmonic interference."

In the stairwell, Umeko is breathing slowly and deeply. "What is honor when there is no one left in you life? I was always told of the code, what is and is not an honorable act and yet … without people in my life to share it, what do I have?" she asks the air around her. "Nothing. Honor is the mark you leave on others. It is the strength you instil in those you fight for. It isn't just a written code; it is an act of the soul. In this, the darkest pit, I finally understand how honor gives strength." Her eyes open and those eyes of hers narrow. "I have friends to fight for. People I love."

The threshing of Kantemir's shadowy creepers gets, if anything, more frantic. They arc out further and, slashing angrily at anything in reach, slicing through air and stone. Great rents open in the ceiling, and gouge into the floor as if to pursue Carrow, though from where Umeko stands she can see that they don't reach further down the stairs… instead they cause the stair arch to collapse, and some of the retaining wall, chunks of unsupported stone tumbling down to make retreat dicey at best. But the monstrous black form of the once-seneschal seems more indistinct now, hazier, and through the great wounds in the tower dome, the group can see something they haven't before… the outlying land beyond the storm.

Anisa's ears instinctively perk up at the stone's words, even though the sounds only occur inside her mind. "P-Proxy? What's changed… " Trying to buy some time, the doe makes a break for the east side of the room, scanning the scene. Then she remembers the newly appeared specter. Holding the stone, she concentrates on what she assumes is Lord Rook. "Is he the proxy?"

"Negative," replies the Stone's calm, weirdly multi-speaking voice.

The raging beast of Lilac in her cursed form growls and snaps at the once-Seneschal, seemingly lost in a near-mindless ferocity until the Lord Rook steps into her field of vision. Gaze shifting, she regards him with a snarl that dies in her throat. Her eerie glowing eyes widen as she takes him in, and with a bark, she lopes over to stand by his side. Watching his attacks for a moment, she then joins in, moving to act in concert with the form of the ghostly lord.

At the Lord Rook's side, Lilac tries to support the ghost, but Kantemir's own desperate rampage against the specter, and all near him, proves overwhelming. The storm of void-lashes cloud the cursed Bardess's vision, endless tendril tipped in death storming down on her like the arrows of great army. It's all she can do to defend herself, wildly slashing and parrying with her great claws, until at last she's forced to flee the Lord Rook's vicinity and run for the relative safety of the west. By the time the assault ends, Lilac is panting heavily.

Trying not to get squished by falling masonry, Xander does what he can to defend the stairwell from Kantemir's wild attacks. Each time a void tendril hits his fire shield, there's a burst of light and a grunt from the Lapi, who is still chanting to keep up the Resist Elements spell covering everyone. He can't even spare a glance behind him to see how Umeko is doing.

Clasping the stone in her paw once more, Anisa spies Xander's shield, and decides to take a different tac. Rearing back, she sprints back to the southern section of the room, lobbing a few punches at Kantemir as she passes the creature by. Her blows are countered by the tendrils, and although she manages to get a solitary jab in, she barely manages to avoid getting smacked herself. Thankfully, she makes it behind the buck's ring of protection, and looks back to the stairwell. "Kin, are you alright?"

Left to his own devices, the Cervani lord tests and fences at the swirling ribbons of nothingness that whistle and shriek around him. He takes full advantage when Kantemir is distracted by his sudden vicious pursuit of Lilac, and the slender blade of his cane-sword slips through the shadow-beast's haunch, a sharp zig-zag in and out. There's a thunderous boom as a section of inky blackness suddenly shrinks inward, the air distorting for a moment.

The other lord present seems to stroll serenely toward Kantemir, the weapon stained by his mortal body's blood batting at shadowy streamers that seem reluctant to come near him.

Umeko is currently crouched on one of the remaining sections of the stairwell, her head is bowed and swords resting lightly against the stone floor. As Anisa's voice reaches her, her webbed ears flick and the Kiriga rises. "I am centered," Umeko answers in a calm and stronger voice. As her fingers curl and flex around the hilts of her weapons she says, "I am ready to cut through this storm." Umeko strolls back into the chamber, swords poised. As she passes Xander, the Lapi can hear her mutter, "Thank you.", but before any reply can come, the Kiriga darts forward like a lightning bolt. Her blades flash and fly against the monster. Twice are attacks deflected from her body with ease, the Kiriga's focus and determination restored anew … and it's now her turn to strike into the creature, shearing away small parts of its 'nothingness'. The exchange seems almost matched, but thankfully Umeko seems to fare the best in it.

Safe behind Hotfoot's shield for the time being, Anisa gets behind the buck and sits on the ground, cross-legged. Taking a deep breath, she raises the First Stone up so that it can move freely on it's chain, and closes her eyes. "Resonance," she mutters under her breath and aloud in her mind.

Having been forced to flee to the west by Kantemir's vicious attack, Lilac seems to have lost a much of her fury and momentum. When the tendrils again come for her, she parries and strikes in return with careful precision. One tendril is caught in her razor-sharp jaws and shaken until is vanishes, imploding as her jaws clamp shut. She's panting even more heavily now, ears flat and tail tucked between her legs as if to hide from the greater monster.

The Lord Rook stops before Kantemir's snapping head, slicing and striking easily as if he were engaging in fencing as sport, or cutting brambles away from a hedge.

Meanwhile, the other noble present doesn't pursue his attack, ears lifting as he sees Anisa move. He steps back, and when the steamers of Void reach for him, he sticks his blade forward and twirls it, looping several around the steel and then throwing them back while dodging to the side. They skim several inches of marble off the floor, directed away from the Cervani for the time being. He doesn't stand idle, jamming the end of his cane into the floor, then looking out over the horizon. From his coat comes a stick of something wrapped in what looks like thick paper.

Kantemir, for all his wildness, seems even hazier and less distinct than before, his smokey form slashing and flailing at the upstarts before him, his voice something between howl and scream from the depths of whatever unknowable abyss he fights from. The storm continues to lash at the tower, its force blowing through what remains of the ruined dome and fallen walls, the top of the tower laid almost bare… but the rain and wind feel less icy now, and the storm somehow less fierce. The land around the castle seems to roll away further, the rain letting up enough to make the canopy of the swamps visible from here.

Meanwhile, the First Stone replies to Anisa. "Harmonizing. Resonance achieved." The storm seems to fall away completely for her, all the sounds, the cries, and the roar of wind fading. Anisa finds herself in the stone's strange nowhere place, floating near the blue-green rhombus. "Command?"

After the brief spell of disorientation that always occurs on her trips into the Stone Zone passes, Anisa wills herself 'forward', trying to picture one of the orbs in her mind as reference. "Find the void control sample proxy… containment… thing and take me to it. Use me to harmonize with it in any way you can!"

The Kiriga continues her onslaught against the beast … and finds herself face to face with a flurry of tendrils. Blades sweep and dance, deflecting away three … as for the rest, well, they find only air as the serpentine woman dances and ends with a gliding backflip, moving her further away from her friends … but saving Umeko from having to hold defense against its onslaught. Three small segments of the beast's darkness sloth off, indicating that it didn't get off unscathed from the exchange.

The smaller of the two void-beasts rears up when Kantemir again strikes at her, rising to her human height on her hind legs. With a tremendous swat of her talons she throws the striking implements of oblivion to the floor. The forceful deflection gives her time enough to hop away before they can rise, and maybe a little time to breathe.

There's a strange sensation of pulling for Anisa… as if she were being yanked through the air, except it doesn't feel like there's air where she is. She finds herself soon hanging in space near something spherical… it's black, but even against the blankness around her, she can perceive it, something somehow more absolute than the black space around her. "Void Control Sample Proxy Containment. Interfacing." Another voice is heard in Anisa's mind, soft, Korvish, female and tired. "M-… Magsbed? Where are you? Please… " The Stone's familiar voice chimes in. "Proxy containment pattern compromised. Dissonant elements detected. Identkey 1 interface level insufficient to harmonize."

Where he stands, Vandringar does something with the end of the paper tube, and wedges it into a crack in the sundered floor. It hisses, and thick orange smoke begins pouring from it, the wind whipping it low over the tiles. He stands, seeming to forget about it, pausing to adjust the sleeve of his sword arm, and then reaching under his jabot tie with his free hand.

Using as much will as she can muster, Anisa hovers close to the orb, but fights to keep from going any closer – it's not called the 'Orb of Void' for nothing, after all. Ignoring the Stone's voice, the doe attempts to communicate past it, and directly to the woman's voice she hears within. "Lady Pieksvaldt? Can you hear me? Magsbed is here!" The Lapi redoubles her concentration, determined to keep the Stone from kicking her back to consciousness.

Never one to leave her friends in danger, Umeko darts back towards Anisa and Xander. Her blades whir as she fends off an absolutely vicious onslaught against her. The Kiriga finds herself in defense of her life and soul once more, turning away no less than seven close calls on her life; this does not phase the warrior spirit in Umeko and she gives close to as she got as four chunks of the beats fall away and dissolve into nothingness.

Lilac tries to catch her breath after having deflected the continued attack, but to no avail. The slicing ribbons of nothingness grant her no respite, no chance to rest. She leaps from the strikes as the tentacles' destructive touch tears scars in the ground where she stood only a second before. The cursed woman in the shape of a beast is left breathing heavily, tongue lolling. Her forelegs splay before her, as if her own weight had become a burden growing too heavy to bear.

The Lord Rook seems no more awake than he was before, no more angry, no more alive… but when he raises his sword, again, he swings it down through his Seneschal's middle, and Kantemir's unearthly roar seems almost to shake the tower. His monstrous body seems more cloud than wolf now, some snaking tendrils coming away without even being struck. He writhes and lashes at everyone still, but Magsbed seems satisfied with the 'door' he's made, and seems to be trying to reach through Kantemir himself to a hazy figure within.

"Resonance," says Vandringar. He stands in the rain as if not noticing it, or the shadow creepers reaching for him again. Anisa can't hear it… but she does hear "Ident key 2 registered," and a familiar face joins her in the strange realm of the stones, formed of white light, antlers like forks of lightning above his head. The image speaks. "Excise ident key 2 from experiment 45001." "Acknowledged," agrees the… First Stone? Second Stone? Last Stone? Whatever it is, Vandringar speaks again. "Ahh, Ms. Snowshoe. I must thank you… this game has enthralled from beginning to end. I regret that it could not go for longer, but it is time for the prize to be claimed."

The shadow creepers stop short of reaching Vandringar.

The great burning gear that is the Eye of Flame's shield form breaks up into a burst of sparks as it runs out of energy, leaving the still-chanting Xander exposed.

At the sight of Vandringar, Anisa gives a visible start. "Dis-" she starts to say in reflex, but stops herself short – whether she likes it or not, she needs him here. After her nemesis speaks, however, she gets an idea. "Excise ident key one from experiment 45001," she blurts out, mimicking the Cervani's commands.

"Acknowledged," says the crystal voice.

The ribbons of shadow that were reaching for Anisa stop.

The orange cloud, for all it's being flattened by the wind, builds higher. In the distance, approaching shapes can be seen on the horizon, winged and closing, though they're buffetted by the storm. A flash of lightning stabs at one of them, and it begins falling away, trailing smoke.

"You … will … go … no … further," Umeko practically roars at the shadow-beast before her, in a tone eerily reminiscent of her own father. Tendril after tendril are cast off by her blades … and the fates offer her at least one small blessing … one of the tendrils fall to her blade and fade to nothing.

With his shield gone, and a mass of tendrils hovering around Anisa like a cage, Xander can only retreat into the room… so naturally heads towards Umeko's position.

The smaller beast's ears perk and her gaze shifts tocatch sight of Vandringar clutching his pendant. She takes a step towards him, but the writhing forest of death between him and her seem to be enough for her to reconsider as she backs off. And none too soon; the ribbons of nothingness that occupy her region of the room come again for her. She bats and claws, rending one from existence, but two others force her to the very edge of the chamber. Her right leg slips off the rain-soaked precipice, causing her to fall back until her wings catch her. The beast whines, having nowhere left to retreat but the sky, her legs barely keeping her on her feet.

Umeko's toe-claws dig into the stone beneath her feet, something the approaching Xander can hear even above the storm. "I said, you will go no further," she repeats, "They are my friends. They are my family. This ends here. This ends now. Let Sunlight-Through-Storm cast your blighted soul back into the abyss!" Her right leg draws back one step, then she launches forward. Her blades flash as a crash of lightning roars above. Tendrils fall around her and disintegrate. Her blades cross into an X beneath the great beast's head and pause there for only a moment. "You understand nothing. So long as others share in one's life, nothingness holds no power over them," she growls and her swords scissor-snap. The wolf-head disintegrates before her blades. With a quick hop backwards, she steps away from the now swirling mass of 'nothingness'.

Umeko's blades pass through the giant, snarling lupine visage, which seems to shear in different directions as the cuts form an X through it. There's still an expression on its face as it's coming apart, one of desperation, snapping at air and smearing out into streamers of directionless black. All the stuff of Void seems to be flailing outward, lashing directionless now, eating stone and wood and air as if writhing in death throes.

It leaves the figures that were at the center of the cloud more visible, the Lord Rook with his wings closed around the Raveness, who huddles against his chest.

Speaking in Anisa's head, the crystal says, "Void Control Sample Proxy Containment disengaged." To which Vandringar replies, "Register ident key 2, re-init containment pattern."

In a panic, Anisa isn't sure about just what to do, but decides that whatever Vandringar wants is not what she wants. "Register ident key one, un-init containment pattern!" Just as quickly as she finishes she sentence, she points to Vandringar. "Dissonance!"

"Identkey 1 engaged. Interface level insufficient to harmonize with Void Control." The image of Vandringar tuts. "Well played, my dear Ms. Snowshoe… but we are both resonant here. I don't think you're willing to commit to this as I have, and I don't fault you. But Void is to be mine."

"Containment pattern re-init on standby," says the crystal voice.

Outside, the nothingness that is Void seems to be spreading away from the center in long ribbons, as if building up. Room on the tower is getting scarce. The approaching shapes on the horizon become clearer, but they hesitate at a safe distance… a number of Vartan looking very reluctant to get close to the scene unfolding.

Anisa's panic increases – every time she comes to this place, she gets more and more confused, and just when she thinks she's got a grasp on something, a new riddle pops up to take its place. Her mind races over just what to say or do to stop Vandringar from succeeding in his goals – but not knowing just what exactly his goals are complicates things even further. Finally, her brain runs dry of ideas, save one: attack. Mustering up whatever kind of battlecry she can in this place, the doe wills herself to charge the Cervani as fast as she can, aiming to ram him.

It's weird, willing her body through this strange space, throwing her image at Vandringar's. White light in the shape of stag and doe collide, flickering. She can feel resistance of some sort. "Come now," comes Vandringar's voice. "You can't begin to guess what you're doing. You haven't lived with these as I have, haven't invested what I have. Don't you see? They're just trinkets to you, outside of you. Let me have this, and I'll close it up neatly, then we can be on our way."

"Containment pattern re-init, resuming."

"Stay behind me, Xander," Umeko calls to her Lapi friend. "I will hold it at bay for as long as I can. I will not abandon them."

"Close it up neatly and take it home with you, right?" Anisa keeps attempting to assault the buck, although she knows it's futile. "So you can make the world your slaves? I don't care what you've 'invested' in these… things, and I won't let you trap that poor lady in that living nightmare again!"

"Umm, we have company coming too," Xander points out, taking a moment's pause in his spell maintenance chanting.

"I leave them to you until they are within range!" Umeko says, "I know you can handle them!"

"I don't need the Raveness, Ms. Snowshoe," says the Cervani. "Didn't you hear it? She was the proxy. She's been disengaged. I am creating the new containment pattern. Without it, Void would simply devour everything. Really, it's for the best."

With Lilac pushed to the literal and figurative brink, the sudden relent of the void onslaught comes as an immeasurable relief to the bardess. She pushes herself fully up, her paws almost skidding off the edge again, and her with them, if not for the intervention of her flapping wings. When she catches sight of the Lord Rook and Lady Raveness reunited – at last! – her tail bursts into a flurry of wagging. But, that is not all she sees. Something she had nearly forgotten tugs at her vision, until she forces her gaze away and sees: Vandringar. And then oblivion erupts again, sending her ducking and whining as the tendrils extend. With a deep breath, the beast charges through the streaming lines of darkness towards the holder of the second First Stone!

"A new containment… pat… tern? Oh Dagh!" Anisa's heart drops, and she floats herself away from the stag, her paws shooting to cover her mouth in shock. "You don't mean… you aren't seriously… didn't you see what it did to her?!"

Xander isn't sure what he can do to keep the flying troops at bay – they look like Vartans! But… Vartans are afraid of magic usually. So for now he just tries to pump some more power into Resist Elements to make the flaming aura effect brighter and more obvious.

Vandringar's image narrows its eyes bemusedly. "Oh, I don't mean to hold it myself. This will simply render Void safe for myself and my men to transport. I will confide in you, because I'm so fond of you… you're seeing things too small. Being and Void? They're parts of a greater whole. Just as Energy, Entropy, and Matter are."

The Vartans have taken up circling now, screeching at one another, some with swords and spears in hand. They don't look willing to land, though, whether it's because of Xander or the reaching ribbons expanding from the tower.

"Yeah yeah, collect 'em all and they form a set, right?" Anisa smooths back her immaterial ears, her previous panic subsiding – although just slightly. "Energy, Entropy and Matter, huh? So I guess I know what other orbs to look for now." She cocks an ear at the stag. "So if I stop you… this orb will just keep on consuming everything?"

The spectral Cervani laughs good-naturedly, "Oh, there's no need to look for them, my dear. We already have them. And yes, indeed. I will be attuned to it, just as you are with Being. It should be finishing any moment now."

The beast-Lilac claws and bites through the darkness, the spirit of Dame Riesling shielding her from what should annihilate her by its very touch. For what seems like forever, all she can see is the darkness of oblivion reaching out to consume everything around her, and then … He's there. Vandringar stands with with his hand gripping his stone, deep in concentration. Those luminescent eyes of Lilac consider him as she moves ever closer … It all reminds her of another time, when she had done something so similar, as she sails through the air. A different void looms for Vandringar's throat, one of shadow surrounded by teeth.

Slavering jaws, rows of long teeth close over the Cervani noble's hand, biting down hard. Lilac can taste blood as her teeth pierce the stag's white glove, and grind against bone… it feels strange, not like bone should. Eyes that were staring at nothing become startled and flick down at Lilac; Vandringar seems to come to life again. The image Anisa was facing seems about to speak again, and then abruptly vanishes.

Lilac's head shakes back and forth as she tries to severe the man's hand from his arm, but her mind races and she knows something is wrong. She has bitten through flesh and bone before; this man's arm is not right and she is afraid. When the man's eyes snap open and he gazes down at her, she knows greater fear still. Somewhere deep inside her she feels something else though: a quiet candle flicker of courage, and the rage at all like him who have destroyed people's lives for their own gain. The beast's lips erupt in a defiant snarl as she prepares to fight Lord Vandringar.

Anisa's ethereal body jolts with surprise as the stag disappears, and for a moment she is dumbstruck. Swiveling this way and that to try and find where the Cervani went off to, she finally realizes that something must have interrupted his link. "Um… r-register ident key one," she says hesitantly, "re-init containment… pattern?"

"Identkey 1 recognized. Containment pattern re-init interrupted. Attempting to establish resonance with Void Control Sample. Interface level currently insufficient to hold additional control sample harmonics. Current interface integration: 4%. Increase?"

Anisa grabs an ear, pulling it downward. She wishes she knew what this Dagh cursed thing was talking about before she commits to anything. After a deep breath to regain her composure, the doe sighs. "Yes, increase."

"Integrating." The Lapi can feel something very strange… like something small and cold is swimming through her body.

Against all odds Lilac manages to gain the upper hand against her superior, her jaws locked and muzzle trailing Cervani blood as he struggles to rid himself of her. When he reaches for his weapon, she kicks a taloned hindleg to keep him from it, and when he tries to thrust his knee into her gut, she slides away. In that black space, surrounded by darkness and against an opponent that makes even Umeko pause, she feels the weight of her doom, A seconds trickle away, her fear fading before the knowledge of the death she soon expects to face.

I'm sorry, baby, I'm so sorry. We'll die together, you and I together, the beast-Lilac thinks. At least you'll know now, how important some things are.

Swung this way and that, the Cervani lord tussles with Lilac, his face a mask as he stares at her, hand still clutched near his neck, blood staining his white suit. "Do you know what you're doing, Ms. Dragomir? What you've done? Unless I contain this, it will spread forever." For all his wrenching and maneuvering, he can't throw the beast off, Lilac's agility letting her cling tenaciously.

There's a searing sensation in Anisa's right calf when the cold spot settles there… she can't tell whether it feels like being burned or being chilled to the bone. "Integration: 5%… 6%… 7%… 8%. Integration sufficient to establish harmonic."

Anisa curls up in pain, clutching at her leg, her face a mask of agony. "E-establish h-harmonic," she manages to get out through gritted teeth.

"Resonance achieved," chirps the crystal voice, almost cheerfully. "Void Control Sample link established. Containment pattern re-initialization on standby. Command?"

Lilac simply snarls in response; she can think of many things to say to that, but has nothing but the voice of a beast. The bardess tries with all her might to severe the man's arm, but the more she tries, the less confident she feels as his unknowable body structure resists all attempt to break him. He's notCcervani, he's something like me, like the Temple and the Raveness … She knew the man to be more than her before, but to know he is moreso still …

Thoughts of the Raveness blur through Lilac's mind as she remembers the Korvess, remembers seeing her hold her lost love. A realization occurs to her, and she adds, Lord Rook, Lady Raveness, everyone … Help me, please. Help me save them – help me save my baby, or we shall all be with you soon.

"C-c-continue containment," Anisa says, hoping to the Star that she's doing the right thing, and not about to end up like the Raveness.

The Cervani lord gives up a few moments trying to pull himself free of Lilac's grasp, giving her some time for her reverie, for her plea. Eventually, he manages to make a fist with his bitten hand, spreading Lilac's jaws, and in the same moment he steps a hoof inward past the inside of one of the beast's hind legs. With his free hand, he shoves Lilac roughly, hurling her to the marble floor with a jarring bounce. The stag's ears are lifted, his head suddenly looking up and off to the side, in Anisa's direction.

Although still in her trance, the white doe appears to be shivering, almost violently.

Lilac's yelp echoes across the chamber where it is not swallowed by the void, the cursed woman stunned by more than her rough landing. The puzzle in the shape of a man is overwhelming in more ways than one, but she knows one thing: he rarely lies. He doesn't seem to need to, so confident in his plans. The beast rises to its feat and stares at him with those piercing, glowing eyes. For now, she does not resume her attack.

"Pattern re-initializing… completed. Void Control Sample contained. Failsafes engaged. Experiment 45001 terminating, results logged. Void Control Sample reports ready to be reintegrated with Node. Link disengaging." The sphere, the strange floating world, and her own form of tangible light all fade behind Anisa's eyelids. There's a roar, as if wind were rushing through a cavern, inky black streamers shrinking in and leaving the lord and lady Pieksvaldt standing alone in the center, in a small depression in the floor. Black feathers fall away from them, shed from the Raveness and fluttering free. The Raveness herself is looking at Lilac, still held in Magsbed's wings, and in the ensuing quiet, she says, "Thank you… Lilac. Thank you. Please… there is an heir. To the east." She doesn't get time to say anything further, her tall frame seeming to get thinner than before, plumes falling away until her raiment and heavy cloak fall into a heap on the floor. The footman's sword clatters to the marble as well, Magsbed's skull disintegrating before it can land. The last thing remaining in the air is a black sphere, hanging there for a moment, and then seeming to remember that it's not being suspended anymore. It bounces once with a clink, and rolls a few inches. The heap of feathers that used to be Lady Margaret Pieksvaldt half-scatters with a gust.

Umeko's attention quickly shifts to the now motionless orb on the floor now that the attacking void has gone. Her eyes narrow and she darts for it as she sheaths her shorter blade to free up her hand. "We cannot lose this now," she thinks.

"Grab that orb!" Xander calls to Umeko, as he sprints towards Anisa. He's stopped maintaining the Resist Elements spell, so the phantom flames around everyone begin to fade.

Anisa's bleary eyes flutter open, and the doe looks exhausted. For a brief moment, she looks completely disoriented, but then spies the orb and Umeko making a mad dash for it. "D-Dagh! Someone get- yeeek!" Just as quickly as she gets up to follow the Kiriga, the rabbit falls back to the floor, clutching her right calf in pain.

The bardess had flattened herself against the ground in the face of the dark implosion, ears down. When the chaos settled, she backed away from Vandringar, glancing at him warily for a moment, then looking back only to see the fading Raveness looking back at her. As the venerable Korvess faded the human turned beast whined softly, unable to speak her good-bye – unable to even shed a tear in her cursed form. She seems now to have forgotten the man behind her, staring at where the Raveness had been, making that soft, plaintive canine sound.

Crimson soaks through Anisa's pant leg in a spreading blotch.

"How'd you get cut?!" Xander yelps, and… tries to rip off Anisa's pant leg.

For his part, Lord Vandringar makes no move toward the orb. Instead, he reaches down and pries the scabbard of his cane up from the floor crack he'd wedged the end into, taking it up with his injured hand and sheathing his sword.

"I di-didn't," Anisa says through teeth gritted in pain. "I th-think the orb d-did it… " The smell of her own blood sends the doe's heart racing, but she forces herself to look at her leg.

When Umeko comes into Lilac's view the usually human woman pads across the floor towards her, sniffing the ground. As a lone feather blows across her path, she picks it up in her muzzle and carries it towards Umeko, tail between her legs.

Umeko's hand sweeps down and she collects the orb of void in her left hand and cradles it protectively. The coldness of its touch ears a brief scowl from the Kiriga and once more she finds herself thankful she is duo-thermic. "Is everyone intact?" the reptilian woman asks in an oddly soft and worried voice. It's no sooner than she says that, she spots Lilac approaching and the single feather in her mouth. "Oh Lilac," she adds, "I am sorry we could not save her."

"Bleeding here!" Xander calls out. "Need a knife!"

The lower-right leg of Anisa's trousers tears away easily, soaked through as it is. Clumps of red-stained fur fall free, but it looks like the source of the blood has already stopped. On the back of her calf and just below the knee, a patch ending where Anisa's calf muscle would round out has been bared of fur. In its place is an expanse of blue-green, smooth and hard, that the skin seems to have pulled back from.

"You've got something… stuck in you," Xander tells Anisa, and wipes around the patch to see that it's not bleeding anymore.

Unable to speak, Lilac shows her concerns the only way she can. She sits right next to Umeko, ears flattened, staring up at the Jadian with wide eyes. After a moment, she whines again and pushes her head into Umeko's leg, pawing at her.

None of the blood seems to stick to the glassy portion, which makes its color difficult to pin down… sometimes it seems more green than blue, sometimes more blue than green.

Just to be thorough, Xander cleans up as much of the blood as he can while checking for bruising or other signs of internal bleeding in the leg. "Does it hurt? Do you feel anything from the… spot?" he asks Anisa.

"Be at ease, Lilac," Umeko says quietly. "There is a calm in the storm. Breathe slow and listen to your heartbeat. See in your minds eye it slow and peace come." She can't use her hands since they are occupied with blade and orb … so it is her tail that pets the beast's shoulders.

The pain slowly fades from Anisa's face, but she can feel a dull ache persist around her leg. Looking down at her leg, the doe fights hard to keep from hyperventilating, and grab's Xander's paw for assurance. "It… it aches… " she manages to get out, a world of worry dominating her expression as she gazes at the lump. Her head suddenly darts up. "The orb! Did we get it?"

Umeko holds up her left hand slightly to show Anisa the orb. "We did," she says.

Xander uses his least bloody hand to feel Anisa's forehead for signs of fever, chill or shock.

None of the Vartan seek to interrupt, but some of them land near Vandringar, one speaking to him while the others eye the group warily. The largest squawks, "Sir! Are you alright?"

Lilac presses her head against the tail, closing her eyes. The beast's breathing does seem to slow – she had looked quite out of breath after Vandringar hurled her to the floor – and for a several seconds Lilac is quiet. But, the peace does not last. Suddenly, the bardess's eyes snap open and she stumbles backwards several steps, falling on her hind legs and looking at her paws. There's a crack, then she hunches over, her body contorting and her fur falling away.

The Cervani tucks his cane under one arm, and begins tugging at the fingertips of his ruined glove. He doesn't answer the question directly, instead murmuring, "What news?"

Some relief passes over Anisa at Umeko's words, but the concern reappears as she looks to her leg, prodding it experimentally. The glass-like feel of her new… part… forces lines of worry to crease her brow - which feels normal to Xander's touch.

"Well, you aren't in shock," Xander tells the doe in a soft voice. "And I didn't feel a horn growing through your forehead, so you probably aren't about to turn into an Aeolun. Can you stand up?"

"Lilac? Are not not well?" Umeko asks, her eyes flicking down to the human at her side, "Your change sounds … different." The Kiriga then kneels down to see if the human is going to be okay.

The lead Vartan says, "Our men on the ground were held off by… things." Vandringar nods thoughtfully, motioning the Vartan to continue, who adds, "But your flagship isn't far. Shall we seize the artifact? Round them up?"

"Nnnnrrgh!" The sound that escapes Lilac's half human, half bestial face is laced with pain. Soon, taloned fingers dig into the bardess's scalp, sliding to her eartips, which crumble dust reminiscent of what became of Void's oblivion touched victims. When Umeko speaks, Lilac reaches a reaches a malformed hand towards her, her tail beginning to wag at the other woman's concern – only to fall from her body and join her eartips as dust.

"No," says Vandringar, as he finishes tugging his torn glove off. He inspects the gashes in his hand, slowly opening and closing it, then looks up again. "No," he repeats. "We've lost this one."

Taking Xander's paw for balance, Anisa slowly gets to her feet, bracing herself for pain which never comes. "It feels… it feels normal… " The doe lightly bounces on the balls of her feet a few times, pain being replaced with confusion. Hearing the words of Vandringar's lackey, the doe's ears shoot forward, and then quickly shoot sideways at the sound of Lilac's change.

"You can try, but you will find it difficult," Umeko says absently towards the Vartan as she watches Lilac. It's now that she sets the orb down beside herself and reaches out to take Lilac's deformed hand in hers. "Hold on," she now says, "Hold on."

"… But-" the Vartan begins, flashing Umeko a glare, but the stag cuts him off. "I said 'no'. Tell the men on the ground to withdraw."

"Lilac!" Xander gasps, as bits start crumbling off the bard. "What's happening to her?" He shoots a look to Vandringar, suspecting the stag knows what's going on with his friends.

Anisa's attention is torn between her friend's distress, and her nemesis's words. "Hagen… " she starts to say, but cuts herself short.

Lilac's grip is painful, her twisted nails still sharp until, at last, the talons vanish and Umeko is gripping human hands that shake as the the transformation runs its course. Soon Lilac is kneeling rather than sitting on her haunches, her fur gone, the last vestiges of her bestial form fading. When she looks up at Umeko with wide eyes and face dappled with sweat, those observing her can see she is changed. Her ears, reddened, are now short and entirely human. Her tail is gone, and her black lips have faded to simple paleness. Even her parlor is off, her skin no longer quite so alabaster. She breathes heavily, panting.

"Why, she's secured her invitation to the dance," the Cervani says. He looks contemplative. "An unexpected turn of events, though fortunate that her ingenuity served her when it did. I must again concede the day."

"Wait… do you know what's going on with Anisa's leg, Vandringar?" Xander calls to the Cervani.

Umeko's expression holds firm, an anchor of stability through a torturous time, perhaps? "The nightmare is over for you," the Kiriga says, "And for this town. They now have peace." There's a pause in her words now. "Yes, do you?" Umeko now asks Vandringar, though she continues to look at Lilac. "And before you go, I wish a word with you if you will consent to it."

"So… the curse is gone, and the Murder should all be back to normal… " Xander mutters, then blinks. "Von Horne! She's the next in line to rule, isn't she? If she's not dead!"

Vandringar turns his gaze to Umeko. "Yes, my lady?" he prompts, holding his injured hand out to the side while one of the Vartans begins wrapping the palm snugly in bandages.

When Lilac can finally force more than an unintelligible sound of pain through her lips, she whispers, "T-the curse is … is fading, U-Ummy. T-the curse is f-fading and … I am … ," the bardess pauses when Xander yells the Huntress's name, then begins forcing herself to stand, clutching her side and wobbling. "K-Klaudia … ," she breathes. "Ummy, K-klaudia … she … I need to … "

Anisa gives Vandringar another glance, the pain seemingly gone now. She begins to ask him another question, but then just shakes her head and walks quickly over to Lilac. "I guess I'll be seeing you again then, Hagen," she says, not bothering to make eye contact with the Cervani. "Lilac, are you alright? When Lilac stands and stumbles, Anisa quickly jumps up and helps steady the bardess.

"We will go to her soon," Umeko says, "And now I must ask you to guard this orb for a moment. Please?" She reaches down to retrieve it once more, then offers it to Lilac.

"We should head down, and try to find Von Horne," Xander notes, since there's not about to be another battle. "I can carry the thingy, Umeko, if you want to chat with Vandringar."

"I do. I will not tarry long. I promise," Umeko says.

"I suppose you will, Miss Snowshoe," replies the stag, bowing slightly at the waist. "You played cunningly. Till next time, farewell."

Lilac accepts the orb, cradling it in her arms like a child, but hands it to Xander when he offers to take it. Instead, she leans heavily against Anisa, whispering, "Thank you, I'm s-sorry I'm s-such a burden." As the two begin to walk towards the stairs, the bardess gazes past Anisa, to Vandringar, and stares at him for a long moment before offering, "I-I'm s-sorry," in a tired, quiet voice, "f-for being so rude."

The Lapi buck seems to wait for the cold ball to bite him or something, and when it doesn't, he says, "I'll run ahead, and prepare my cauterizing spell just in case." He gives Umeko a concerned look, and then dashes down the stairs, since he's the only one effectively unencumbered at the moment.

"You are no burden," Umeko says and briefly pats the human's shoulder, "You simply need rest." She nods to her friends, then turns and walks towards Vandringar. Sunlight-Though-Storm sides home into is scabbard now. Her head tilts this way and that as she reaches the Cervani. The Vartan, well, he doesn't seem to even earn a glance of concern from the Kiriga. "I have one question I wish to ask of you," she says, a hint of curiosity creeping into her lilting reptilian voice. "Why?"

"Y'know, you look weird without your tail," Anisa says to Lilac with a small grin as she helps the girl to the stairwell. As Umeko speaks, the doe swivels her ears back to listen in on the conversation.

Vandringar favors Lilac with a small smile, then turns to Umeko. "A question our philosophers have struggled with over the ages." He looks down at the head of his cane, turning it slowly to let the sunlight play off the steel doe's head. Yes, sunlight does seem to finally be breaking through the clouds. At length, the Chronotopian lord answers, "Because I must. It is the natural culmination. Should you join me and Ms. Snowshoe on our journey, I suppose you will see. Or even if you don't join us, eventually."

At this, Anisa halts, gently stopping Lilac. "Journey?" She turns to look at the stag. "What 'journey'?"

"I … I used to catch it in doors," the bardess admits, watching Vandringar, her brows raised and frown across her lips. But, when he smiles, she smiles a little back. "I u-used to sit on it, t-too." When Anisa stops, she shifts her weight on to her own legs, testing her strength. It's then she notices the bald spot on the Lapine's leg, eyes widening in alarm.

"One of growth and change," says Vandringar, looking at his fingers absently once they've been bandaged. "You've set foot on the path, but it's up to you to walk, as mine is mine. For us to choose, to follow, to change or to perish. You still have the book, yes?"

"It's… safe," Anisa says, eying Vandringar.

"Is that an offer?" Umeko asks as her head tilts and for a brief moment, a wry smile creeps over her lips, only to fade quickly. "Truly, I wish you were as simple a monster as the one that feel here tonight. It would make things simpler," the Kiriga now says, "Or that you were on a different path. You were a fine ally and now in defeat, you show honor. I do not desire to cross blades with you, but if you continue your path, we will most assuredly meet again. And should it come to blade, I will not hold back. Nor do I expect you to. Lord Hagan Vandringar, you have earned my respect." The Kiriga then actually bows at the waist sweeping and graceful; hallmarks of Jadaian upbringing.

"Your leg," Lilac breathes, tugging on Anisa's arm gently, "There's … It's … " After taking a deep breath, she says, "W-when I bit Vandringar, he was … Was hard, inside. Un-b-breakable, and that … it's … " The bardess glances up at the Lapi's face, then at Vandringar's hand.

Anisa keeps her gaze set on Vandringar, but swivels an ear to Lilac. She stays silent, but the human woman can feel the doe's heartbeat speed up a bit.

"Good," says Vandringar. "You have some time, yet. You should ponder what you've experienced today. I wish you all good day." He steps a foot forward and bows again, deeper this time. "It was a pleasure and an honor, Lady Tsuguri." Snapping the fingers of his good hand, the somewhat confused Vartans take their hands off sword pommels and instead move to their leader. He hands his cane off to one of them, and the rest stretch ropes between themselves that the Cervani settles into almost like a hammock. They scatter standing pools of rainwater with powerfully beating wings.

"Just remember one thing," Umeko says as she turns and walks back to the others. "In your quest for change, do not let yourself be controlled by it. Those who are strong of will forge their own destiny, they do not allow it to be forged for them. So as you reflect on this day, ask yourself: do you control the stone, or does it control you? Ponder this until we dance again. Good day."

Anisa's frown deepens at the Cervani's words, and she thinks of the book back in the Curator's possession. Lilac reaches over to hug Anisa, whispering to her, "I'm so sorry," before she lets her friend go. Stepping away, Lilac turns towards where the Raveness had once stood, her gait heavy from exhaustion. As she walks, a curious thing happens: the young woman's bat-like wings begin to shimmer faintly … then scatter into shadow that reforms against her. Her wings are no longer demonic, but black and feathered. The woman seems to take no notice of this as she kneels down to pick up the noble's scepter, cradling it in her arms. "I'll find the heir. I p-promise." She turns to go, but stops, picking up one of Margaret's feathers before finally turning towards the door.

---

The castle is quiet as the weary adventurers pick their way down the ruined staircase and make their way back into the keep at large. It's not the same eerie, deathly still silence of Nightfall… sunlight streams through the windows, the light of day landing on old and faded trappings of a noble house fallen. There's confused voices coming from the courtyard and main halls, villagers mingling with prisoners, everyone trying to get themselves sorted out. Off to one side, the bulky form of Carrow kneels next to a cot that had been hauled from somewhere, several villagers circled around the only Korv now present. Von Horne lies on her back while one of the village elders, a Skeek man in monk-like robes, snips a strip of linen and finishes tying it. Klaudia's harness, tunic, bandoleers and cape are in a heap to the side, bandages wrapped around her chest and stained red over the stump of her left wing gone from the shoulder.

"Does the wound still need sealing," Xander asks one of the elders, a glowing ball of magic held in hand. At least Anisa's blood doesn't show up to much against the brown fur.

Anisa makes her way over to the cot as well, keeping her ears peeled for any familiar voices. She feels like she should be limping, but the actual lack of pain is more unnerving.

"The long night is finally over," Umeko tells those gathered. In her hands is the orb of Void once more; she collected it from Xander on the way down the tower. "And this cursed thing will bring no further torment to the land."

The feather-winged humanoid hovers in the doorway, having stopped as her friends went inside. In her arms she clutches the scepter, spear, and feather like precious memories. Her eyes are fixed on Klaudia, glossy in the light. Occasionally she shifts them to look apprehensively at the villagers, a guilty cast marring her pale face.

Carrow looks up, the worry on his chubby face being exchanged for relief and a broad smile. He stands, gripping Anisa's shoulders first, then waving and beckoning at the others. "The heroes! It is as we hoped, you are alive and well!" The gathered people seem to be too shocked to raise a cheer, but they look on in awe. The village magistrate speaks up, though, moving to Carrow's side. "We don't know what you did or how you did it, but the town of Rookery is indeed free, the border now simply forest around us."

"We are no heroes," Umeko says and even waves one of her hands briefly. "Just travelers."

"We're not exactly sure what we did ourselves," Anisa says to the Magistrate, "but it hurt." With a sigh, the doe turns back to the others, slicking back her ears. "Lilac? You look… different. Even moreso than before."

By the way the bardess is looking behind the turned heads of the crowd, she must be thinking on how to walk past them unnoticed. Her wide, startled eyes meet Anisa's when the woman says her name, then she looks to the crowd and takes a step backward. "I'm human again," she whispers, so low only the Lapi can hear her. "The curse is gone and … I'm free." Despite what should be a happy admittance, the woman sounds nervous, even worried.

The Skreek magistrate clasps his hands together, bowing his head toward Anisa and Umeko, then to Xander and Lilac. "Whatever it was, you have our gratitude. No longer must we live under the shadow of the Midnight Murder, for good or for ill. We may rejoin the land we were split apart from so many years ago."

"Have any of the Murder returned from outside?" Xander asks, before going back to his warming cantrip to help Klaudia avoid going into shock.

"What happened to the Murder?" Umeko now asks as she heads to Klaudia's side to see how she is doing, "Did they fade away, like the Raveness and her husband?"

The huntress is unconscious, but her chest rises and falls shallowly with her breath. Carrow says, "She lost a lot of blood, but the healer thinks she will live."

When the magistrate bows to her, Lilac begins to take another step back, but pauses when nothing ill comes of it. When he goes on to mention the Murder, her head dips a little. Then, wordlessly, she begins walking into the room and towards Klaudia, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Anisa gives a small smile to the magistrate, then cocks an ear sideways to Lilac. "I meant your wings… they're different, but I can't put my paw on why."

"She'd better live," Xander mutters. "Someone has to take charge of this place."

Umeko nods at this. "I can make no promises on this, but I will see if I can arrange for a life mage to come tend to her," the Kiriga says. "Her actions saved a great many. It is the least we can do. Xander, you can send a message, correct?"

The magistrate gestures outward, as if at the village gates far below the mountain. "We aren't sure. The whole of the Murder seemed to pass overhead and out into the swamps. We heard howls and roars, sounds of battle. Then eerie quiet when the dawn broke. The only person who returned was a big, black Lapi."

"Gibson?" Anisa's attention shoots upwards, her ears swiveling this way and that. "Is he okay?!"

When Lilac steps into the light, the difference in her wings is apparent: her demon wings have been replaced by raven wings, ebony feathered, like those of the Murder itself. The woman pauses at the revelation, slowly looking behind her, her mouth parting. She seems to freeze, statue still, staring.

"I can try," Xander says. "I can send a message to the Guild Hall in Justininople, at least." He also steps aside to make some room for Lilac at Klaudia's side.

"He looked very weary, and muddy, but unhurt," the magistrate says. "I think he paused to rest and is on his way here."

"Good. We can try to get a message to Tinsnip in Rephidim. He may be able to arrange something," Umeko says and bobs her head.

Anisa looks relieved, her ears wilting forward as she places a paw to her chest.

Maybe all the conversation is enough to pull Klaudia back into consciousness… her eyes crack open, blinking once or twice, and stay squinted, rolling to take in the faces above her.

"Welcome back," Umeko says softly, "It is over. Your oath fulfilled. Your home saved."

"Err, Rephidim?" Xander asks. "That's… way out of my range. Uh… any reason I shouldn't try the Guild Hall in the capitol?"

The bardess ends up shaking her head slowly, her wide eyes and parted mouth bespeaking her incomprehension, surely made worse by her exhaustion from the trials she and her friends faced. When she looks away, she catches the eye of the townsfolk who have noticed her, regarding their bemused expression with a frown, and a whisper of, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," before hurrying off. She makes her way across the room until her gaze flickers and she suddenly stops dead in her tracks. She turns, following her eyes  and looking up at the great tapestry of House Pieksvaldt.

"No, that is fine. My point is to get a message to someone, who can then forward it on. Mm, perhaps our contact at the church will be enough to arrange what is required for her," Umeko says.

"Is Lilac not well? Has her mind been damaged?" Umeko now asks as she looks up to watch her human friend scurry off in a hurry.

"Well… I'll go send the request then," Xander says, and moves away from Klaudia. He eyes Lilac's wings before finding a corner he can work in.

"There is no immediate … " Umeko starts to say to Xander, then she just stops and shakes her head. Mammals. All of them are so … well, something.

Across the main hall, Lilac finds herself under the grand tapestry of House Pieksvaldt. It's different now… the stylized images at the top of Magsbed and Margaret are replaced by a single Korv, a young looking one dressed simply in peasant garb. Beneath, where there were multitudes of dark shapes, there's only two shapes remaining, the lightly colored one with violet eyes and a dark Korv in profile bearing a spear.

The inconstant human is currently staring at the tapestry, not even noticing the few villagers who have stepped forward to look at her and it. She reaches to rub at her face, smearing blood and dust and nearly dropping the spear she holds so close. The sight of the huntress's spear so jostled seems to snap the woman out of her dazed regard, 'for she turns from the great work and runs towards the cot. "Klaudia!"

Von Horne lifts her head off the cot a little, then lets it fall back. She looks up at Umeko, croaking, "It's… over?" She rolls her head to the side a bit, voice barely above a whisper. "What happened?"

Umeko holds up the black orb. "The emptiness has been sealed away. This will be taken and placed where it can harm no one ever again," she explains. "The Raveness and her husband were reunited and in that reunion, her heart was freed"

The huntress points her beak back upwards. She glances at the red-stained bandages that mark where her wing was, but she seems almost indifferent to it, letting out a sigh that's at least part relief, and part resignation. "It's done, then. My mother can rest, her lord is avenged and the curse is ended."

Lilac drops to her knees beside the cot, laying down her burden and leaning to take the Korvess's remaining hand with both of hers. "Klaudia," she whispers, her blinking dislodging the tears that have pooled about her eyes, "Oh Klaudia! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

Off in his corner, Xander gets about halfway through drawing a magic circle in chalk before the effort of maintaining spells non-stop all night hits him like a ton of bricks… and he falls asleep, still kneeling and with his forehead resting against the stone wall.

The Korvish woman squeezes weakly. "No, no… Lilac, shhh… don't be sorry, child. I knew what I was facing and I chose to. Without you, without all of you, we couldn't have won. I'd have given my other wing to see it through, and gladly. I'm just… not sure what I do, now."

Anisa grimaces at the sight of Xander. "I think your message will have to wait, Kin." The doe makes her way over to the buck, and gently lowers him to the floor, covering his face with his robe's hood.

The buck mutters something… or just mutters, the way Lapi tend to do now and then, but doesn't wake up.

"What you will do now is simple. You will lead this town to recovery," Umeko answers as if it really were that simple. "They will need a new leader and I think you are the best choice for it now."

Another tired-looking Lapi buck makes his way through the door, this one still on his feet at least. He seems to go from villager to villager, asking questions until one points him in the group's direction. The anxious look on his face fades when he spies his sister, and for a moment his fatigue seems forgotten as he trots over.

The bardess bows her head as Klaudia speaks and at length nods a little. "Ummy is like you," she whispers. "True heroes, when I … " She sucks in a breath, then shakes her head head slowly. "No, nevermind me … There's something you should know." Looking up, Lilac meets the huntress's gaze and explains, "There is a heir, and he – and the two of us – are the last of House Pieksvaldt." She glances at Umeko when she comments, nodding in agreement to her words, as well.

Like her brother, Anisa's tiredness seems to melt away as he enters the room. Still sitting by Xander, the doe gives Gibson a tired wave.

"Me?" Von Horne seems somewhat taken aback, shaking her head slowly. "I'm no noble… just a huntress. Not even that, now." She looks up at Lilac, listening soberly, then rolling her head to look at the tapestry across the room. "I… I see."

The raven winged human woman nods a little as she follows Klaudia's gaze to the tapestry and the image of the boy atop it. "She said he's to the East," she says, quietly. "We'll find him. House Pieksvaldt is my House, too, now." She smiles a little, for the first time in what feels to her in ages and points to the two of them, together.

"Nobility is born of the heart," Umeko says firmly, a tone that infers 'do not argue with me', "It is defined by your actions. You understand these lands; lands that these people have not seen in their lifetime. They will need your experience and guidance to survive its harshness."

Looking to Umeko, Lilac's brow raises. "If that's so, then I'll find him. I'll bring him home," she promises.

"Then… I suppose we'll see what the future brings. For us and for Rookery," says Klaudia, relaxing. "For now, I think… I think I'll rest."

"I'm am sure you will in time, Lilac," Umeko says to the human. "But … I do not think you are ready to take such a quest yet. You have much to relearn now that you are … mostly normal. You will need to learn how to fight as you are, if you are to survive… "

Gibson stoops down by Anisa, strong arms tugging his sister into a hug, then tousling the fur on her head, sending her ears flopping. "I knew you could do it. I knew you'd be okay," he says, though the relief on his face says he wasn't as confident some hours ago.

Anisa winces at the hug, her body still aching from both the fight and the crystal encounter, but she can't help but smile. "I'm glad one of us was so certain," she says. "We have the orb and Vandringar left with his men. Did you have to fight any? What happened to the Murder?"

"Please do. I'll be here, to help you for whatever you need of me," the bardess promises Klaudia. She releases the hand of the woman who nearly gave her life to protect her own, turning to rest her back against the woman's cot and wrapping her hands around her legs. She looks up at her friend and nods a little. "You're right Ummy – like usual." She gives the other woman a faint smile, then looks at her hands. "I can't fight anymore. The beast has left me, and it's hold on my soul is gone. It no longer rises to take my body when I call it to my heart. I can't even feel the hate I had for Vandringar – Lord Vandringar, excuse me. I don't like him but … But, the hate is gone, and I am helpless, but I am free … and … ," she smiles a little more, " … it feels nice, Ummy. Thank you for helping me."

"You will regret thanking me, you know," Umeko says as she folds her hands together and her voice taking on an ominous air to it. "When every muscle inside you burns and you still have an hour of training to complete. I cannot be gentle if you are going to learn what it will really take. I will teach you as my Master taught me." The Kiriga then has to pause and consider that. "Well, without the burping and the excessive drinking, at least," she admits.

Gibson sits cross legged on the floor by the other two Lapi, sighing and rubbing his shoulder. "The beasts came out of nowhere and started harassing the rangers in the swamp before the castle even appeared. I joined them and pointed out the camps I had spotted. When the castle appeared, some of the camps lit their smoke signals and tried to advance, but out of hiding it was even easier for the Murder to find them. They spent most of their time hunkered down in the swamp, and less than that fighting. Then all of a sudden it was quiet, the beasts were gone. I fell back to the town, but by the time the men were within sight of it, some Vartan had flown down… and just like that, they all retreated."

"So the Murder are gone," Anisa says, falling silently contemplative for a few moments. "Once I neutralized the orb, Vandringar didn't even make a move for it. Umeko got a hold of it, and he didn't even try to stop her – he just told his men to pack up and leave."

Despite Umeko's dire warning, Lilac's smile just gets wider and wider. "I hope I make you drop your bottle in a pond, then," she says, and then laughs a little. It's been a long time since Lilac laughed. She then ducks her head respectfully, and says in a more serious tone, "But, I understand. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep going, my baby will want his or her share of making me sick, you know, but I'll do my best. It will be nice to know I can protect the people I care about like as person and not an animal that relies on something else's strength to save her." She tilts her head, rubbing a stray tear from her cheek. "Maybe I'll even learn the sword and the spear, like my heroes."

The black Lapi furrows his brow, his ears lopping over. "Why? It sounds like he could have had us."

"Your first lesson, then. A weapon is just an extension of yourself. The form is not what is important, it is the soul driving it," Umeko offers with a bemused smile. "But such is for another day. There is much more to be done … and truthfully, much resting to do."

Anisa shakes her head. "I don't know. I think the orb was useless to him for some reason, so he decided it wasn't worth the fight. He almost had it – in the stone space – but Lilac distracted him, and I… got to it first." The doe absentmindedly rubs at her leg, above her tattered trousers.

Carrow rubs his hands together. "Rest easy, my friends. As thanks for your intervention, I'd like to see to re-contacting my merchant caravan, I believe I can get help from the other 'guests' and from the village. We should be able to get you back home comfortably, wherever you'd like to go. It'd be the least I could do."

The young human woman nods to Umeko. "I don't know anything about weapons," she admits. "It was the beast that fought through me, and it was my heart that drove it. But it fought me, too. I see now that it was always there, waiting for me to grow weak, to follow it's way and stain my hands. I'll always be eternally grateful that blood was spilled for you, for all of us, even if I made mistakes." Looking down the woman reaches a hand towards her face, pulling away the dried blood she drew from Vandringar when she bit him. "I want to bury Dame Riesling, too, and sing for the village and the castle. She's still with me, did you know? I can feel her, in here." The woman lowers her hand, resting it over her heart.

"People you care about never leave you completely, Lilac. Their memories will always echo in your heart," Umeko tells the human. It's then she remembers something else… "Anisa," Umeko says as she now looks over to the gathering of Lapis. "Is your leg feeling better?"

Gibson's ears lift. "Her leg?" He glances down, and his ears lay back when he sees the blood staining the tatters of Anisa's pant leg. "Oh Star and Anchor, Anisa… are you hurt? Let me see."

Lilac nods a little, then blinks, eyes widening at Umeko's trouble stirring question. "Ummy! You're so much trouble!" She shakes her head, then laughs a little, again. "I've followed you so long, it seems, and we always found trouble. I think, … I think I want to be less trouble for you, from now on, though."

"Mm?" Umeko murmurs and gives Lilac a sidelong look.

Anisa's ears swivel towards Umeko, and the rest of her head soon follows. "My leg? Oh, yeah. It feels fi-" The doe gives a start at her brother's sudden expression of alarm. "It's fine, Gibson. The stone… or the orb… did something to me." She pulls her pant leg up to show her now crystalline calf muscle.

"Well, you know … I think with the beast having left me, I can be less of a burden, to you. I'll learn to fight, and be strong on my own. I know I'm … I'm a coward, but I'll try," Lilac explains, her face reddening at her admission and gaze dropping to her lap. "I … I know I've caused you trouble, even though I wanted to help you, too. I got mad about Xander, and … and I killed Dragonfly, who we were to save. I even cowered before Kantemir! I'll never forgive myself for that, and I … " Taking a deep breath, Lilac exhales, then nods. "I know I'm a tainted wreck of a person, but I still want to help as long as I can, and not be a burden to you … or anyone, like I was to my family, and my village."

"Then you are telling me that you found your brush?" Umeko asks the human, perhaps wondering if she even remembers what that means. "As for being a coward … having something to fight for will help with that."

Gibson peers close, taking hold of Anisa's ankle so he can look closer. "What in the… this is fine? It… doesn't hurt or anything?" He looks rather disquieted, but he keeps his cool, for the most part. Mostly he doesn't seem sure what to make of it. "It hasn't changed anymore? Are all the artifacts quiet now? I won't lie, sis, this makes me really nervous. I'd like to get you back to Rephidim as soon as we can and have the Cur-… the guys look at this."

"Rephidim… " Xander mutters in his sleep, on the floor next to Anisa.

Lilac looks up and stares at Umeko for a moment, blinking, brows raised in confusion. Them she asks, hesitantly, "Do … You you mean my art? I don't think I understand, I'm sorry. Everything is a little confusing for me; even the world seems dull." She shakes her head a little. "It was my baby, Ummy, that was part of it. You may know some day, but risking yourself when you know someone will die with you … It's so hard. And, I was just afraid too – just normal, cowardly, terror. I think I … I have a lot to make up for."

"You think it doesn't make me nervous? My Dagh-blasted leg is part crystal now!" The doe looks a bit frustrated, but smooths her ears back. "I'm just too tired to worry about it, and just glad to be alive. But no, it doesn't hurt, and both the pendant and the orb are quiet. And yes, I would like to get it looked at too – Vandringar mentioned the Steel Tome… and about me having 'my place at the dance', or something."

Anisa glances over to Xander. "I think he's ready to go home."

"Yes, I guess he is," Umeko admits, "I have dragged him across this world on crazy quests, I think it is time for him to rest and be free of us."

As her friends grows quiet with the weight of exhaustion, Lilac, too, feels the burden of her efforts, the drain of her curse having left her. She scoots closer to Klaudia, shifting to lay her head on the edge of the cot, wondering how she ever earned the faith of so many good people. "See mother, father; I did something good after all," she whispers, and smiles.