Violet closed the door behind her as the two men left for their rooms. She turned her handbag upside down and emptied out its contents. Her small parcels of food and water fell onto the ground as well as other items she carried she spread the things out across the floor in front of her as she sat down cross legged. She picked up a small wooden flute then rushed over to a window in her room and opened it slightly and sat back down where she was sitting before. "This room is only missing one thing" she said out loud to herself. She inhaled, placed her fingers on the beginning holes and began to play a tune of winding notes. A fresh smell of the forest entered the room and miniature whirlwinds began to dance around her as she played. Whipping her hair about wildly, she continued to play as she got up slowly and closed the window, and stopped playing the flute. The wind continued to dance around her, playfully tugging at her sleeves and jingling her bangles until it eventually stopped and began to raise and dance in the leaves creating a soothing "woosh" sound. Violet sighed happily.

---

Tania shuddered in Rana's arms once again: Tania continued to step away from the false Rana and her eyes widened in realization that she hadn't been transported anywhere else, she was in her own sub conscience. "Get out of here!" she yelled to the false Rana "You're the one who's been causing me so much pain" She began to run in the opposite direction of the creature. A wave of energy went through the world, something or someone else had entered. She ran even faster, she wasn't going to let herself drift away into the land of the dead once again.

Rana pushed. Her mind was so fragile to him, but it had clearly been twisted. Nothing was comprehensible. Nothing. Then he saw himself, standing in the shadows, and a misshapen image cowering and running from his figure. The image was clearer than the others. He tilted his head and Tania's mind opened further, but he let nothing escape. He was careful. And there he stood, in front of himself, with what should have been Tania running away. Or was he the misshapen one? Rana could not tell. Perhaps, he pondered, they were both twisted and malformed. Perhaps, he considered, he was there because he was void's essence, void's entrance to his world. But he did not know.
Rana stepped forward into Tania's consciousness, unsure how to help.


The demon drew its strength as well as it could. In the distance he could see a strange stone, like the stones humans inhabited. And when he reached out with his hand images of power could be sensed: a siphon of void, the embodiment of the energy from the altar, a swordsman who was like a pillar of squirming stone that the creature could almost taste. There were others as well, all powerful. Like the man he had swallowed a moment ago. Yes, just like that man.

Serene stopped in a clearing, exhausted. She glanced behind her, Eton was still chasing after her, but she stood for a bit and caught her breath.

"Rourky...go get my knife as once I throw it, I can't leave evidence, or my only weapon, out in the open..." a voice muttered .A gleam shone out in the hidden brush, and a knife hurtled towards the resting Serene.

Seeing the knife, Eton quickly ran towards Serene and leapt at her, diving to pull her out of the way of the aimed blade. He felt the sharp pain of cold steel run through his body as the knife made it's home in his adominal area. Then he felt himself hit the ground as he held onto Serene. It was all so fast, he couldn't remember much other then he was coughing blood at the moment. Two coughs, turning his head away from the one he wished to protect. His breathing became heavier and harder.

"Serene..." he muttered quietly. "Are...you alright?"

Serene turned her head to see Eton with a knife protruding from his abdomen. She gripped the weapon, and pulled it out carefully from his body, throwing it away from them. She reached out and held his head. "Eton, I'm fine, but you don't look good at all.

"s***!" the voice muttered loudly. "Rourky, get the blade, quickly!"
An oversized hawk exited the thick brush in the area, and located the knife. With one swift action, he caught the blade in one talon, and flew up into the sky, to not give away their location.

The wind winded around the tree and gently rustled its leaves. Aside from this quiet intrusion, the room stood in dead silence. It was an eerie feeling, something was off. However, it didn't matter too much at the time. Feelings arose within her, strange ones as if she wanted to stay in her room forever. She began to not feel the need to be under the open sky.

She sat there, drinking in the peace, when a soft tune began playing. It was reminiscent of ancient Jiahu crane flute music, but with a more modern twist. Her senses dulled, she didn't think much of it or a while. Eventually, she realized someone must be playing the instrument. It sounded as if the tune was being carried from one of the other rooms.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lex threw his blade upon one of the beds and sighed deeply. "Aaahh... so, my friend, how do you like it? Didn't I tell you it'd be great? You can't say it's a terrible place. Only the hallways look like that. I think it's mainly because Preston despises roaming in such confined spaces. The rooms get clean because he has a secret passageway leading to everyone. It's a network of much larger corridors underground. I have no idea where the entrances are hidden, but they're undoubtedly here. Amazing, isn't it? You wouldn't think he's such a smart person by looking at him." He frowned slightly. "I just wish he'd bathe more..." Lex chuckled and placed his belongings in the nightstand beside his bed. Tucking his book under his arm, he made for the door. "I'm going to the facilities. Care to join me or are you going to get comfortable?"

Violet sat on the ground cross legged with her notebook in front of her and the quilled pen tickling her nose softly, but she stared at the notepad blankly without a blink or movement at all in her body her eyes were void of expression. A leaf floated down from one of the trees and landed on her nose she blinked with touched her head. She realized she heard some kind of noise being made in the distance as she listened more to the noise she heard that it was music in the distance being played faintly from another room within the inn, the song tugged at her very soul. She immediately stood up, grabbed her lute and her flute and opened her door a crack, the hall appeared to be empty. She felt that she shouldn't make noise in this place for some reason, she pulled her sleeves over her bangles in order to stifle their noise. She ran down the halls towards the music her feet barely making a sound on the floors that she travelled she imagined herself as a light breeze blowing through the halls silently. She found the door where the sound appeared to be coming from, she knocked on the door and looked around cautiously for reasons unknown to herself.

---

Windy, who had flown above them in order to keep an eye on the crazy girl and her crazy lover, saw the attack. Though these people weren't her keepers she knew that she should do something help. Out of nowhere an over sized bird shot from the underbrush, swooped low to the ground then flew up into the sky. Windy immediately neighed loudly at the shock of the bird coming out from nowhere and the fact that it had swooped to attack the crazy humans.

---

Tania felt the ripple through the world as Rana re-entered the world. "Rana!" she called to him, while running to his side. "Some creature has invaded my mind and has taken your form hoping to fool me" She felt a bit reassured that Rana was there with her with whatever the creature was.

---

Anna watched Rana enter into a sort of trance like state, Tania still didn't move, "Is there something supernatural going on here that I'm unaware of?"she thought to herself. Anna felt a burning sensation on her chest she looked down and the silver necklace given to her by Father Trevaulter was glowing bright white and moved slightly of its own accord. She gasped and rushed over to Tekun "The dark force is very close" she said with a slight tremor in her voice.

Leon took of his chest plate and threw it to the ground, leaving him in an under shirt and then proceeded to do something about the greieves. "Not too bad. At least there's a bed." He chuckled. He streched his arms out and his neck. "I'm gonna make myself comfortable." Leon said taking his greaves off and putting it down next tohis chest plate and then jumping on the bed. "Heavy armor is nice, it takes a toll on you after a while."

---------------------


Tekun moved cauiously as Anna followed. The creature was near, he knew that much, but where.

"Anna, stay behind me. If I should fall, you run." He said to her. "Ready your tome."

-----------------

Serene pulled the knife out of him, then the hawk sweapt by and picked it up. There was a theif of some kind, perhaps an assassin even at work. Eton felt a sharp pain in his wound as he lay there, bleeding. Eton knew the wound was bad and needed medical treatment. "Your.....all that matters at the moment." He said hesitently.

Serene looked at Eton's wound. "The only person you should be worrying about is yourself. You're now worse than me." she told him coldly. She turned away and walked to the other side of the clearing, and began to search for herbs.

"Good job Rourky, now, let's get closer, I need a better shot..."
A Woman emerged from the brush in the clearing. She saw before her a man with a wound in his abdominal region. "I missed, it must have his this loser, he probably rushe din the way to protect that b****." she thought, gritting her teeth. She moved over to the man. "Oh, you poor thing! I must have hit you when I was aiming for the tree behind you." she began. "You see, I was using that tree as a target to hone my knife throwing skills from behind an obstacle."
A hawk descended from the sky above and roosted upon the woman's shoulder, and watched the man lie on the ground carefully.

J opened the doors and entered a curio store-like room. He waltzed towards the counter where a man was waiting for him. "You were expecting this package?" J asked, handing it to the man.
"Why yes, this is the sword? Good, I'll get it sent on it's path right away."

Eton saw the women and heard what she said but he didn't buy a word of it. "Oh, you poor thing! I must have hit you when I was aiming for the tree behind you. You see, I was using that tree as a target to hone my knife throwing skills from behind an obstacle."

Eton slowly moved and attempted to get up. He did so slowly.

"Don't try and full one cut from the same cloth." he said ad coughed and looked at the women. "That throw was intentional. Tell me one thing though. Why?" He said holding the wound, looking into the women's eyes. There was a hint of reflected fear in his. He knew if he wasn't careful, he could be killed.

Serene was too busy on the other side of the clearing looking for herbs to notice what happened. "I'll just ignore Eton...maybe he'll let me do what I wish later..." she muttered to herself.

The woman looked at him with a devilish smirk. She took her dirty, worn, bandaged up feet, and began to kick him in the stomach, toying with him. "Honestly, you took the shot for my dear old relative there..." She pulled a knife from her long, white sleeve. With one arm, she took aim at Serene's head. "...you see, I'm Euphemia Lefiazer, loosely related to the Lefia family...along with the Salazers, though I doubt you know them. I met the wonderful Endoh Lefia after the temple I lived at was burnt to ashes and I slit the throats of the five men who did that act...let's just say I reached a deal with him..."
Rourky flew up and landed on Eton's head, beginning to peck at his head.
"ever wonder what it's like to see a human's head with a knife protruding from it?" Euphemia asked, and then carefully threw the knife with skill and precision towards Serene's head.

Windy glided down silently picking up speed raising her altitude ever so slightly so that she didn't crash into the ground. She struck out with her hooves attempting to trample or strike the girl who was clearly tormenting the crazy lover. She let out a high pitched neigh after her strike.

---

Anna obeyed Tekun, her necklace continued to vibrate wildly, but she managed to concentrate enough and her hands began to give off a bright yellow light she was prepared to defend, though she wondered where all of the other travellers and adventurers were and whether they would help.

Eton flinched and stumbled back from an unexpected kick to the stomach, wincing in pain.

"Honestly, you took the shot for my dear old relative there.."...you see, I'm Euphemia Lefiazer, loosely related to the Lefia family...along with the Salazers, though I doubt you know them. I met the wonderful Endoh Lefia after the temple I lived at was burnt to ashes and I slit the throats of the five men who did that act...let's just say I reached a deal with him..."

The bird then began to peck at his head,landing on it. Eton immedietly pulled a knife and slashed at the bird, scaving it, cauing it to back away as blood dripped from a slight wound on it's wing, making it more difficult for it to stay air born for too long.

"Ever wonder what it's like to see a human's head with a knife protruding from it?"

"Serene!" Eton shouted as he saw the knife heading towards her head, unable to do anything about it. Serene turned her head to look at Eton to see the knife fly right past her head, cuting the side of her face. Then the pegasus came in and rammed into the theif, knocking her to the ground, leaving her to the mercy of the pegasus for the moment.

Serene held her face, and screamed in pain. The wound wasn't too deep, but it was painful. She began overreacting. "MY FACE, MY CHARMING FACE!" she thought in anger, turning around.
She saw Eton with a large hawk above him and some other woman about to be trampled by Tania's pegasi. She knelt there, for a second, in fear. "...Bandits..." She was waiting for something to fly by her side and save her, but she remembered Black King was dead, and she kneltt there quietly.

Euphemia rolled on the ground from the takedown, and was shouting towards the sky. "s***! s***! s***!" She rolled in the direction of the other thief and gripped his blade, to begin a struggle for her life. "GIMME THE BLADE, YOU FOOL! WE'LL BOTH BE TRAMPLED BY THIS INSANE PEGASUS!"
Rourky brought himself upon the Pegasus and landed upon it's neck, driving his talons deep within the creature's flesh. With a loud cry, he began to peck madly at the beast.

Rana twitched. In Tania's mind he reached out his hand to take hers, not saying anything in response to her. He took a deep breath and felt her soul around him. He would destroy the thing inside of her. He simply had to find it.


The demon shrieked. It could feel all these characters of might. It was hungry and had found its prey at last. The thing was barely visible it was so far away, but the path of dust and death it left around its body could have been see from a mile away. It shrieked again, and pounded the ground, sending grey dust into the air for yards around its gigantic fists.