The Castle (Rebma, for the heck of it, but don't hesitate!)

[Cogidubnus]

Cog jumped somewhat at the voice behind him, and grabbed his sword, already beginning to draw as his feet twisted neatly. Many opponents thought that sneaking up from behind was a good way to take out a swordsman - most would be right. Not Cog's particular kind of swordsmanship, though.
Quick-draw wasn't developed because it was easier to fight from a draw. With the sword in the sheath, one was already at a distinct disadvantage to another opponent who had his sword at the ready. It was an anti-assassin art, an art designed to defeat surprise attacks and ambushes. In essence, it was designed to keep a knife from slipping through your kidneys.
Cog's back was injured, but he retained all of his speed. Cog struck in a flash of liquid silver, faster than sight.
Two will see the flash of lightning, but only one will hear the crash of thunder...

[Stygian]

The wolf's sword swung around faster than thought, flashing in what little light there was in the ballroom, and the smooth, rasping sweep of the sword leaving its sheath echoed throughout the large ballroom.
   A sharp, metallic stop cut that sound off, and Cog felt his sword hit something hard, stopping nearly instantly.
   "That is no greeting," a low voice said, and the wolf faced it.
   Before him, against the open frames and crushed glass of the windows, stood a man dressed in a black vest, tie and pants, and white shirt. A bat, about six feet tall, athletic, with pallid blond fur and hair, and eyes darker than the night. His face, handsome in a predatory sort of way, was twisted into a vicious smirk. And in his right hand, stretched up, he held the end of Cogidubnus' sword, the gleaming edge inches from his face. The blade had bit into his hand just some, but there was no blood.
   "I guess you're quite on edge, so I'll forgive that one," he said, showing sharp teeth. His grip on the sword edge was iron. "But don't do it again. I tire quickly."
   There was another flash of lightning, and for a moment his figure stood out as dark against the background. For just an instant Cog thought he could see an unnatural glow around the bat's eyes, a dim corona, like bluish light that bends around a completely dark moon.

[Boog]

Throughout the fiasco with the bats, Jeremiah had been huddled in the doorway trying to protect Gina. At the sound of the attack that cleared the air of aforementioned winged rodents he looked up, and at Cog's elegant move against the fellow behind him he stood up and walked over hesitantly. If this is another freaking possessed person then I say let Cog stab him; the last one was way too much trouble.
"Well, haunted houses seem to attract all sorts," he looked the newcomer over, probably nobility, judging by his manner and clothes. Arrogent, but he might know something about this place we don't. Best be polite for now. "Who do I have the honor of addressing?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha kept a brisk pace behind Sebastian, walking level with the others, though she glanced at Mel upon seeing the expression that she had, pretty much frightened.  The panthress gave the other felid a reassuring smile before turning back around, only to stop dead in her tracks, narrowing her eyes at the shadows in front of them.  The bat had disappeared again, and she had caught only a few traces of movement left with the sound...and then there were just three left.

Well, that's slightly rude, Aisha thought, briefly placing her hands on her hips with a quirked eyebrow, curious still at the powers he had.  Then, she brought her head up and looked around, keeping her hand on the pommel of her new sword.  "I guess Sebastian figures we can find our way back without his help," she said with a sigh, her ears quirked to listen for any more sounds before walking again.

Aisha made way for the doors that they had come into, figuring perhaps that it was best to go out the way they came in, for that path was a little more familiar, therefore faster...and it might not involve more monsters.  The huntress wondered though how they could find their way back without taking an accidental wrong turn, before she mentally slapped herself.  The blood trail.  Duh.  Now it'll be faster.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog stood quiet for a moment and removed his blade from the stranger's hand. That should be impossible. he thought. Unless I'm quite a bit more injured than I was, or that hand is really made of steel...
Cog sheathed the blade quickly. He was standing at an almost imperceptible angle to the stranger, just a little to his left, and kept his words short. "I apologize, sir. You'll forgive me if your house has worn my manners." He narrows his eye. "Is this your mansion? If so, you should probably think about moving. After you burn it down."

[Stygian]

"It's the family house," the bat said, his voice and face returning to relative normality. "I've just guested it for... some time." He chuckled, and straightened the slim glasses over the bridge of his nose. It was still hard to see where he was looking, since his eyes were a clear sort of black normally anyway. He seemed to be looking at Gina. And then he stepped up to Cog, almost uncomfortably close, and looked at him inquisitively, cocking his head a bit to the side.
   "And I'm not going to burn it, whatever you say. There are alternatives."
   The bat then walked over to Jeremiah, and looked at him just as closely, though with much less an appreciative face. He shifted his eyes between him and Gina a bit.
   "And what's this then? The mad leading the crippled, or the other way around?"

   The blood trail led back the same way they had come in, then took a left turn and another left past a corridor, and then another left through a long, dimly lit corridor. It looked like the way they had taken in... but it was too long, and there were too many left turns...

[Boog]

"Mad? I'm not mad. Peeved would be the word, I suppose, but not mad."
I dunno, you're always angry and yelling at me in your head when it is in no way my fault for-
Ha! Says the man with magically created voices in his head! You've been legally insane for a long time, Jeremiah.
Break'emBreak'emBreak'emBreak-
The lot of you shut up! "It's your damn house, you see?" Jeremiah grinned manically and jerked his head to indicate the scratches on his back, "It can be a bit of a pain in the neck, or at least in the general vertebre area. In all seriousness, could you take her for a bit?" Not waiting for an answer, he foisted Gina into the arms of the newcomer, "She's possessed or something. Was babbling about a mistress. Says her name's Gina, but whoever else is in there ain't too friendly. She's had what you could call a bad day," the frog looked the newcomer up and down again, as if wondering whether it was wise to have entrusted him with the unconcious woman, "Anything you can do for her?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The shadows were different without Sebastian. No thinner or less frightening, but different. Mel pulled a second crystal from her pouch, sparked light in it, and added it to the first in her wand. The two brightly lit prisms circled each other in a dizzying manner but did increase the rainbow-edged light. As she followed the other two she became uncertain of where they were heading. She didn't remember making this many turns on the way in. Weren't they supposed to be heading back to the entrance? "Is this the way to the door? I'm lost."

[Aisha deCabre]

Back through the doors she stepped, hoping that the others were also nearby, and also hoping that the instinct to follow the blood was correct.  It should have been...it was what brought them to the chapel.  They left the building behind them, also leaving behind the smell of death and the trail of destruction.  I wonder if that will have to be cleaned up later, the panther grimaced, but nonetheless kept her eyes partially ahead and partially to the ground, the morbid trail still feeling like a wierd variation of a red carpet greeting.

After following for a while, Aisha began to wonder if it this was really the way they came...but it should be, there were no other blood trails that they had found...or were there?  She stopped upon hearing Mel's inquiry, scratching the back of her head.  "Actually, I'm wondering the same thing..."

It was like a labyrinth in that castle...a maze, and some force was correcting the line that it had drawn.  Considering the creepy things that had gone on in the place, and knowing well that it was haunted, suddenly instinct was screaming out "trap!" in the back of her head.  Turning back to the wolf and the leopard, she cautiously laid a hand on her sword.  "Well, if we're lost, we still have this route.  Might as well keep taking it.  And be on our guard while we're at it..."  With a deep inhalation through her nostrils, she moved forward with her comrades again.

[Stygian]

The bat cocked his head again, this time to the other side, and his ears twitched. Yet, he answered the frog politely and calmly.
   "Yes. I do think there is something I can do," he said. He looked at the girl's face, his nose twitching a bit. Then, he made another one of those grins. "Actually," he said, "I think I know this one."
   His hand went to the girl's throat, stroking down it a bit, and then slipping off the cross hanging around it. The girl's brow furrowed a bit, and she whimpered, but her eyes stayed shut. The bat still held his hand around her neck, and then he murred.
   "Hello, Peter."
   The ferret's eyes flew open, and she looked at the bat with horror.
   "You... no...!" she said, in a decidedly male voice, tinged with as much fear as her face. "You can't be loose! She'll kill us all! Torture us!"
   "I've already endured her torture for quite some time, thank you," the bat said seriously. "Come now, Peter. You didn't think she'd be able to hold us here? She is like the rest of this family; weak and reclusive. And you've already found an exit too, I see. Or, at least you had before she decided to stop you..." The bat chuckled grimly.
   "Fuck you, Sebastian! Fuck you!" the ferret responded in anger and spat at him. "You deserve to be locked up! It's all your bloody fault! When I get out of here..." She didn't have time to say more, because the bat's hand clamped her mouth shut.
   "There will be no getting out. You died a long time ago, Peter. It's time that you accepted that. And if you can't see whose fault all this is... then frankly you don't deserve the other chance either." The ferret shook and thrashed in his grip, but the bat seemed completely unperturbed. He lowered his head. "Goodbye, Peter..."
   The bat forcefully locked lips with the ferret, and she cried out in a muffled wail, her eyes wide open. She thrashed and struggled, her body seemingly cramping.

   Then the corridor opened up before the party, and they passed through a pair of double doors into a room that easily rivaled the chapel in size. It was a library, four stories tall, with catwalks running out from balconies and books on books stacked full on the shelves on every wall. Before them, at the other end of the room, were incredibly tall windows set within exquisite frames, running from the very bottom floor to the top of the roof, and ending in a rose much like in the chapel. The light of flashes from the storm outside trickled in through the water-covered glass, and cast the shadow of a huge globe depicting furrae that stood to the middle of the room. There were tables around, some of them with candles and open books on top of them, as if someone had been searching through the place and then just decided to walk out on their work.

[Gareeku]

Following the bat with the others, Gareeku narrowed his eyes as Sebastian abruptly disappeared, leaving the three of them on their own.
"That was quite sudden." the wolf commented with a grim expression on his face, before following Aisha and Mel, his hand on the hilt of his blade as his eyes continually glanced about, as if anticipating someone or something to jump out at them from the gloom of the house.

Eventually, Gareeku and the others entered what appeared to be some sort of large library.
"Whoever was here last wasn't the most houseproud of people." the wolf muttered, walking around and inspecting the different books on show.

[Aisha deCabre]

Her eyes lifting from the floor as they were led to another chamber, they just kept going up, until she saw just how high the ceiling was.  Once again, the place held them in a good amount of awe and wonder as her head dropped and she paced across the library, glimpsing the storm that still raged on the other side of the beautifully-designed stained glass.

With a light snerk in reply to Gareeku's remark, Aisha strode around the grand library, though still with caution as she still remembered about the danger...still, even with caution, one couldn't help but take a look around in curiosity.  Maybe we'll find out a few things while we're here...a history, or something, the panther thought while starting to walk about the curious candlelit tables.

[Stygian]

The place had a sort of aura of power to it, one that was easily recognizable, when one saw the strange mix of formulas, the long texts, the calculations and the sketches displayed on each page of the opened books. There was a great difference between books about power, and books of power. These were of the latter kind, packed with knowledge that could just as well be miraculous as horrible, as easily wondrous as terribly dangerous. The pages were practically reeking with it.
   There was one other thing that was common among many of the books; most of them seemed to have religious connotations. Gods, demons and angels shared pages with complex magical formulas and scientific calculations, numbers, symbols and patterns noted down everywhere in notepapers and files laying between the books.

   The ferret woman stopped thrashing, and went limp. Her eyes fogged as they rolled up to look at the roof, and then the bat let her go. He pulled back his head, breathing in a last bit of what looked like moonlit mist that trailed between their mouths, and then sighed deeply. Then, he gingerly placed down the ferret woman on the nearest sofa. She was still breathing weakly, but her gaze was dim and lifeless, and completely still, just like the rest of her.
   The bat smiled, and then turned to Jeremiah and Cog.

[Boog]

Jeremiah (OOC: Not Boogey. Different character this time around.) gazed at the spectacle worridly. That wail sounded like the body's rightful owner.
"Hey, you're not hurting the girl, right? That'd be, erm..."
Something it's too late for you to fix?
Didn't I tell you lot to shut up!? You in particular!
It's incredibly difficult to glare at someone in your own mind. The closest you can do is just glare in general. Thus was his expression as he backed away from the bat and toward Cog. "Psst! Cog?" He whispered, hopefully keeping his voice low enough for the bat to miss the particulars of what he was saying, "I dunno about this guy. You trust him?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked around with interest, this library was the sort of place she was supposed to be nosing around in. She glanced at some of the closer books, quickly memorizing the open pages for later analysis. Personally, as an illusionist, she found the image the window was casting more interesting. She bet it was something special on a sunny day. Regretfully she looked around the room, this wasn't getting the others found. "The entry hall seems to have had a change of profession. Either that or we've gotten turned around."

[Stygian]

"Trust is not in the issue, mister," the bat said, pacing back and around them. He could quite obviously hear the frog very well. "Neccessity is. You need to stay alive. And for that, you need to work with me."
   The bat stopped, and looked at the windows, the rain still trickling in through them a bit. He frowned and looked at them a bit. Then, he reached out his hand, and there was a sort of fizzing sound, streaks of black and dark blue crackling around it. He snapped his fingers, and the glass and water strewn over the floor began to flow back and out, the windows seemingly becoming liquid as they repaired themselves, until they froze into position in their corrected frames, the water seeping over them on the outside.
   The bat turned and smiled at the wolf and the frog, and began to walk back against the door from which the other bats had come.
   "My name is Sebastian," he said when he passed them. "Pleased to meet you." As he walked, his shape started to become more shadowy, the darkness gathering to it, and his voice once again began to take on that dark character.
   "Through here, then a left, a right and another right, then straight on. Don't go any other way," he said. When he entered the shadows beyond the doors, he seemed to... crumble, to dissolve into the darkness. The last words came to them from no discernable direction.
   "See you up ahead..."

   Mel heard a chuckle from behind her, right from one of the corners where the shadows seemed deepest. The bat sat on the edge of the table right closest to it.
   "Well, you didn't think it would be that easy, did you? This place changes, all according to her will and her whims. And people don't find their way out. I'm amazed you've so much as managed to stay on the same floor."

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha continued to walk among the lit tables, curiously glancing at some of the books that were open, and taking in the light serenity that the library seemed to have, though she could sense, as with the rest of the house perhaps, that things were much different.  Energies and feelings seemed to go and be forgotten at whim...perhaps the panther was reading much into it, but always when there wasn't much else to do but think, that's what she did.

After a minute, she curiously flipped through some of the pages, just skimming what was on it with minimal interest.  A cathedral and now this.  The owners must have been very religion-conscious...or something to that effect, she thought, her ears resting near her skull.  But they perked again when hearing a familiar voice from somewhere, answering Mel.  "Ah, our shadowy guide is back," she remarked with a smirk when Gareeku was in earshot.

Leaving the book, Aisha made her way towards where Mel and Sebastian were, tilting her head, then shaking it.  "Yep, knew it.  So the lines in this labyrinth are being redrawn.  It can be stopped, espero."  (I hope.)

[Gareeku]

Walking around the somewhat majestic library, Gareeku also noticed the religious content of the books, thinking along similar lines to that of Aisha about how the owners of the house must have been quite religious.

With his ears swivelling as he heard Aisha's remark, the wolf turned to be Sebastian had entered the library.
"Being redrawn, hm?" Gareeku commented as he returned to where the rest of the group was, a slight smirk on his face as he spoke. "I see we are being made quite welcome here. Still, a part of me would like to see what we are up against instead of her hiding behind a changing labrynith and demonic minions, if those things we encountered back there were her doing that is."

As he finished his comment, the wolf glanced at Aisha's new sword, looking at it with great interest.
"This house holds all sorts of surprises." he muttered.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"Then it is the will of the archangel that we are here, in this library? We are here for her reasons?" Mel looked around with more interest, and a bit of trepidation. Were they here to see something or because it was a trap? As nothing had jumped on them so far she looked around again to see if anything strange caught her eye.

[Boog]

"Well, that's reassuring..." Jeremiah muttered, picking up the once-more unconcious Gina, "You remember all those directions of his, right Cog? My sense of direction's crap."

[Cogidubnus]

Cog shook his head and muttered darkly. "No, I don't trust him." He adjusted his hat, and picked up the cross that had fallen on the floor, placing it about his neck. "I'll take him over the other shadows, though". Coolness seeped into his body, and congealed around his back, soothing it somewhat. It would need more attention later, but this kept him flexible, at least.
"Left right right straight." he said, starting to walk towards the exit. He kept his coin aloft in one hand, lighting the way through. It was beginning to fade - the stored sunlight was running dry. "Tell me if you need to stop." he said, motioning towards the woman in his hands. "We can't get separated. At all. Stay close."

[Stygian]

Sebastian stepped down from the table and began to pace, looking at the books. He snickered at some of them, and stared bitterly at others.
   "Honestly, I have no idea. I have not been up here for..." He stopped, and scratched his chin. "A hundred and sixty-four years. Yes. Damn, but I've got a lot to catch up on..." That seemed an oddly accurate number, but he did not look like he had pulled it out of nowhere.
   The bat stopped by the big globe by the window, and traced a finger across it idly. Then he looked back at them all with a bit of curiosity.
   "I would guess that it has to do with whatever you're here for. After all, she would most logically be looking to hold you here by tempting you with just that," he said, and looked them over, one by one. "Why are you here, if I may ask?"

[Aisha deCabre]

When Sebastian told them roughly how long it had been, Aisha's eyebrows shot up with slight amazement.  Of course, she knew Creatures who had lived longer, but there was still something unimaginable about such a number...more so when one had been imprisoned for that long.

At the inquiry, the panthress glanced upward in thought, pausing to still notice just how high the ceiling was above them.  There was hesitance mostly because what she and perhaps the others were there for would make them sound as much intruders as they seemed to be then...something only barely short of thieves.

"To sate a curiosity, mostly..." Aisha began, holding up her hands to indicate both of her comrades.  "That's something in common with us.  There has been stories told about this place, and passing through, naturally we couldn't help but overhear things.  Some of us I suppose came to learn about the history...to investigate the 'haunted' aspect..."  The dark felid crossed her arms and gave a slight smirk, denoting that perhaps was the reason she was there herself.  "...Or even for treasure," she added with a swish of her tail and the slightly-gleaming ring on it.

"But honestly, señor, we weren't expecting to find someone still hanging around," Aisha finished with a sort of apologetic nod, glancing to Gareeku and Mel to listen to their own reasons while her hand came down to rest on the handle of her new sword.  We've found quite a few things so far, and who knows how many things there are left.

[Stygian]

The bat laughed, quite surprisingly mirthfully, and studied Aisha with his gaze.
   "Estoy menos cosas honorables de buscar, muchacha. Poder y riqueza pueden ser los más morales de objetivos,"* he said, smiling. "Y amor y asuntos de familia pueden ser los peores... Dígame ... su acento. Lo he oído antes. ¿De dónde están usted, si puedo preguntar?"** There was a glimmer of recognition in his eyes, and he seemed to be looking at hers, inquisitively.

*(There are less honorable things to be looking for. Power and wealth can be the most moral goals.)
**(And love and family matters the worst... Tell me... your accent. I have heard it before. Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?)

[Aisha deCabre]

Hearing Sebastian speak again, Aisha blinked in surprise.  Other than her mentor, she hadn't heard someone speak her family's tongue almost so fluently for a long time.  There was slight suspicion, as for a while she only thought her own family knew it...but then again, he did say that he was around for a while.  The accent wouldn't have been too far out of a realm of knowledge, especially around her particular region.

After thinking for a second, she smirked, deciding to respond in kind.  "No soy de ninguna parte que sabe..." she paused and glanced over the map of Furrae before running a hand over a portion of it, just around the same region as the Shadowed Depths.  "Está escondido.  Además, lo haredé de mis padres."  There was a pause as she stopped to think, then she laughed slightly.  "No lo he hablado mucho." 

Her expression became serious, looking back at the bat.  "Yo no estoy de acuerdo con usted, sobre familia."  She shrugged.  "Pero mi familia verdadera...son muertos."

With that, she shook her head and glanced up at her comrades, who must have been somewhat confused about the language they were speaking.  She laughed and switched back.  "Enough.  I'm sure we can't be more interesting than this place.  And we have something to take care of."

((Second paragraph: I'm not from anywhere you'd know...it's hidden.  Anyway, I got it from my parents.  I haven't spoken it that much.
Third paragraph: I don't agree with you, about family.  But my true family...they are dead.))

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked around and managed a smile. "A room like this is certainly a temptation to a collector of stories. But I'm sure every room in a building of this age has stories to tell." She gave the graceful and information-filled room a regretful look. "Shouldn't we gather the others and find a less distracting room? I don't like obliging the expectations of someone who wants to kill me."

[Boog]

"Can do..." Jeremiah muttered, following closely as ordered with the occasional worried glance at Gina. Her breathing was shallow, ans she wasn't reacting to anything around her. After all the stress they'd gone through trying to help her, it would be rather inconsiderate and awkward if she were to simply die. Just not done, that.

[Stygian]

The bat smiled, and walked over to the other "feline", looking at her with that knowing gaze again. He paced around her a bit.
   "Feeling targeted, hmm? Perhaps it was your desire that she appealed to then? Heh..." he said, and chuckled. "I don't think so. Really, what she wants is to get us away so she can take us out one by one. But here we can find some clues, perhaps." He stopped at a book, one of the larger ones, displaying a dark and intense drawing of some kind. He frowned.
   "But of course you're right in that we should go somewhere else later. We don't want to mess this place up. Still, right now we have to wait for your friends." He looked around at the entryway, and whispered something barely audible. Then, he snapped a finger, and immediately the candles in the room lit up, spreading a dim but warm light.

   Down the hallway, Cog and Jeremiah were coming around the last turn, when they heard something. A voice, like a whisper in their head, traveling far from down the hallway.
   "Over here..."
   They thought they could see just a little light coming from over there.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog stood still in the shadows, the fading light from the coin draping his face alternatively light and shade. The air seemed to be dead around him as he contemplated the voice whispered in his ear.
Cog turned toward Jeremiah. "What do you think? Trap, or the 'nice' shadow?" he said, and scratched the back of his head. "It certainly...'sounded' like Sebastian." he peered into the shadows surrounding them, and back towards the light. "I don't think we have much of a choice anyway. The coin's running out of sunlight..." he twirled the fading piece of metal in his fingers.
He took a tentative step forward, hoping that perhaps another demon-dog wasn't awaiting him past this door.

[Aisha deCabre]

While watching Sebastian as he turned his curiousity towards Mel, Aisha thoughfully looked back over at the globe of Furrae that was standing near to them, and then her gaze started wandering back over the vast amount of books in the library.  Clues may be found here...so where would one even begin to look?  To be honest, even in this dark place she didn't feel like lingering there for very long if it was where their unseen antagonist wanted them for the time being.

"Well, I wonder where we ought to go, then," Aisha muttered, having listened to Mel's statement about finding another room, as well as Sebastian's reply.  But she suddenly perked on remembering that they still had friends who were wandering around.  "Ah, so they're okay," she said with a bit of relief, following the bat's gaze over to the entry.