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

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha kept watching carefully from around the bookcases, her hand having instantly started to go towards her boomerang handle when she transformed.  She could see Gareeku getting ready to use what powers he could, but the panther was poised to help, though she was also a little tired from helping otherwise.  She winced as the ferret blocked Sebastian's effort as if it was nothing.  Her grip tightened.

And that was when the bat tried again, and her eyes widened at the blow...but to everyone's infinite relief, the possessed woman's body collapsed, and she relaxed with a sigh.  Aisha stepped out of the shadows, glancing towards the bat again, to the ferret, to where Mel and Jeremiah still were with the 'Cubi, and finally to Gareeku.  "Good gods," she breathed.  "Is everyone okay?"

She then quirked an ear to Mel's statement and couldn't help but laugh nervously, glancing back toward the bookshelves.  "Crazy as it is, I wonder if there isn't anything about exorcisms in the books these religion-fanatics kept..." she muttered thoughtfully.

[Sunblink]

"I'm sure this place is a laugh riot," Keaton remarked sarcastically, her voice nearly lost to the screeching tirades of the apparently-possessed ferret resonating within the chamber. Tensing instinctually, Keaton tried her best to ignore the scuffle ensuing between the others and the demented ferret after her gaze managed to wander back to the scene once or twice.

"But dammit. Don't tell me that I lost them somehow..." Keaton buried her head in her hands. "Fucking monsters attacked me at the doors to this place, I probably dropped my mace there, but my glasses... I need those."

Keaton waved her hand before her eyes for emphasis. "It's really hard to explain. I just need them, and he'll be really pissed if I don't find him soon." Keaton rolled her eyes, remaining purposefully ambiguous about the sudden, masculine referrence of her mace. "But you said you were attacked by a wraith? You mean to tell me there are things like that all over this hellhole?"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

People were talking right in each other's mouths now, and nothing made sense anymore. The place was a mess. And now the other wolf seemed to think he was going to perform an exorcism right here in Stygian's presence. It was too much. He was used to things being hard, but the sheer amount of unpredictable oddness was just too much.
   "I'm... just fine... there's no need..." Stygian said, getting to his feet and straightening with a cough and a dry crack from his spine, pulling the jackal's glasses from a shirtpocket. Oddly enough, they had survived unscathed. He walked up to the jackal, and handed them over. Then, he threw himself in a chair and made an exasperated moan.
   The ferret seemed to be coming to her senses again. But quite oddly, she was crying.
   "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." she said in a shifting voice, that seemed to begin to settle at that of the young man, tears streaming down her cheeks.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The gash on Keaton's side was almost closed, although still raw and painful looking. "Sorry, but you picked a very bad place to hide. This place is literally a hellhole and evidently we're trapped. Sebastian can explain it better. Can you turn a bit so I can see your other wounds?"

[Sunblink]

After accepting her glasses back from Stygian, who she thanked with an appreciative nod, she acquiesced to Mel's gentle commands and turned her body over so her back was completely exposed to Mel's experimentation. Located between and just below her wings were two, livid punctures in her back, the splintered edge of an arrow, snapped in two, lodged in the center of one of the more deeper wounds. Obviously Keaton hadn't had the energy to completely remove the arrow, and she would've rectified it at that moment if it weren't for the assumption that Mel would discourage such a hasty act.

Rolling her eyes, Keaton commanded her wings to blend in with her body, the metamorphosis proceeding as fluidly and efficiently as per usual. The wings sunk deep into her back, disappearing from sight and allowing Mel a better glimpse, as well as more room to tend to the two, worrisome perforations. Thanks to her hard work, however, the pain that had been bombarding Keaton for the past few, agonizing minutes had nearly subsided, dulled to an unnoticable pulse in the back of her head. It was probably safe enough to move around, but she didn't want to risk ripping her wound open again.

"So I take it I have to stay here for a while until you guys find a way out of this place?" Keaton asked, arching an eyebrow. "Great... just... wonderful."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

Cog contemplated trying to suppress the ferret woman again, but thought better. At this point, it would likely be like a bucket of water in a volcano. Stronger things than what Cog had would be necessary. He merely kept quiet, and kept a steady eye on the girl. If she did start going off, perhaps he could distract her long enough for one of the others to knock her out.
He looked at Jeremiah, and at the rest of the party, grimacing. He addressed Stygian. "If you have a plan, good sir, it might be wise to inform us. Before another shade, demon-dog, or insane possessed ferret decide they'd like us to die before the next sunrise."

[Stygian]

Stygian scoffed at Keaton, and sat up a bit more, supporting himself on the thick armrests of the red leather chair.
   "Really? Wow. I'm amazed you feel that way. After all, I've spent more than a century and a half locked up here, and I have found the place to be rather... dreadful," he said, his voice seething sarcasm. He sighed heavily, and didn't turn to look at the wolf when he asked his question. Instead, he murmured something shortly - "Pulmo iuguolo" - and waved his hand through the air, trailing black smoke which congregated to form the shape of a slim cigar. He lit it on a flame from his finger, and then took a deep breath on it, leaning back and looking quite normal for once as he smoked.
   "We have to find her and kill her, it's that simple," he said, referring to the cursed angel. "If that sword which you're holding is not the key, which I bet it isn't, even though it'd be a good guess," he said and nodded to Aisha's newly acquired piece, "then it should be something that's mentioned somewhere in here. She had to be bound and chained to this place first, before her power could be turned into a prison. The rituals and the procedures are rather specific. That gives us only a few books to look through..."
   The bat nodded his head to the side and looked nowhere in particular a bit, pulled on the cigar, and blew a cloud of bluish tobacco smoke. Then, he got to his feet and began rummaging through the books at the nearest table.

[Gareeku]

Seeing the ferret woman collapse, Gareeku relaxed and let go of his sheathed sword, the magic on his magic also disappearing as the wolf  turned to Aisha.
"I'm fine." Gareeku muttered. "Though it'll probably be the last time I punch a possessed ferret."

Walking over to Keaton, Gareeku looked as her wounds were being healed fast. Hearing her words, the wolf grimaced.
"Nice to know we're appreciated." he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. From his blunt mannerisms, it was safe to say he was in a bad mood. "If if weren't for us, particularly Mel, you would be dead, so shut up and deal with it."

Walking off, Gareeku joines Stygian in looking through the books to find any evidence or information as to where they might find the key to defeating this rather twisted fallen archangel they were up against. After searching through one table full of books, Gareeku frowned as he looked at the rest of the library. "This could take a while."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

PBH wakes up on the floor of the main entrance hall.   Looking around in the darkness, she lights off a light spell, the bats are gone for the moment.  She pulls shorts and a safari shirt from her backpack and quick dresses.. Listening a moment, she call out "Hello, Is anyone here.?"

PBH

[Boog]

Jeremiah's eyes widened at Stygian's solution to the Gina debacle, Gonna have to ask him later how he did that. If it's what I think it is... Shaking his head some more, he walked toward the ferret and Cog. The slight ringing in his ears hadn't stopped, and every so often his shoulder gave another pang of pain, but he could deal with it. The frog sat down on the floor near the Legion, and smiled at her warmly.
"Shhh, don't worry about it. Just try not to do it again," Just a teensy dash of hypnosis, to calm her down and get her to listen, "Just remain calm," At Sebastian's words, he looked up in alarm. "Kill who the what now? Methinks I've gotten to this conversation a tad late. What's going on?"

[Sunblink]

Keaton shot a fiery glare at Gareeku, her expression indignant, but she said nothing in response to him. If anything, Keaton was a rather rude, tactless person--never one to admit that she was incorrect on anything the grand, irritating (to many others) majority of the time. However, she was terrible at defending herself when, behind the layers of causticity, a frequently-neglected, denourished part of her knew that Gareeku was right.

Since she was too exhausted to put up much of a fight, Keaton returned to letting Mel do her handiwork, absently looking over her gash, scowling and ruffling her still-materialized head-wings bitterly. "Sarcasm," Keaton stated in total deadpan to Stygian, trying to crane her head over her shoulder to look at him. "Look it u--fuck."

For once, Keaton's normally steel-enforced mind unfurled to accept the entirety of Stygian's words and properly process them. If he had been locked in the castle for centuries, who knew how long they would all would be here? It wasn't like Keaton had an excess of friends (in fact, her deterrent attitude deflected just about most people, save for the very brave ones, despite her sometimes internally boisterous demeanor) to worry about her. But the idea of being holed up in some dilapidating, haunted castle for the rest of her possibly thousand-year-long existence wasn't a very entertaining concept, to be blunt. She supposed it was rather convenient that Cubi didn't need to eat or sleep, because lord knew if they would be able to salvage any food.

She just doubted they would ever give off a decent amount of suffering or humiliation. She hadn't had her favorite emotions in a while.

Her revelation clear in her suddenly thunderstruck facial features, Keaton averted her gaze from Stygian and stared blankly at the wall in front of her, turning over a rather crudely-fashioned list of possibly futile escape and/or survival options in her mind. She could fight well enough without her mace...

...but 'he' would be as pissed as all hell by the time she found him.

Still, some part of Gareeku's words saturated into Keaton's mind. She DID owe a lot to these people, though she was hardly one for honor, or life debts. No, those had immersed herself in an endless amount of problems before. Most especially the innocuous-looking snow leopard.

Regardless, in order to remove the parasitic feeling of guilt that was leeching off of her, Keaton drew Mel's attention to her with a timid, awkward cough. "Um..." Keaton whispered to Mel into her fist. "...Thanks. You know, for healing me."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

As if Mel knew how difficult the verbal expression of thanks was for Keaton the response was delivered in a faint flutter of thought, "You're quite welcome."

Mel looked at the arrow lodged in Keaton's back. "You might want to brace yourself while I pull this thing out." Mel tugged on the blood slickened shaft, but despite her care it was only the shaft that ended up in her hand. The tip had to be lodged in a bone, likely a rib from the location. She cursed a bit then told her patient, "You're going to feel a bit cold. The tip is stuck and I'm going to numb you with cold before probing." She quickly laid her hand over the hole and did just that before the jackal could comment. Mammals were such sissies over cold. When the flesh was properly deadened she wiggled two fingers into the wound, glad that she had chosen such a small form with proportionally small hands. With claws designed to rend stone it was easy enough to get a firm grasp the iron wedge and jiggle it loose from the bone. Once free of the flesh she handed it to Keaton. "You'll feel better without this inside you. And now to get it patched up."

[Stygian]

The bat kept going through the books, first checking who they were and on what topics and setting the relevant ones aside, then beginning to search through those for individual traces of information.
   "Like it or not, it's a while that we have to take..." he said to the wolf as he kept scanning the texts. Still, his face began to sour quickly. He rummaged and almost threw some books around.
   "He must have been helped by that despicable dragon... No. No! No, no, no...! What idiocy! Where are the notes...?!" he muttered and said to himself. Then, he sighed, and as if to calm himself he started conversing. "Allright... so, Keaton. We were discussing what we were doing here. Any particular reason on your behalf?"
   He passed the ferret amid all of this, and she looked up at him with eyes that seemed to say 'please, forgive me'. Then, she looked back to Jeremiah, and resumed. It was quite odd to hear that man's voice from her sweet face.
   "The angry lady. She who wants to keep all knowledge locked up," she said, with just a bit of fear in her, or his, voice.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha laughed quietly at Gareeku's reply, though he seemed to be in the direct opposite mood for laughter.  It seemed everybody was in the same state of mind, and she could just feel it from the others in the room, a spectrum of expression that ranged from calm deliberation to frustration.  The panthress was leaning towards the latter at this point.

Listening to Sebastian, she took the sword from her belt and looked the blade over with curiosity.  Had she not known better, it would have looked like a simple and old weapon.  From the description of what they were up against, she doubted that it would be a key, but the huntress knew that it would certainly help.

With a sigh, she turned to Jeremiah and his question.  It was easy to forget that the party was split and so not everyone knew of the situation.  There was a pause as the ferret piped up in the strange voice range.  Her eyes narrowed in contemplation before offering an answer of her own.  "The bat says it's a cursed arch-angel making all of this trouble."

[Cogidubnus]

Cog stood still and quiet at Aisha's words, and then looked at the rest of the party, silent. He ventured to open his mouth once, then shut it, and opened his mouth again. "An Archangel. I see." he said, unmoving. "An Archangel. And all of you have no problem with this?" he asked, finally moving towards the oak table near Mel, and grabbing the forgotten Broken Moon, and placing it back in his jacket. "You are all aware of what Archangels can do, yes? Not that I am afraid, mind, quite the opposite. But I'd really rather not die in a futile excersize." he finally said, looking at the shelves and shelves of books.
He suddenly brightened. "I've never seen someone with the complete collection of Beddoes. How morbid."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When Sebastian started cursing about dragons Mel winced, then realized that he wasn't talking about her. "Notes? There was a lab manual or diary or notebook of some sort on one of the tables. I had it in my hand before Jeremiah arrived with Gina." Mel spared a second from the healing to look around but between her air blast and the rest of the fighting all the papers were scattered. "I'm not sure where it is now. The table it was on seems to be on the other side of the room in small pieces."

[Boog]

"Lovely..." Jeremiah growled. The ringing was dying down, but his ears still felt a little funny, like a noise outside his hearing range, "An angel. Not just that, but the religion-specific variety. Of course," He went on, turning back to Gina, "You don't have to worry, because you have these nice people looking after you. Just relax..." He looked up again, with a pointed look at Sebastion, "What's this about knowledge?"

[Stygian]

Stygian looked up at Mel's statement. Then, he paced over to the other side of the room and began searching around the remnants of the crushed desk. Then, he burst out a triumphant 'ha!' and picked up the journal and began flipping through it. His eyes darted qucikly across the pages.
   "I don't believe it... He actually composed this part practically by himself!" he said, and muttered. "Curse that dragon, and all of his kind!" he hissed. His eyes focused on the book, he passed by the frog and the ferret just as 'Gina' looked at Jeremiah with a bit of a hurt look.
   "Stop trying to hypnotize us!" she said, now in a female voice. "We haven't done anything!" Sebastian paid them no heed, keeping up his reading.
   "She was chained in the basement, inside a stone casket. But not under the chapel, fortunately. It seems they used a sort of 'bordering' magic to place her in a separate chamber in this castle, closer to Hell than the rest of it. A Malebolge, if you will. But it doesn't say anything about... hold on..." He read something closer. "Oh, great. The sword is the key. But it needs something else too. The untainted spirit of the family? What the Hell?" He looked confused for a while, then bitter.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel pulled her illusion more firmly around herself as Sebastian released more bile against dragons in general. True some were famous for mischief, but what species could claim innocence? Angels and demons had a much higher rate of individuals causing trouble than dragons. She concentrated more completely on the healing, trying to be very small and quiet and very undragonlike.

[Aisha deCabre]

"We're okay with it because of the hope that there's a way to get rid of it," Aisha answered Cogi, looking up briefly while leaning on a table.  Her eyes wandered over the multitude of shelves and the greater multitude of books, before wandering down to the book that was in front of her.  It looked much like the rest with its mix of scientific and religious notes.  "But at least we're in the best place to figure out how."  The panther had to admit that she wasn't very religion-conscious herself, anyway, thinking about it.

After thoughtfully inspecting her sword a little more, Aisha shrugged and made a quiet hum, after listening to Sebastian read the journal.  I guess I'll be a keybearer, then, the panthress smirked to herself and replaced the blade carefully back in her belt, taking her cape to use as a makeshift sheath once more so that it wouldn't accidentally slice through her leg.  The cape had been cast aside near where Mel and Keaton were, the crimson-drenched fabric no longer needed to bond the wounds.

It was then that she glanced at the vessel named Gina, still feeling a small amount of pity for the spirits that witheld themselves there.  "All the better to find out what it all means," she muttered, crossing her arms.

[Stygian]

"Right then..." Sebastian said, and snapped the book together, stuffing it in his pocket. "The reference is clear enough. Get the ferret, and let's go find that chamber." The book had to be referring to one of the souls trapped in the castle; a special one, to boot. By having her around, they could essentially steal that spirit from the place, and then use it to form the key.
   The bat pulled on his cigar again, and walked briskly over back to the table with the other books he had been reading. He went through a few, muttering and mumbling, blowing smoke at the pages from time to time, and then took one in his hand.
   "Right. Who needs more healing? We have to get moving as quickly as possible, before she throws more horrors at us."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The arrow wounds were much simpler and quicker to heal than the deep gash in Keaton's side and Mel was quickly finished. A quick burst of magic to energize the blood she had left and to get her body producing more and Keaton was as well as Mel could make her. She gave Keaton a pat on the shoulder. "This is as good as it gets for now, I'm afraid." She paused a second then added, "I know this is a ridiculous thing to say under the circumstances, but try not to overexert yourself."

Mel stood and looked between Jeremiah and Cog. The frog was temporarily stable but the swordsman was claiming back pain. Back problems were tricky and could quickly deteriorate if someone moved wrong, like in a swordfight. She walked over to where the wolf was scanning the bookshelves. "I think you're next. May I?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog turned from where he stood staring at the bookshelves and nodded at Mel. "Please, and thank you." Cog said, and then hesitating. "Should I lay down, or...something?" he asked. Not being a healer himself, he was somewhat unsure as how to proceed.
He removed his jacket and set it on a chair, and stood quietly.

[Boog]

Jeremiah blinked when Gina mentioned his hypnosis and chuckled.
"Sorry. Guess I'm not giving you enough credit," he stood up, dusted himself off, and held out a hand to Gina, "Well, it would appear we're on the move. Come along, madam." The strange nonsound was fading now, but still very much there. Eh. Probably not an issue.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel softly addressed Cog."Just stand still please. You can keep reading that book if it helps you. I'm going to put a hand on your back and I've been told I have quite cold hands," she chuckled. "So don't be startled."

Mel closed her eyes and searched for his pain. "Ah, you seem to have a few cracks and chips along with some offended muscles. Not a difficult fix." The cool sensation from her hand spread outward. To distract him she spoke, "That's a very well made charm you have. Is it a Chandler?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog's eyes dimmed and moment, and he smiled wistfully. "No. I've met the man who made those, and his name wasn't Chandler." he said. "His name was Arcturus. He's the man I'm looking for, actually. I don't know if he made more, or was particularly renowned for enchanting, but they do what I need." He winced and continued on. "Thank you for your compliments, however. I've had them for some time."
Thinking thoughts of burning villages and cold, green eyes, Cog barely felt Mel's cold fingers.

[Stygian]

"Wonderful," Sebastian said, standing over in front of the door. "But perhaps we should hurry? I think I heard something earlier. This place won't stay empty for long." He folded his hands over his chest, tilted his head just a bit to the side and lowered one eyebrow, looking at them.

   In the entry hall, the stillness of the dark was broken by a short, chittering sound.

[Aisha deCabre]

With the signal from Sebastian that it was time to get moving, Aisha pushed herself from the table with a relieved grunt.  Being stuck in the library for most of the coming night was not going to be her idea of an adventure in the castle, that she knew.  The panther made a quick head count of the party, from the now-healed Keaton to the recovering Jeremiah and Cogi...she figured and hoped that the ferret would accompany them as they'd make their way to the chamber.  She turned to Gareeku last and smirked, knowing that he was okay.

"I'll agree on hurrying," Aisha said, moving towards the doorway with the others while keeping a hand at her belt and peering across the darkened hallway.  A hefty round of pity goes to the next beast that crosses us.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel removed her hand from Cogi's back. Cracked bones were one of the fastest things to heal. A bit of soothing to the strained muscles and it was done. "There you go. You'll still be a bit sore but you should move much easier now." She picked up her staff, the sparkling crystals giving off light again once it was in her hand. "I think the patients are stable enough to get going."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

PBH moves up the hall with a a glowing green sphere light ahead of her....

Slowly tracking to the trail of blood toward the main part of the house.  Going down the hallways.

Hearing a sound behind her, PBH starting going fast along the path of cubi blood ...

PBH