The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[Mel Dragonkitty]

With the spiders foremost in her mind the brief touch excited an immediate response in the dragon. A rapid temperature drop had wisps of fog dancing around her, glittering ice crystals sparking the cottony curls. Mel reached up to where she felt the tickling touch atop her head and grabbed the sluggish and dying spider. Another moment's work had it frozen enough to crush to dust.

Aisha's suggestion to get moving was an excellent idea. Mel reached down and took Ian by one shoulder, "Someone get his other arm." The frigid air around her would be unpleasant to the others, but should keep the spiders at a distance. "Do you have a destination in mind, Aisha?"

[Sunblink]

At the sarcasm in Stygian's voice Keaton bristled, noticeable shock blazing across her face before rage settled back in, teeth gritting and fists clenching as she forced herself to her feet, fueled and motivated only by fury and the sheer indignation of everything that had been said. "You--YOU--WHAT!?!" she shouted, looking seriously affronted.

She didn't even stop to consider any of the damage she had done during her possession. According to Stygian she had, indeed, fought, and in the past she had been remorseful once she was released from control, but this time... this time it was too much. This indignity was not going to be ignored. She would not stand for this. The spider bitch had gone too far this time. Too infuriated to come up with a decent retort to Stygian's statement, she merely stormed past him, furiously neglecting to inspect the expressions or reactions of everyone else. Sal had to be here somewhere--

Bingo. She saw the spider-woman slumped against the wall, looking battered and bedraggled. Victoriously, a vicious smirk lurked across Keaton's bloodstained lips, and she clenched her fists even tighter, to the point she felt her fingernails pierce her skin and blood spill from around the punctures. There was no hesitation. With a roar Keaton pulled back her fist and swung it forward, intending to smash her knuckles right into Sal's bruised face.

And she would keep going. And she would not stop.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog's face softened somewhat at Keaton's sudden tirade, the wolf looking away from her for a moment to the spider-girl bleeding out on the carpet. He watched Sal for a moment, musing, and turned back to the bat, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't kill her?" he said, pausing for a moment. He raised one eyebrow. "Last time we didn't kill her, it bit us in the ass. She's no good as a hostage, and she wants..." Cog sighed, and simply shook his head. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Cog turned to regard the spider woman again, and Sebastian began speaking to the Jackal, inflaming her further. Cog sighed, spending a moment trying to fling the frozen, bloody icicles off his sword, and Keaton suddenly lurched upright and flung herself at Sal, the rage in her eyes leaving no questions as to her intentions.
Cog stood there for a second, debating the merits of stopper her, and sighed. Before Keaton reached the injured spider, Cog grabbed her shoulder.
"Keaton." Cog said, trying to keep his voice steady. In his mind, he knew Keats had been controlled, but not two moments ago the same body had been doing it's best to try and kill him. It tended to make one nervous.
He spoke softly. "I'd like to see her dead too, Keats. But not now." Cog nodded his head back at Sebastian. "Sebastian wants her alive. You want her dead. We can debate the merits of killing her later. We need to move. There's more than just her crawling around here."

[Aisha deCabre]

Still frantically searching about, relieved when Mel and Jeremiah managed to get rid of their own spiders, Aisha tried to calm herself down long enough to help the dragon lift the rat from the floor.  For all of this trouble, he had better be grateful for the help... the panthress thought grumpily.  At most, they could all walk away from the castle with quite the paranoia of spiders.  The adventurer wondered if she'd live that down.

"Destination?  Hum..." Aisha murmured in reply to Mel, her mind frantically dashing through the stored memories of the castle's rooms.  She had just come from downstairs...the library was out of the picture perhaps, as was many of the other rooms, but they couldn't stay there...but she had come up to search for the others...and then there was the disturbances from one floor above.  If anyone were to be there...but the injured rat...it would be easier to carry him downstairs...but the strangers...

The panthress growled with frustration and halted the arguing between choices.  There were too many openings, too many chances.  "I can't think.  But...let's just go, quickly, and hope that we don't run into any more webbing..."

And then, the noises seemed to stop again.  It felt like it kept coming and going at intervals.  But if they could find an ally...and, too little beneath her notice, Aisha's tail ring had a slow and steady glow to it...if only her tracker could detect identities as well as dark energy within someone.  She could only hope that it was Stygian, somewhere near.

[Stygian]

The bat sighed again. 'Yes, I know it's a hassle, but bear with it, okay? She's not our primary source of worry. Finding the others are, before the...'
   Something shook the castle. Not a tremor, or a sound, but rather something else, something that made the already faint lighting of candles flicker and the thick shadows shift. The atmosphere, already heavy and livid, almost pulsated. And for a moment everyone, both those upstairs and the party beneath, felt as if a shadow cast over their souls.
   When the lighting settled and the world didn't seem so distant anymore, what was left was an almost silent darkness, just as before, but now with a growing sensation of presence to it, as if something were watching them all from out of the shadows.
   'Oh, shit...' Stygian said, eyes wide and his gaze far away. He, more than anyone, was familiar with the phenomenon. 'Too late for that then.' He looked up at Cogidubnus and Rynkura. 'We're running out of time. We have to move.'

[Sunblink]

Before Keaton could find twisted satisfaction in the first, inevitable blow she had prepared for Sal's face, she found a tense hand rest on her shoulder, gripping it slightly. Agitated, Keaton whirled her head 'round, staring at Cog from over her shoulder. That borderline insane look of anger still remained planted on her features, exacerbated by the combination of not only Sal's actions and her possession, but Stygian's scathing words as well. Both of them would fucking pay for it. Both of them. She didn't care if Stygian was stronger than her or if he could strike her down easily, she just wanted to kill something.

As tempted as she was to lash out at Cogidubnus, she did not. Somehow she found herself strangely hurt that he was apprehensive of her and how easily all the uncharacteristically compassionate exchanges between them had been discarded in the midst of their skirmish, and it was that which kept her from whirling on Cog and chewing him out. Instead, she let her shoulders sink in their sockets, a look of resignation on her face as she stared angrily at Sal.

One day, that whore was going to pay.

"I'm no one's whore," Keaton repeated numbly under her breath, voice devoid of passion. Quiet, but still loud enough to hear, numb and dead. "I'm... I'm nobody's bitch. Fuck you, Sebastian. JUST FUCK YOU. I didn't fucking... I didn't..."

He didn't seem terribly concerned with her, however, because he was staring off into the distance, looking nothing short of shocked. He stared at Rynkura and Cogidubnus, Keaton brusquely noting that he seemed to be deliberately ignoring her. At the moment Keaton was too enraged to give a damn, but in the near future the aftershock would come to emotionally kill her. Especially since she couldn't shake the feeling that she had been nothing but a detriment since she arrived at the Castle. Before they left, Keaton threw a callous glance at Sal from over her shoulder and then spoke under her breath:

"I'm going to rip that bitch's soul out of her fucking body."

And then she left with the rest of them.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Prof B Hunnydew]

This is wait was getting to the Fae, the others were not come to the library, and something else came to her.

"Gina? Where is the most defendable large room in the castle?  The Grandball room or The Cathedral?
***Wait*** This battle maybe meant to distract us for the really objective.  What would our evil friends want?  Will the portal painting be Okay?   " Asks Bam when the whole castle shakes under her feet.

"Oh Pixelate Protons, Gina, who would reopen the Hellgate?" says a wide eye Bambi as she starts to run to the door  on her way to the gate painting

[Angel]

As of this moment, I freaking HATE spiders.

Just when she had thought maybe they'd be safe for a little while, a spider had tried to attack Jeremiah. Thank goodness Mel had come back, with Aisha. That spider had been frozen by the dragon. Ketefe stood agreeably and lifted her hair when Mel asked to see if her neck was spider-free.

And then even more of them had come. Mel killed one, and Jeremiah too. But then Ketefe was distracted by the feel of eight skittery little legs on her shorts...

"Yeek!" she screamed, jumping about a foot when she saw yet another little monster crawling around on her leg. She snatched it off with her left hand, pulled out her sword with her right, and sliced the stupid thing in half.

"Ughh. I hope that's the last of them. How did they come back?" She walked over to help Mel lift up Ian. She was starting to regret her choice of attire, because Mel had made the air around herself very chilly.

[Boog]

"My g-guess is that we didn't finish the job last time. The queen bug got a-away," Jeremiah replied, his amphibious constitution already reacting badly to the cold, "Th-there's probably more. Let's get the hell out of h-here." He smeared his shoe along the floor once to get the remains of the spider off. "I c-covered my tracks with an illusionary trap on my w-way up here. It wont effect us, but we might bump into anyone who st-stumbled into it. Pr-probably b-b-be best to find another way down." He pulled his ragged tweed coat a bit closer around himself and blew into his cupped hands, "Aisha, y-you're what we m-might call the senior adventurer here. W-where would you suggest we g-go?"

[lucas marcone]

Ian's head lulled back onto Mel's shoulder pcking him up brought him back....sorta. She could see just how jacked up he was in his eyes. thet looked tired and confused.

[Stygian]

Keaton's glare was scalding, but Stygian was too worried to mind much. If their foes were doing what he felt as if they were doing, then they were all in danger indeed. Stygian himself was far better off than the others in the face of such a scenario, true. But there were other sorts of dangers too, and if anything he felt that finally defeating the old man would be useless, should his new companions be lost in the procedure. Frowning hard, the bat turned and walked over to the unconscious spider, crouching down and lifting her over his shoulders. Adjusting his burden, and trying not to mind the scent or feeling of fresh blood on him, though the sudden tension to his breaths betrayed that he was not doing it as easily as it might have seemed, he started walking behind Keaton who had taken point, her back stiff and her eyes unfalteringly forward, keeping close and as watchful as he could with his still shocked senses.
   The sensation of darkness, of watchful evil and of thought-numbing terror slowly heightened as the group paced into the darkness. The silence of before still lay heavy, broken only by their own careful steps. But still, as they moved carefully forward, at intervals it seemed as if the tension in the air took on a different quality, almost forming... sounds... where there should not have been any. Whispers that might have been the wind through windows and ventilation became other kinds of whispers in their ears.
   As they entered a tall-roofed side-hall, a sudden wind that snuffed out the lit candles along the wall close to them and prickled their skin startled Keaton to a yelp and made the others snap their heads around, watching tensely. The breath-like sound of it more than anything was enough to make their fur stand on end. For a second, it sounded as if someone, far, far off, was crying.
   'We just need to go down those stairs and left, and we're practically at their rooms,' Stygian said a few moments later, to break the silence that had come over them more than anything.
   They went on, but couldn't shrug the feeling that whatever had happened was only the hint of the real danger to come.

- -

With the wavering, will-o-the-wisp-like light of Aisha's tailring for guidance, she and the others made their way through the darkness of the castle, broken intermittently by the amber, almost unearthly light of lamps and candles. Avoiding walking through the web and formerly blocked passage, they instead headed toward the west wing, intending to avoid who- or whatever Sal had brought back with her and which had probably set off the sudden, unnatural fear that had gripped the place. Shadows played along their way, the dark vaults of the ceilings looming above them and making them feel all the more exposed as they carried the rat along with them.
   When they came to the end of the corridor, they found themselves in a round three-story hall, tall and narrow windows on the sides. They seemed to be at the base of one of the towers of the castle. The stone floor was smooth, save for a large trap door off to one side of it, and relatively undecorated.
   A sudden creak caught them all off guard, but turned out to simply be a rough chandelier hanging above swinging slowly on its chain. The raven on Aisha's shoulder peered suspiciously at it, craning its neck and tilting its head, keeping still and silent as a statue when she stopped. The panthress could only regard it for a second though, before a short flare of emerald light brought her attention to her tailring again. The flare flickered and died down a bit, but for a second it had been almost as bright as when she was directly near Stygian.
   '...Cabre...'
   The sudden whisper almost made Aisha gasp. Yet somehow, none of the others with her reacted.

[Sunblink]

Keaton stood where she was when Stygian lifted Sal and slung her over his broad shoulders, eyes narrowing darkly and the gold light pulsating within her seemingly translucent false eye sparking dangerously, a clear indication of her smoldering anger. As tempted as she was to shove Stygian off to the side and snap Sal's neck right then and there, or better yet, follow up her threat to rob the arachnid-woman of her soul, she curbed this desire and stormed after everyone else when they left, not bothering to conceal her rage. To hell with everyone else, she wanted them to know she hated this, that she didn't enjoy being used as that bitch's mental plaything.

Unconsciously, with Keaton's brooding, she seemed to have picked up speed due to the vehemence in her stride, placing her at the head of the group. Behind her she could vaguely feel Stygian's blistering presence, only instigating her ire further. As though to demonstrate her displeasure, Keaton's posture remained unkempt, exuding palpable waves of red rage. Deep down, she started to think, taking advantage of a sudden lapse in her seemingly unrelenting wrath to wonder what had scared him so much. Stygian didn't seem like the type who was easily frightened, so this must have been something of an enormous magnitude.

Simultaneous to the moment that ponderous thought crawled lethargically through her mind, she realized that there were eerie, ephemeral sounds beginning to surround them, originating intermittently from unknown sources--they seemed to bounce back and forth the instant Keaton determined where they were coming from, making their presence all the more unnerving. Only exacerbating this came the whistling gust of wind which swept through the hall, the flames of the candles dying on their wicks and the molten wax petrifying in their tracks.

Hypersensitive, Keaton released an unexpected yelp as the wind snapped at her skin, making it bristle beneath her pinpricked fur. She was quick to rectify this outburst, gripping her mouth with the palm of her hand and gazing around, uneasiness steadily seeping into her expression as she realized the distant, ghostlike echo of a weeping voice. Stygian gave them their orders, and Keaton begrudgingly obeyed them, finding it hard to abandon her indignation towards him, but driven mostly by knowing how impudent it would be to trail away during such tense times, and the unconscious sensation that something was dreadfully, dreadfully wrong.

Her hand tensed around the pommel of Catastrophe, which she had retrieved before she left.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Observing the way Keaton had reacted when she stood up, Rynkura only really kept to the background, quiet and watchful.  It was more than understandable, the succubus's anger rising to a deadly level.  But yet she agreed with the others; it was no time yet to take on revenge.  For with Sal out of commission for the time being, the very castle...the air around them, the chill, the lights, the darkness...all were starting to converge slowly into a nightmarish feel.  It didn't take any longer than the others for the tigress to notice it.  The presence was undeniable.

She watched as Sebastian gathered the arachnoid up, the three of them starting out into the halls.  The healer said nothing to Keaton, but once in a while she cast the jackal a look that seemed akin to apologetic for what she had to suffer.  Rynkura through the trip just felt like being silent...but on the way the temptation for that to change was rising.  The feeling of malice with each step was growing and trying to wrap their minds...along with the sounds and breeze it brought to chill their bones, and sounds that could disturb the ears of the sensible.

It was easy for the disguised Angel to suppress the feelings of fear; for she's had sensations like this before...and whenever the lights went down, there was still the soft glow from her staff to illuminate their footsteps.  Her own worry was how the others would take it.  In fact, though she had confidence in her student, even Aisha would be prone to doubt.

*     *     *

Aisha drew her cloak around herself as the group picked the rat up with a bit of ease, protecting herself from the sudden biting cold that Mel emitted from herself...even more so because she was very close to her.  When they started, she glanced back to the shivering frog with a sigh, quirking her eyebrow.  "Senior adventurer, huh?  Thanks for that, muchacho...but like I've answered Mel, I don't really know where to go--"

Her thoughts were interrupted by the glow on her tail ring, which caught her eye and made her realize that it was reacting a little more as they kept to that direction.  "Let's follow my tracker, it's the best thing we have to a lead.  With the best of luck it may in fact lead us to Stygian."

But as they walked, the rising, encompassing feeling didn't escape her nerves either, nor any of the others.  Aisha tried to ignore it, focusing on other distracting things like the intensified cold in the room, or whether the emerald brightness on the ring rose and fell.  But even with distractions, it was still finding a way to gain her attention, with the shadows playing their mind games across their eyes.  What once became as unnerving as getting caught in the dark became the fear that they would be swallowed in it.

Aisha in particular couldn't place what this kind of feeling meant.  Mingling with the fact that the spiders had returned, it was like an untrained mind would be, on the verge of rushing to jump the nearest window if at all possible.  But still her concentration, like the proverbial walk through Hell from before, was proving to be nigh unshakable.

And that was when her ring led them to what seemed like a dead end...a rounded chamber with tall windows overlooking the travelers in their scene.  Where in the world...?

"Mierda..." she started to say, but the creaking of the old chandelier above interrupted her, as well as the fact that she hadn't noticed the raven perched on her shoulder until then...who knew when it had appeared.  But she was used to the bird's strange nature by now, and was somewhat relieved of its presence.  She reached up to stroke its feathered back and sighed to the others.  "Right, maybe we should turn a..."

Aisha never finished the sentence, halting in her words and her tracks with a gasp.  The others might have seen a very perplexed look in her eyes, ears pinned straight back.  "Who...?  What was that...?" she murmured, not noticing whether the others had heard it or not.  She even glanced to the raven in questioning, as if it was he who had whispered.

She had noticed the flare in her tail ring, glowing brightly though nobody else was there.

And in her eyes, there also laid a sudden...fear.  And how did it know my real last name...?

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog walked along with the others quietly, his ears perked and his eyes constantly roving about the hallways they traversed. Soft, quiet sounds seemed to emanate all around them, and though Cog's ears were sharp, they seemed only within the edge of hearing. He kept his hands near his sheathed blade, his footfalls quiet.
He remembered this sensation quite well. The darkness seeming almost palpable, the distant sounds of pain and torment, not quite loud enough to be sure of...not too long ago, the entire castle had been such. Cog's faced soured, and he adjusted his glasses as he continued on, tapping his left ear once.

He watched Keaton as she stormed ahead of everyone, her distress and anger evident with her every move. Cog sighed, shaking his head slightly, his eyes a little sad. He felt bad for her - he hoped she realized none of them blamed her for acting as she did under magical domination. Although...that didn't really seem to be why she was upset. Being controlled didn't seem to sit well with the succubus. He blinked, looking softly at the succubus for a moment longer before scanning the halls again.

As they entered into the larger hall, however, the sudden wind had him sucking in a breath, both hands on his sword and one leg sliding back. The lights in the room suddenly dimmed, the glowing blue outlines of the others becoming more prominent in the sudden darkness. He paused for a moment, waiting for something to appear, or something to make itself apparent, when the distant sound of crying permeated the hall. Cog's expression turned dark, and he silently stood straight again and began walking up towards the others.

He nodded at Sebastian as he indicated the way to go, and followed the others towards the stairway to the left.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel wished they had time to see to Ian's head injury, but finding the others and keeping away from the spiders was a greater priority. It worried her that all their hands were occupied with moving the rat and they would be unable to defend themselves quickly. When Aisha decided they would follow the flashes of her tailring to find Sebastian Mel dimmed the ball of light she had following her to let the panther see the flashes more accurately. The darkness, lit only by the green glowing gem and the infrequent lamps, seemed to flow down to enclose them like swathes of black satin. She didn't have the strongest nerves at the best of times and was getting increasingly jumpy, which was hard on her companions as she tended to get colder the more nervous she became.

Eventually the corridor ended in a tall, bare room. It seemed out of place compared to the luxurious rooms they had left at the other end of the hall and seemed to contain far more of the ominous atmosphere. "Do we head back? Or down?"

[Stygian]

...

The two men paced slowly down the tall-roofed corridor, neither an inch ahead or behind of one another. The bat's eyes glowed a dim red, while those of the panther next to him gleamed a putrid green.
   'They destroyed the chamber that was here before, but that is of no consequence. The darkness is everywhere.' the older man said, his staff clacking slightly on the floor as he walked. 'It will be a pleasure to see this place finally desecrated beyond all saving.'
   'Whatever you say, old man. I just want to finish this.' The feline looked sideways at the shorter man. 'And while I would appreciate more information, you don't have to tell me anything. So long as things go as you have said.' There was more than a little bit of scorn in his tone.
   'They will,' the bat almost snapped back at him. 'You may leave now if you wish. I care not. But after having come this far, I would expect you to trust me just a little further than that.' At this, the panther only snorted, and returned to walking, keeping his measured stride and dark calm.
   The two men arrived at a pair of large and heavy arched doors that had stood closed since their first opening in a century and a half only days before, and swung them open with ease, entering the ruined chapel of the castle. The cracked columns and toppled benches were still as they had been left after the fight, scattered and broken on the floor, the scarred statues still standing with arms missing and wings broken in a solemn guard, observing silently. As they entered, one by one, the candles throughout the great hall flickered to life as if to greet the two, casting dim light along the midship of the chapel but doing nothing to abate the shadows that encroached upon them on each side. The place seemed to tower far taller and broader than it had, even when the adventurers came there the first time.
   Unconcerned, the two made their way up toward the altar, where the elder one walked up while the panther waited. Stretching out his hand as if to warm it above a fire for a moment.
   'It is here,' the bat said, his eyes nearly aflame. 'Just below. But only hidden.' His face tensed, and his eyes contracted into fiery slits. 'I will open it up.'

[Sunblink]

Although noticeably unnerved by the gust of wind which had breezed through, Keaton found that the aftershock did not linger, only present in the slightest pinpricks bristling against her skin. It wasn't like her to let something so insignificant affect her so much, but it was just so... unpredicted. Out of place. Ethereal. As though something invisible were secretly chasing her down, dwelling privately in the shadows, and preparing itself for attack. Considering all that had occurred and the fact that there were apparently others accompanying Sal, this was quite a plausible paranoia.

Keaton followed the directions Stygian had given, managing to keep herself from falling behind. She remained at the front, a controversial decision, as part of her subconscious grappled with the other about how vulnerable she would be at either end of the gathering. Rounding a corner, Keaton craned her head to the side, staring numbly at the people behind her. Oddly enough, she felt strangely tense when her back was exposed to them, as though they could seize the opportunity and attack her at any moment.

Not everyone's like you, a harsh little voice in the back of her head reminded her. Keaton merely rolled her eyes to the side, purposely ignoring the gazes of everyone else as she continued trudging onwards.

Anger had subsided somewhat, or at least enough to allow some rational thought. Yes, she wanted Sal to die, still. Yes, she was still upset at this violation. And with her upset state came terrible thoughts, slithering their way into the back of her head. This was the third time she had been possessed by another creature. The first time she had been too stunned to properly react. The second time, by the Mythos, she had been too overwhelmed by shame and guilt to feel enraged. This time, however...

It really did confirm her suspicions that she was nothing more than a detriment, a lackluster and decadent fighter, a useless waste, especially if she bowed down to Sal so easily. Letting herself be enraptured by superficial sensations... what kind of warrior was she? For a split second, emotional pain flashed across Keaton's features once she recalled everything which had happened, and she felt fury rise up again, replacing the horrible guilt. Enough to make her charge back, grab Sal's head, and slam it face-first into the wall.

Everything--every emotion--turned to anger with Keaton in the end.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel realized Ian was shivering uncontrollably where she was holding him up. He'd be dead of hypothermia before his other injuries at this rate. There was also the problem of getting him down the ladder if they chose the path offered by the trapdoor. "Aisha. I think we should stop for a moment so I can see if I can heal Ian. We can not go forward with him like this." She guided the group toward the side of the room and lowered her part of the burden to the floor. Once he was laid out the dragon knelt at his head and began searching out and working to fix the rat's injuries, trusting the others to warn her if any danger was approaching.

[Aisha deCabre]

Hearing Mel, Aisha shook herself out of her stupor and looked down at her feet, bringing her hands up and crossing them to lightly grasp the upper portion of her arms.  Her observation had been correct; nobody else had heard what she did.  But if they didn't...what was it?  A trick caused by the paranoia that the shadows threatened to bring?  Did she really hear someone whisper her name?

...I've almost lost it, she just realized, or told herself to realize.  The castle hadn't felt like this since the angel had been destroyed and the influence dispelled; it was hard to get used to again.  But she turned back to the group sitting around...Ketefe, Jeremiah, and Mel working on Ian's injuries in this crossroads.  As good a place as any to pause, the base of a tower.  The frog's commentary had been a little on the side of humor, but it was right.  As an adventurer, she felt suddenly like an unofficial leader...and she wasn't acting like it.  At least she would see to help in protecting those who weren't well-versed in battle...that very thought helped to regain her composure.

"Alright, we'll rest a minute," she finally said and nodded to Mel, crossing her arms and pacing across the floor.  "I'll help keep watch.  And then, if he can walk...I think I know where we're going."

Aisha peered down the hall, and back again, testing the glow of her tail ring...eyes narrowing.  What irony.

*     *     *

They traversed between floors silently...the succubus's anger and hatred for the creature that Stygian was carrying practically reflected on the surroundings and the tension in the air.  At least it helped to curb the emotion of fear and distress, keeping it from even thinking about surfacing in the determined group.

It was when they were finally at the second floor that Rynkura started to keep in step with them, her ears listening for familiar sounds and other senses tuned to search.  There were rooms...presences, scents...but it all seemed empty and lingering.  A trail.  A tap of her staff sent a wave of light magic through the floor, quick and undetectable, save by her.

"I may be mistaken," her soft and deep voice cut the ethereal silence almost as well as it could, after a moment of analyzing what the magic sonar of sorts brought back.  "But I don't think the others are here any more."

The presence of a lingering cold in the air, melting ice nearby, and...?

...What was left of a partially shattered, partially standing wall of webbing through much of the hallway, making for quite the features for the walls: decorative, jagged surfaces of glittering ice and crystallized string.  What to make of this...?

[Stygian]

The irritated quartet (quintet really, but none of them was prepared to count Sal among their own numbers) had reached the rooms formerly occupied by their companions, only to find them empty, and Stygian could do nothing but sigh. A faint smell of gunpowder lingered in the cool air, and the cracked and torn web down the hallway spoke of what had happened earlier. But there was no sign of where the others might have went.
   'Alright...' Stygian said after a few moments' observation. 'So much for sticking together. Cog, can you smell where they've gone? I think someone shot a gun here, but I'm really not that sure if I can follow the trail.' His sight was getting better, but he could still not make out things as clearly as he should have been able to. Makes one consider sacrificing sight altogether sometimes... he thought. Maybe I'd enjoy complete clairsentience, who knows? 'Or does anyone here know any communication spells? Keaton, you're cubi. Try and hear their thoughts. If everything else fails, I can try and sense them through the dark-'
   Suddenly, the light in the corridor faded, until even Stygian's eyes could make out nothing but black.
   '-ness...' he finished, after a second's pause.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog twitched as the lights simply went out, standing stock-still as his hand draped across his sword hilt. A soft glow cast from behind his glasses onto his nose, the blue glow of his companions emanating out from the magic-seeing lenses and illuminating a bit of his nose. In the sudden, total darkness, their outlines were all he -could- see.
Besides that, he saw nothing else. Rynkura's staff, Sebastian's entire body, save what was blocked out by Sal's unconscious body, and Keaton's wavering outline, complete with a shining, beaconing glow from one of her eyes. Unless their opponent wasn't magical at all, Cog didn't see anyone else with them. Sniffing the air, he found it unlikely they were simply natural either. Neither sight nor scent revealed anything but the four of them. And the spider.

Navigating forward carefully, he passed the bat and knelt down to the floor. "Yes." he said, moving to where their scents were strongest. "Just follow the little white light." Cog murmured, smelling past the acrid scent of gunpowder and fear to the other, lighter smells that permeated the area. Mel's somehow cold scent, along with the smell of the panthress and Jeremiah, and another smell he didn't recognize had turned away from the torn webbing up ahead to pass through another hallway, headed deeper into the Castle. Cog sighed, stood, and began walking over to the hall, fishing a small glowing piece of silver out from the front of his shirt.
"Unless someone can make a light, of course. This isn't a lantern, after all..." Cog said, and waited for the outline of the others to start following.

[Stygian]

A short, ragged sound, almost like a gasp, was all the warning they had before it broke loose. The castle seemed to draw breath, and when it finally exhaled, a rattling and hollow sound, the air flared, as if twilight had returned to the place to haunt the night. The ground trembled under their feet, and the next second they bathed in fiery light as symbols and lines rippled past over the walls and disappeared in waves, scribed in fire. Strings of unreal flame lashed through the walls as if they were no more material than the air around them. And amid the flames, ghastly... shapes... appeared. Voices hissed and whispered everywhere close by and screamed in the distance. Even as the initial shockwave subsided, some of the light and fire still remained.
   'Holy shit!' Stygian snarled, ducking out of the way of something closely resembling a skull of faint fire, passing his head. On his back, the spider was mumbling. 'Rynkura! Protect us!' he shouted, backing up against the others. 'I have my hands full for the moment!'

The sudden worsening of their situation was even more apparent to the other party. Even closer to the source of the evil, they were nearly swept off their feet by the shockwave. When things started taking shape around them, the terror that came welling up was enough to make them want to bolt straight out, to turn and not look back and run until their legs gave out. Worst of all was the shapes that seemed to manifest partially in the fire, rushing through the stone walls as if it were nothing. One of the things, a horrid thing nearly resembling the rib cage, skull and arms of a skeleton, passed through Aisha's leg, and the sudden burning and twitching made her stumble and drop to the floor. The voices tugged at their minds even stronger now, whispers and crying in all kinds of languages, a cacophony of distant howls, all just as pained or malicious.
   Want... lost... There can't...! Must... Want out...! We are here... Oh God...! Help... please... Hurts...!

[Sunblink]

Feeling rather resigned, Keaton stared blankly at the empty room which was once occupied by their friends, sighing and rolling her eyes in defeat. She pressed her fingers to her temple, trying to fight away the immense headache that was starting to envelope her brain, palpitating waves of red coalescing irritably through her mind's eye. Great, she grumbled internally, just great. Now what are we going to do?

Stygian answered that mental question a moment later, instructing that she use her mind-reading powers to detect her companions' nearby presences. Although she rarely ever resorted to mind-reading, so her abilities were very neglected and possibly flawed, she decided that it was for a worthy cause and reluctantly began to feel her mental powers flourish in her head. Just as she felt the mushrooming energy blossom and unfurl like tendrilous vines, the light extinguished, suffusing the room--and atmosphere--in baleful blackness.

For Keaton it was of no consequence--her new eye could see dully through the dark, barely illuminating her vision. Apparently this darkness was of such an intensity that it smothered even her enhanced sight--regardless of the augmentation of her eye, Keaton could still barely see anything, forcing her to gaze numbly about the chamber. Wonderful. As if things couldn't get worse.

And they did. There was a great shuddering, the air flared, and the ground quivered, and with a sudden flash of flame and a tensing shake of the atmosphere, writhing tongues of fire climbed up the walls, the ceiling, materializing everywhere, setting the room ablaze. Hissing, whispering, apparitional voices echoed and resonated over the sizzling roar of the flames, shapes and ghostly figures flickering into existence, hovering over the wildfire. Keaton withdrew sharply, letting out a defensive hiss--the muffled vestige of a barely-restrained scream--as she swiftly swiped Catastrophe from its holster. Lightning flickered around its pommel once more, dancing and twisting briefly in the scorched air before vanishing in a wisp of nebulous smoke.

You're useless here, that same voice from before told her, You will do nothing but get in their way. Shadows are worth nothing.

Keaton cursed. It was right. Her primary abilities lasted in magic and unarmed combat, and both seemed undoubtedly useless. They would either have no effect, or exacerbate the situation at hand.

But that didn't mean she would stand idly by while these things attacked them.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Angel]

Ketefe was still shivering when they set Ian down for a moment, and not just from the cold. The dark hallways had seemed...conscious somehow. She had never been scared of the dark, but now, she was wishing there was more light than just the glint of Aisha's tailring. She was almost hoping someone would jump out and attack them just so her fear would have a face. If I was scared of something real, at least I could slice it, she thought.

She rubbed her hands together quickly, then rubbed her arms once her hands were less cold. She noticed that Aisha seemed troubled about something more than the dark, but she couldn't figure out what. I would've heard if anyone was coming...right?

Then, without any warning, a shockwave hit the group so hard Ketefe had to use her sword for balance. Her eyes darted from shadow to shadow as they began to take shape, becoming creatures that made Stygian's attacks look tame. Fiery symbols appeared on the walls, and tongues of flame climbed to the ceiling. Ketefe heard Aisha scream, but as she whirled around to help her, a sudden uproar of voices exploded in her mind, desperate, furious, afraid, and insane all flurrying together in horrific chorus. She had to keep from grabbing her skull and screaming.

For what seemed like the longest five seconds of her life, Ketefe was rooted to the spot in shock, looking from Aisha to Ian to the monsters, holding out her sword to attack ... she didn't even know. Eyes still trying to comprehend this new terror, she sidestepped over to Aisha, leaning down to pull her up. "Can you walk?"

[Boog]

The shockwave bowled Jeremiah off his feet in an instant. He scrambled upright again, trying to get an idea as to what was happening. It was cold. That was the main thing he noticed. Mel, the draft of the castle, and even now with light everywhere he was so very, very, very COLD. Strange and threatening shapes moved amongst the havoc, and judging by the way Aisha fell when one touched her they were dangerous. He reached out, straining his senses to the utmost. Weak in terms of power though he was, he was still a spellcaster and knew how to evaluate magical occurrences.
It took him a second to notice the voices. He was, after all, used to them.
"I really... Really... REALLY hope that s-someone knows what these are..." Jeremiah stammered through the cold and fear.

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura had hummed when it was confirmed that the others were nowhere to be seen...the rooms devoid of life, all energy instead seemingly emitted by the castle itself, and the slowly ebbing cold of the icy webbing at their feet.  At least there was an idea of where they weren't.

One of the tiger's ears swiveled to hear Sebastian's inquiry about possessing a communication spell, while she kept observing their surroundings, and the feeling that kept wanting to make her fur stand on end.  Perhaps something could be put together...a stronger version of my tracking wave could be used, but it would take time...

However, just as the minds of the two others were brought to a screeching halt by the onset of a burst of darkness--even dousing the glow of her staff as easily as one would snuff out the candles--her thoughts too were halted in favor of making her eyes adjust to the dark.  Despite having been blinded mere moments ago, a harsh adjustment, nevertheless it was easy for the felid.  But it was the suddenness of it that struck her startled.  She and uttered an unintelligible curse.  "Well now what...?"

But before much could be done, the wolf's sight starting to prove useful for tracking while Rynkura worked to restore the light to the orb her staff carried, things halted once again.

The presence of the castle became so much more unsettling, like a curse befell the walls...the healer's staff slammed into the floor to fight the imbalance that came with the tremors...and then the symbols flashed around them on the walls.  They summoned what felt like more than an unholy presence to the tigress: flames and spirits and voices...all designed to degrade the mind with fear.

"Madre santa!" Rynkura hissed, speaking out of habit from having to learn the Cabres' natural tongue.  She didn't need to hear Sebastian's order to help protect them.  Already a glimmering dome of protection held over their heads as far as she could make the spell, to ward most of the conjured beasts aiming for them, while any coming past it could be kept away by being shot with a handful of light.

"What's going on?" she demanded, rushing and working to keep them warded.

*     *     *

Below the feet of the party above, Aisha and the others weren't faring much better.  The sudden shockwave came as hard and fast as if they were in the path of an earthquake, standing only a mile away from the fault.  The panthress gripped the side of the doorway for balance, grunting as her tail ring flared with urgency.  In one of her ears could be heard the screeching of her small avian follower; in the other, the frightened voices of her friends.

But when the flames appeared...the shadows took shape...the ghastly voices rung in their ears, threatening to turn every last bit of their courage on its head...her eyes widened and her heart threatened to pound out of her ribcage.

The panthress couldn't draw her blade before the first apparition flew through herself, shooting the nerves with pain and the sensation that her lower body was on fire.  She was kneeling, digging her claws into her head to keep from crying out.  It was insanity, and if they hadn't found their friends now, they were in dire trouble.  They had to move!

She heard Ketefe next to her, and took the masked cat's help with gratefulness.  "I think so," Aisha hissed, and reached for the handle of her magic-resistant sword, swiping the blade at whatever was closest.  "Get away from us!  Malditos!"

When the crying failed to cease, she turned to the others, getting up on wobbling legs.  The dangerous look in her eyes confirmed a decision, harsh but perhaps more than necessary.  "Either gather the rat or leave him, but let's MOVE!"  She pointed down the corridor.  "I'll cover you guys!"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

As Mel knelt over Ian she managed to push the nerve-wracking atmosphere far enough to the back of her mind to concentrate on the healing magic. That was until the lights went out. The creepy aura slammed back into her doubled. She threw healing magic at the rat, willing him to get up so they could get out of there. Then the room erupted in flame. The ice dragon let out one frightened yelp before hiding her face. She understood that it was far worse than fire, but her deepest instinct was screaming about the flames. It was only the order from Aisha that pulled her out of her panic. She gave Ian a hard shake. "Get up and move if you want to survive." Throwing herself to her feet she conjured a bright light, attempting to illuminate the path the panther had pointed out.

[lucas marcone]

Ian woke for the most part. Still dizzy, confused, and after the nightmares created by everything going on afraid. "Mel where? I don't want to die." Still a bit weak he scrabbled in the direction he last heard Mel go. He had never before felt this vulnerable, and if one were to look at him he never had looked as vulnerable.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog turned form the others to again stare down the hall, the trinket he held at his side glowing softly in the shadow. The darkness around them seemed to immediately swallow what little light it produced, the trinket illuminating no more than a foot or so away from itself. One could barely make out Cog's side, at the furthest reaches of the blurred light.

Cog flinched. His glasses, previously black as he stared down the hall, suddenly flashed an opaque white, half-blinding the wolf for a moment. He reflexively brought a hand up, but just as soon as it happened, it was gone, the light replaced instead by a sudden, ominous groan. At the edges of his vision, his glasses suddenly seemed to spiderweb with a blue light, his glasses going haywire as blue light rippled across them, and Cog closed his eyes and took a step back.
A moment later, he opened his eyes again, the glasses now registering blue waves of flames, corresponding with the red ones he saw flowing down the hallways, drawing in an obscure script upon the stone walls. Ripples passed from one wall to another, conic reflections bouncing from wall to wall as all of it rushed down the corridors straight at them. Cog wrapped his charm around his wrist, grabbing at his sword.

Shapes began to emerge from the flames, and at the edges of Cog's hearing he could hear wailing and crying, the eerie voices hauntingly despairing. They cried out in pain, and whispered in fear as the skeletons of fire began approaching the four...five, of them, and Cog reached inside his Jacket yet again as Sebastian barked out an order.
Cog murmured in reply to the bat and produced a small charm, made of a thousand pieces of a silver, broken moon. A whisper, and them a touch of the thing on the pommel of his sword made the endcap glow white - as he backed away from the corners of darkness, he found himself suddenly surrounded by a shield of white. He looked at Mistress Msh'taan appraisingly, gazing out of the corner of his eye, and turning his attention back to the shadows he took a deep, slow breath.
A floating, flaming skull flew past his head, the little thing bouncing around inside of the white bubble, and seemingly without movement Cog stood a step away, his white-glowing sword having already struck, the silvery arc only barely visible. The glow of his blade seemed poisonous to the creature, and it fluttered about weakly before simply popping out of existence.
Cog sheathed the blade instantly, and turned his attention to the edges of their little circle, his field of vision swimming with blue.

[Stygian]

'The gate! They've opened it!' Stygian shouted. He had swung the semiconscious spider over his shoulder and into his arms, and was now doing something halfway in between holding her up and restraining as many of her arms as he could. The ghastly pallor to his appearance had returned, and he had swept out his deep black wings around him to shield off the demonic attackers. 'They've opened up a passage to Hell!' More of the skeletal apparitions screeched past, touching the halo of light or flying past it, and the castle shuddered silently under their feet.
   There was nothing to do except to run. As little as it would do them, moving swifter and in the general direction of their comrades was the only right thing. Stygian backed up, two of Sal's arms held back by each of his. 'We can't stay here! We have to find the others before we do something,' he snarled. 'Follow me!' Before they had a chance to protest, he rushed past Keaton and in the other direction, away from the frosted web, trailing dark tentacles, one of which grabbed the jackal and tugged her along. He knew his sight was not all back yet, but he had a better chance at guiding them right than the others. 'And don't touch them!' By them, it was pretty clear just what he meant.

- -

The pain and burning in Aisha's leg subsided, but it still throbbed as she scrambled to her feet and moved. It was hard to even notice for that long though, over the screaming terror of the things around them. The fiery waves had all but subsided, and the shaking wasn't steady but seemed to come in short, irregular intervals now. Whether that was really good or bad was hard to see, but it certainly made moving around easier. The specters seemed to be breaking up, because there were fewer immediately close to them, and many were simply howling past in what seemed like pain and terror themselves rather than trying to pursue the adventurers. But equally many seemed to be paying frightening attention to them, and the almost human voices and screams they could understand haunted them just as fiercely.
   Warm...! Near... Venga aquí ...! Fear... waiting for... diesem moment...! Forever... pain...!
   Suddenly, one of the things, a screaming, skull-like vision, came flying out through a wall and straight through Ketefe. The cat's breath caught and she fell to her knees, feeling as if her insides were cramping, her stomach convulsing until she thought she would vomit it out. The voices called even louder in her ears as the terrible thing rounded her, and she could feel a sensation of pain along the back of her neck, as if her skin was on fire or freezing, or both at the same time.
   Must... have...! The voice that whispered in Ketefe's ear was lower but somehow much clearer than the others. Her terror rose to a peak as she felt the thing move into the back of her head, almost as if it were taking a bite out of her, and blood-red, searing hot images and thoughts flooded her panicking mind.