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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1693473" data-attributes="member: 15043">“Can you feel it?” Ananias heard the drow rumble beside him.  The once king closed his blue eyes... closing his mind off from the darkness outside. Instead he opened up to a world he had not felt since he took his last living breath as a living man, more than two hundred years before.He could not see anything, at least in the normal sense.  But he could feel things all about.  The trees all around... he could feel them, stretching off miles into the distance.  He could feel every squirrel, every fox, every fly in the area.  Through the tendrils of his mind, he felt them.And there it was... blazing in power, like a beacon in the darkness.  So close, he thought, before taking in its location... then laughing.  It sounded like a distant melody to his ears.  So obvious!“Yes,” he replied simply.  “Follow me.”“Why do I need to go back to Isky?” Ari’s musical voice asked.  The young dragon’s bright lavender skin pulsated with curiosity, reflecting off of the mansion’s foyer.  The darkness outside only made the light coming from him stand out more.  “Does Mother Siabrey want to see me?”“Yes... yes she does,” Raven nodded sweetly, even though her own heart was racing.  He’s so innocent!  He doesn’t realize what danger we’re all in!  Quickly she put Ari’s favorite cloak, deep crimson with a fur fringe.  It was expensive and showy, but the reason Ari loved it was simply because, “It feels fun.  It feels like silk, furs, and wool at the same time!”If they managed to raise a dead king, why are you still here? Raven asked herself, before she heard her answer in the room next to the foyer.  The scraping noise of a whetstone on steel increased, until Val wandered in, working to work his blade to the keenest point possible.  Inside the Dice manor, Val didn’t need his disguise anymore, and Raven’s breath caught slightly at his focused gaze, his red hair now stringy and dingy from not being cleaned.“Ray?” Ari asked, using his nickname for her, “what’s wrong with Val?  You’re-““Nothing,” she jumped, quickly turning back to the young creature that didn’t understand.  “There,” she pronounced, diverting his attention, “you look like a rather wealthy noblemen... save your skin colors.  You know you’re going to have to go as a more drab human.”“I know,” Ari sighed, his face rather unhappy as his lavender skin shifted to a normal, suntanned brown.  He preferred being as close to his dragon form as possible.“Does he have the money?” Val asked, now holding his blade up in the light, his eye running along its length.“Yes, Val,” Ari replied. A jingle came from the (now) young man’s pocket.  Suddenly, Raven found herself in a deathgrip of a hug from the dragon.  “I am sorry I did not get to see you more than a day or two, Ray!   I miss giving you rides in the fields!”“I miss it too,” Raven thought back to only a year ago, watching the world flash by as a prismatic dragon’s wings thumped under her.   “One day, you’ll get to do that again!”“I hope so,” Ari said, muffled into her shoulder.  After a long embrace, the dragon gave Val a fierce hug as well, before Rose came into the foyer.“Come on, now, let’s go!” she said hurriedly.  Despite the tone of command in her voice, to both Raven and Val the shimmering of water in her eyes was apparent.  “The sooner we head out, Ari, the sooner you get to Iskeldrun and Siabrey, ok!”  She spun to look at Raven and Val.  “I’ll be back in only one ring of the bells, maybe two.  Don’t run off and get into trouble, ok!”“You don’t need to worry about that,” Raven said rather dryly.  “Undead king and a sorcerer after the Fire Stone?  We’ll be focusing entirely on that.”  She heard Val give a grunt of agreement, before the scraping resumed.Raven stood, watching out the windows beside the door as the two cloaked figures disappeared into the night.  A riot of emotions ran through her head... sorrow at Ari’s leaving, worry over him, her sister, and Val, and confusion.Why did Val react that way, when Ananias rose?  That’s if he rose...  magic can act through the blood, but there’s no telling.  Perhaps someone made a curse on his family from the hill.   Perhaps he merely had a convulsion on his own, and the light in the east was a mere coincidence...Who am I decieving? her mind shot back at her, something very wrong happened on that mountain, and the easiest explanation would be that the demon there has arose again!  And what was it that Aunt Tess always said... the simplest solution is usually the correct one...That means there’s a demon lose, with a mad magician... and we don’t know where they are, or where they are going...  Her mind immediately started filling with scenarios, all of which ended in grisy, terrifying death.  She felt her breath coming faster, and sweat starting to form on her head as her mind expected a massive giant of ice to loom out of the darkness at any moment.Then her ears picked up the same noise that had been echoing since Ari and Rose had left... scrape, scrape scrape.  She looked up, to see Val, now sitting on one of the ornate wooden benches in the foyer, his blade across his lap, glaring at a point near the tip.  He gave a disappointed grunt, and started his whetstone across it again.  He looked entirely focused, no rapid breathing, no fearful eyes.  How? Raven’s mind wondered.  Only a few days before it had been Val that had been worried once he had discovered his lineage.  Now his ancestor, a demon, was on the loose, and yet he seemed focused entirely on the tip of his katana.“Are... are you afraid Val?” she asked softly.  She expected him to look up at her and give the cheerful laugh he always gave when asked a question he thought was dumb.  Instead he looked up, and she saw his seemingly calm eyes look directly into hers.“Are you?” he replied, voice seemingly calm, even.How do I respond to that? Raven wondered.  I don’t want to have him laugh at me!“Very much,” she said softly, guardedly.  She expected his bravado to come forth, for him to laugh and say she shouldn’t be, and that he wasn’t afraid at all.  It was the way he always responded... when they were ten and first ran into Ari, it was Val who first approached the dragon, utterly without fear.“You’re brave,” he gave her a soft smile.  “Do you know what my mother always told me?  A fool and a coward will never admit they are afraid.  A brave and wise warrior will always admit they are afraid.”  He held up his katana at arms length, his eye going down the length of the blade again, before turning back to her.  “And yes... I’m afraid too,” he said with a sigh.“You are?” Raven asked, disbelief rising in her voice.  “But you aren’t quaking in your shoes, your knees aren’t knocking, and your breathing is calm!   All you are doing is sharpening your sword!”“That’s why I’m not up in your room, hiding under the bed,” Val replied with a tense smile.  “My blade was already sharp... its just I needed something to do, to keep my busy with something other than fear!”  His face went a little red, as he let loose his secret.So the mighty Valaron the Brave is scared...  it’s alright to be scared! Raven’s mind jumped, and suddenly she didn’t feel quite so alone in her fright.  I just need to find something to do...  She reached down to her belt, and pulled out her nagaika, before she suddenly went stiff, looking at Val.  Instead of the look of anger she expected, she saw a nervous smirk on his face.“No sparring,” he said with a grin, before pointing to his cheek.  “I’ve been smacked good once by you.”Raven’s face went a deep red, and she stifled a nervous giggle.  Even as she was relieved, and began checking her own weapon, part of her mind started to wonder.What happened to Val?  He was so uptight... a complete jackass at times.  Now...  For the first time since waiting in line to enter that fateful ball so long ago, Raven’s heart fluttered.  And to her complete delight, Val gave her a huge smile before going back to his blade.Vintressa glared at the man below her.  He was bleeding from an arrow in his shoulder, another in his thigh.  In one hand he still held aloft a blade that was easily a greatsword... too large for him to swing in his wounded state.  She edged her horse closer, her long, thin rapier now gently poking the side of his neck.“Your men are scattered, they flee before my legions,” Vintressa heard her voice say in an icy tone.  Was that me?  “Drop your blade and surrender, or you have meet your ancestors far sooner than you anticipated!”Behind her, the great shadowy columns in Imperial livery continued to move forward.  Haldris merely glared at her, and her own anxiety grew.  She pushed the blade a little further, drawing a drop of blood.“Drop your sword!” she snarled.  For all that is holy, drop your weapon now!  Before it gets here!The Baron’s eyes met hers in nothing less than utter defiance, but slowly, his blade came down.  He gave a sigh, his tired eyes closed, and the sword of his House clattered to the ground.  Immediately, one of the six guardsmen with her had it scooped up, and handed it to her.Vintressa removed her rapier and gave a laugh, relief coming into her mind.  One piece to bargain with, she thought, as the vast Imperial columns coming up the road closed, and finally marched through Vintressa, her horse, Lord Haldris, and all gathered.  “You... what?  How?” the old man looked confused, the adrenaline in his body waning, his body sinking to the ground in pain and exhaustion.  His eyes looked about, terrified and confused as boots seemed to pass through his head.“Darius,” she motioned to one of the guardsmen nearby, “go inform Aegrifyr he may end his incantation.”  Far ahead on the road, the resounding booms of explosions stopped, and she heard the excited groans and whinnys of her horsemen coming back.“Incantation?” Haldris asked again.“My dear Baron... surely you should expect a lady to fight far more intelligently than yourself,” she quipped at the helpless man.  She motioned to the other five guardsmen, before spurring her horse to a trot.  Anxiously, she searched the faces of the guardsmen coming back up the road, more than a few with cuts in their cloaks, red blood soaking their clothes.Royukgan? she looked, as the lines coming back grew thinner and thinner.  Now some of the hooded riders came back with comrades laid over their mounts.  Others limped back, without mounts.  Vintressa’s worries grew.Eventually, she grabbed one rider by the arm.  “The Prince of Han?” she asked.  Please tell me he’s alright!  The man’s eyes were almost crusted shut from drying blood that clung to a cut on his forehead.  He gave a grunt.“Unhorsed,” he mumbled, rocking in the saddle.  “Fell... middle of...”Vintressa didn’t see the man collapse onto his steed’s neck.  She was busy charging up the road, towards the other enemy camps... at full gallop.</blockquote>

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