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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 5073634" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #503] Race to the Finish, part 4[/PLAIN]Ledare and Maleko had scaled the hip and faced the daunting swell of the belly rising up ahead to their left when the air around them sizzled with magic. Maleko looked around frantically, sure in his heart that the rats had caught up to them. Of course, he'd been vigilant about watching for them so it would have been a feat of magic in itself for them to catch up to them unaware, but still he looked for them again.There was no sign of pursuit however and as energy arced through the air around them he felt the distinct tingle of conjuration magic. He opened his mouth to warn Ledare that they were being forcibly Teleported somewhere before remembering that he carried the Silenced coin. He couldn't warn Ledare of anything.And the next second it didn't matter anyway. There was a lurch, the bottom dropped out of his stomach and then they were elsewhere.Morier pondered the options that Aphyx had presented and for a moment the possibilites seemed worth considering. Maybe by walking away he could retain the Heart, keep the power, and possibly bring Huzair back... or find Karak on his own. The thought was a fleeting one, however. He forced it from his mind and tried to refocus, looking desperately for any opportunity to avoid further confrontation with Aphyx and get to the spot where the Heart should be. The idea of sacrificing himself to put the Heart and body back together was one he had considered often in his private moments and he had resigned himself to doing just that if the need arose. Now, confronted with that possibility, he wondered if simply jumping from the edge of the stone breast into the giant hole below would do it. It couldn't be more than a dozen paces to the breach, he guessed. Six seconds was all he'd need to make that distance.If he could manage it, he would try."I'm growing bored with this, Morier," the goddess sighed. "You're delaying... hoping for help to swoop in and rescue you, no doubt. But it's not coming! Ayremac and Ixin did what I expected them to do in the Cavern of the Self; they changed their own past and stayed at home to live the simple life." She said this as if it were a grave insult to desire the peace of a loving home. "That's why you lot won't succeed. You're weak!""I'm here," Morier said, goading her just a little, hoping to keep her talking while he edged slightly nearer the hole in Dridana's chest."Yes. You're here," Aphyx admitted. "But only because I sent another version of you to the same point in time to make sure that the Heart would end up where I wanted it to. Just like I sent Ledare back to face Del with the means to bring my servants here innocently around her neck. It's all gone according to my plan. In truth, the only surprise in all of this is the elf. Maleko didn't try to change his past; he completed the challenge of the Cavern on his own merits without any help from me." She shrugged. "I had hoped that Huzair would make it this far. He would have been easy to manipulate. His appetites were so... predictable.""You're lying," Morier snapped. "You didn't plan this!""Am I?" she laughed lightly and that laughter was more chilling than a berserker's battle cry. "How do you account for it then? How did your own double make his way to the mountaintop test of the Air Walk? And how did Ledare... long dead Ledare... return from a test that Delaroux entered? I think you're too quick to believe in the power of coincidence, Morier. Or perhaps too eager to deny my influence in your life!"She started to cast a spell then and Morier seized the opportunity to run for the hole. He'd made it nearly as far as the edge when he felt a powerful force grip him, as if a giant, invisible hand had reached down from the void and clutched him in its fist. He struggled but it was useless and though he resisted, the force spun him around until he stared back at Aphyx. Beside her, likewise immobilized by the goddess' magic, Ledare and Maleko hung in the air. Ledare tried to speak but no sound came out and Aphyx laughed at this."How nice," she mused. "Maleko's taken the initiative and Silenced them both so that they won't bother our conversation with their incessant screaming. I do imagine they'll scream quite a bit as I slowly draw the life out of them. Or can we end this now? You give me the Heart and I let you all live. I won't ask again without the taste of your friends' souls on my tongue."When they reappeared a heartbeat later, they were still on the God Isle, though their immediate surroundings were different. The sky before them was dominated by a pair of mountainous stone breasts, demurely covered by equally titanic stone hands. The valley between the mountains was filled with a jagged opening in the rock that was in turn filled with a pane of utter black. Morier was there, his back to them. He was running toward that rent in the stone, but as Maleko watched, the albino jerked stiffly and was hauled bodily off the ground by some invisible force.Maleko moved experimentally and found that he too was hemmed in by some force he couldn't see. He wasn't completely immobilized, so it wasn't Paralysis. There was no visual manifestation, so one of the various Bigby's Hand Evocations was impossible. Telekinesis, he decided after three seconds. Definitely Telekinesis. Ledare tried to raise her sword, but whatever force held Maleko and Morier seemed to have grabbed hold of her as well. She was able to thrash around, but she couldn't seem to bring her weapon up into any sort of meaningful position. She tried to speak, but the Silence drank her words.Maleko looked at her lips trying to suss out the words, but then his attention was drawn passed her to a woman standing - no, he noted, not standing - hovering. She was hovering half-a-foot above the surface of the God Isle - off to the side. She was beautiful in an abstract, otherworldy kind of way, and utterly naked, but her eyes were what caught his attention. They were dark, at once a poisonous green and the yawning black of an open grave, and they swam with madness. She smiled a carrion bird's smile and  something seemed to emanate from her, a force that palpably struck both Maleko and Ledare filling them with Primal Dread.They would have run if they could, but instead, they just writhed there, suspended by the magic of a being both knew to be a god.</blockquote>

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