[quote]After a few moments Rain found herself standing outside the wall with singing starting up behind her and shuffling and grunting from somewhere out here.

When Rose finally reached the top of the rubble, she took a step up onto the wall, almost reaching the promised escape. But a piece of plaster went out from under her back foot, destabilizing her footing and almost causing her to tumble back to the ground. She caught the lip of the wall with one hand, barely saving herself from the fall back down. She looked meekly up at the blue-haired girl. "Could I get a little help? Please?"

Grace pulled herself out of her coffin, wedged into a corner of the room, and took stock of the situation. There was no word for it but chaos, and she had no inkling of what was happening, but could feel the anguished souls of the recently killed. This was not a place for any soul, living or dead, and she protectively clutched at the wrist of her right arm. She hurried, hunched over, to where she saw other humans, but said nothing to them, trying to understand what was happening first.

Forcing her protesting limbs to move, Amuné clung to the tangle of ivy and other plants that covered the wall, working her way slowly around the edge of the room.  She didn't look at the dark shape with the glowing eyes.  Even unable to make it out clearly, instinct whispered that looking at it would only bring pain.  She prayed the blurry figures that must be the other people she heard speaking wouldn't see her as she picked her way around the edge of the room, aiming for a level other than the one they seemed to be on, and trying to head for the singing.

"The gems and a way out and I'll agree."

Both her tone and her eyes had a calmness to them, like one resigned to their fate to die, a lying smile plastered across Nali's face as she stuck her hand back out like one would for a handshake.

"Let's not waste time, hmm? I don't feel like dying here."[/quote]

A mist of rain softened the harsh landscape. All around the Stone were the shattered remains of old burned trees, now covered in moss and wrapped in new vines. From the spot where Rain stood in the muddy grass -- and where Rose clung to the top of the wall -- they had a clear view of the valley over the cliff's edge.

The landscape below the Stone was a rocky expanse of tufted weeds, crumbling metal pieces of old mechs and broken catapults, rusting helmets and muskets, the stark lines of bones overgrown with high grass. The outside of the Stone was dark with old burn marks, soothed by age.

A crash and a grunt announced the approach of something big, long before the ogre pushed through a stand of rotted trees. It stood more than seven feet tall with grimy rock-colored skin, dressed in what amounted to an old rag of a skirt; an enormous hammer was slung over one bony shoulder. It peered down with dull eyes over a bulbous nose and hooked teeth, and it gripped the hammer a little tighter when it caught sight of Rain. A low, gurgling growl rumbled in its throat. It had not yet noticed Rose.

A fangy grin stretched white across Rshalogg's flickering face, and the god's glowing eyes narrowed in humor at Nali's bold acceptance.

[i]YOU ARE THE INTELLIGENT ONE.[/i]

A black clawed hand stretched out. The moment it touched her hand, a swirl and storm of empty darkness enveloped the hungry thief. Rshalogg gripped her arm tightly while the shadows of his form swung and spun. Flashes of eyes dizzied around Nali's head before her mouth was forced open and something hideous and cold was thrust down her throat. She blacked out and collapsed just as the last tendrils of shadow disappeared between her lips.

Now that the dark god had vanished, Amuné would find her path clear of obstacle save for the rubble and broken coffins that stood in her way. The weakened sound of singing echoed in the dark arched walls of a wide corridor, at the end of which was a bright open doorway.

Should Amuné decide to continue toward the singing, through the doorway, it would take a moment for her eyes to adjust to the bright light that filled the vaulted room on the other side. A gigantic hole had been recently smashed through one wall of the room, clearing the way outside into the scraggled grass and misty rain. The source of the room's light was not the sun.

The wide empty room was filled with pipes -- the very same pipes that crisscrossed the walls of the Stone and ended at each of the prisoners' coffins. The pipes trailed up and over the ceiling, or along the walls of this room, and all of them met in a mass of hissing metal at the source of the light and the singing.

A young girl was held against the wall by pipes and wires, as if she'd been half-engulfed by copper tendrils. Thin tubes were stuck into her head and pale skin so that she could barely move. She was glowing from within, bright enough to light up the room.

She stopped singing, her throat dry and cracked. Her eyes opened wide in fear, and the light within her dimmed and faded. She focused on Amuné, but didn't make another sound.

Nali awoke to the sound of laughter inside her own head. She was laughing, and her face was smiling, like an involuntary spasm she couldn't control. Her own voice spoke:

[b]"A curse! Hungry for sapphires and diamonds, I see, or the blood will run."[/b]

Nali's hands and legs pushed her to her feet, where her body swayed unsteadily. Her hand stretched out, and her mouth grinned while her eyes admired the way her fingers closed around a handful of rubies.

[b]"But isn't blood the more delicous?"[/b]

Nali's head turned around, slowly, and she saw Grace and Rose at the crumbled wall on the far side of the room. Her grin broadened, impossibly wide.

[b]"Theirs, for example?"[/b]

Nali's hand tossed the rubies and caught them a few times, then fondled them thoughtfully.

[b]"But, a deal is a deal."[/b]

Nali's head tipped back, and the rubies were dropped into her open mouth. They melted and soothed down her throat, calming the amplified bloodlust that roiled in her stomach.

[b]"Gather your strength, thief."[/b]

Nali tilted her head quickly and cracked her neck, narrowed her eyes, and laughed again; the sound echoed on the walls of the Stone. Slowly, Nali regained the use of her own hands, could work her own mouth and decide on her own what she was looking at. Rshalogg voluntarily retreated to the back of her mind -- a dark, roiling presence full of anticipation, pride and mockery. She knew, instinctively, that he could and would take control of her body whenever he pleased, but that now he was only content to watch and listen and gather the power he had lost. Another gemstone materialized in her palm -- she could summon them at will, with only a thought. He spoke to her, a voice pounding in her skull:

[i]NOW YOU'RE EATING FOR TWO.[/i]