Ariela~

Power..

It coursed through her as she finished her meal, everything was tinted red, and she felt, a change. For the second time in the past year, he appeared in front of her. The strange and distant man, who Ariela had assumed to be mute. He did not need to speak however, for he had translators. The two rabbit like doll creatures floated above his shoulders, mocking her with their piercing stares. 

"Ariela my dear.." the first one spoke up, its voice distorted and high pitched.

"Your progress has been slow.." Reported the other, its voice low and menacing.

"You displease us.." said them both, their voices mixing into a cacophony of sound that assaulted her ears, causing her to flinch in annoyance. "Why do you resist us?" They continued, "we only aim to grant you the power you wish to have.. all you must do is take it..." The higher pitched rabbit began to chuckle lightly.

Ariela appeared unimpressed. "You do not truly believe that this will convince me do you? I have done your bidding, killing endless conduits at your whim. They call me a cannibal for killing only Conduits, apparently only absorbing those of the same spirit. It is madness, and I refuse to continue it. Why should I listen when your promises of power have yet to come to fruition?" She looked to them both for an answer, instead of speaking however, his voice entered her head.

[b] Your arm my dear.. look too it and you will understand..[/b] Ariela's gaze fell to her right arm as he said this. The black ring that signified their link had been replaced. No, it had transformed, spreading like a virus up her arm and to her shoulder. The black armor had cracks all throughout it, revealing a feint red glow that shined from beneath. Ariela gasped. A million questions ran through her head. How had this happened? What did it mean? She was at a loss, and Artemus took the Que to continue. [b] You have evolved my dear, you are now... better... Yes, the next time you perform the ritual something quite grand will happen..[/b]

Ariela was panicked, and awoke with cold sweats. She was in her room. Her most recent meal lay on the floor beside her bed. Suddenly she remembered her trap, yes it was time to go see if she had caught anything..

Samuel~~~

Sam had chosen to come with Matthias, the voice in his head had greeted him on the walk. She was Miralda, the Deceiver; and she was the one who had revealed what she called 'the strings of life' to him. Apparently these connected a person to their own soul, he could even use them to bend people and objects to his will. Sam had been quite glad to hear of this last one, he had been eager to try it, but Miralda dissuaded him. [b] You are not yet ready to hold my true power, for now simply use them to detect and find people. For as long as you have seen the owner of a string of life, I will forever remember the string as theirs. [/b] Sam had noticed this, it seemed that he could tell which string belonged to who as long as he had seen the owner once, this would be rather helpful indeed.

On the ground, millions of black and shriveled things lay strewn about. He had asked what these were, Miralda had told him they were former strings that had belonged to now dead humans and kages. Sam had realized at this point that he could also tell who had Kages and who did not, for those who did had 2 strings instead of one. Apparently the strings were made up of 'Second/Third tier elements' that humans could not regularly see. Sam had been enlightened to these specific elements and could now bare witness to something no one else could.

Samuel had listened intently as Miralda explained to him everything about these strings and how he could affect them. He took it all in, his new found powers impressing him more and more with every word Miralda spoke.

He asked how he could get stronger and Miralda's smile widened.

[b] Well to do that... We must simply kill.. [/b] Samuel chuckled at this response, getting several strange stairs from the group. What a fitting response he thought, what a fitting response indeed.

As the group approached the lair of Iktomi Ascher, Samuel wondered at what his future held.