[color=gray][quote=Anise]She watched the shadows while she put the mask on.

"Once this is over," she said to Reus. "I want to find a crashed ship, can you take me there?"

She closed her eyes for a few moments thinking about her next course of action: she could wait to see what these shadows were doing, or she could break the lantern in the hope that it would free her of the darkness.

"Here goes." She raised the lantern above her head and brought it down onto a nearby rock as hard as possible to break the egg free.[/quote][/color]

The sleek, narrow mask she had plucked from the lichen-green statue happened to be that of the hawk: the Mask of Sight. Although the forest remained dark, every shape and outline was suddenly sharper -- every twitch and tremble of movement was clear and pronounced and vivid. What was more, she would discover a new understanding of the terrain and her exact location compared to where she had been. She knew that she had first arrived high among the mountains, and had since traveled down into a valley full of trees and plants higher and more monstrous than those on the mountain had been. She had a sense that the land here was vast but surrounded by water, and that the stream she had traveled down not long ago -- the river that cut through the valley -- ran freely to the ocean.

Reus growled low in response to her question -- he was far too distracted by the immediate threat to properly acknowledge her request. He could do little against shadows. His teeth were meant for rending flesh, and there was none among the darkness. As threatening as he made himself appear, there was nothing he could do.

The princess made her choice and the glass of the lantern shattered; the iron casing twisted. A brightness of blue light flashed; wind rushed around her and pushed against the darkness.

The Lantern of Spirit was directly linked to Anise's mind. Once it had been broken and the power was freed, Anise would immediately be able to sense the minds around her. She could feel the strength of their resolve. When faced with a mind that was weaker than her own, she could reach out and bend it to her will.

She would feel the mind of Reus beside her. He was far more intelligent than any beast had a right to be, and his resolve against the shadows was currently equal to hers.

Surrounding her were several dozen weak minds, all being controlled by the Lord of Shadows. The shadows were the broken souls of the dead, turned to darkness and shadow by the power of the Lord. The Lord's mind was powerful, murderous and vengeful, determined to maintain his control over the forest. If Anise wished to influence the spirits around her, she would have to overpower the Lord's hold on them.

Also present was the mind of Simon. He was feeding the Lord of Shadows, fueling the Lord's strength.

And then, suddenly, Simon's mind weakened considerably, and the Lord's strength wavered and became uncertain and distracted.

[color=gray][quote=Simon]Simon looked over to the shadow and whispered as loud as he could manage his voice to go "I'm sorry Tyael".

Right before he had tried to draw upon the power of this new flower he figured he would try one more thing before hand. "Lord of Shadows! The evil that has done this needs to be brought Justice, the princess Anise needs to see the accurate events that have just occurred. Grant me this wish and I shall owe you a favour."  He had brought the flower into both of his cupped hands and wondered what sort of thing that he would have to do to 'active' this flowers abilities.[/quote][/color]

Through the eyes of Simon's mask, the darkness roiled and undulated. The Lady of the Pond whispered to Simon:

[i]He says you have not yet paid the price of your previous wish,[/i] she said with a smile. [i]He sees no reason to grant you this, if you make a habit of going back on your promises. If you will not take the pirate's eyes, then he will take yours instead.[/i]

Meanwhile, Tyaelaem's spirit flickered and moved closer. His blue eyes shone -- though the rest of his translucent body was little more than a shadow -- visible only to Simon through the eyes of the fox mask. Tyaelaem pointed to the flower in Simon's hands, and he made a motion to represent fire.

Simon had set the spirit flowers aflame once before, at the side of the creek when the monkeybats had attacked. The spirits had been given physical form in the shape of smoke.

[color=gray][quote=Fyair]With the last of his strength he teetered and tottered on his unstable standing before finally giving in as his massive form toppled backwards.

However long he was unconscious, it allowed a minimal amount of regain to bring the mountain back to life. Fyair frowned as he glanced the skin of his hand and down to his wrist and forearm where he glared at the hidden scales. "What on earth?" He flexed his fingers and muscles, watching intensely as the odd things rippled beneath the surface. His head and hand fell to the side with an agitated sigh. Perhaps he deserved to be trapped in this strange forest--deserved to be assigned to this odd asylum.[/quote][/color]

From where Fyair lay among the weeds and rocks -- bathed in the green light of the broken Lantern -- he had a view of the rustling leaves and the starry sky beyond them.

Big shining eyes stared down at him from a tree branch. The owl hooted low and shifted on its perch, blinking down at the prone giant and the lantern he held.

Deeper in the forest, he would hear the low growl of a wolf and the echo of Anise's voice.

[color=gray][quote=Talan]Talan got up to his feet but held his head low as he walked over to where his spear lay. Once his weapon was back in his possession Talan walked over to Rhea. His eyes were red from his tears and made him look as if he was a dead man walking. He spoke but his words were cold and emotionless, "This lantern is lost, we must find the others before it's too late".[/quote][/color]

Rhea held up the violet lantern, her expression solemn but not at all moved by the death of the Kith. She couldn't understand what had bothered Talan about getting rid of that vermin, but she didn't pry and didn't much care. She shone the light over Tyaelaem's corpse, and thought for a moment of taking the rabbit mask and the canteen of healing water -- but she didn't want to risk drawing the fury of the forest spirits.

"There are two lanterns unaccounted for," she explained to Talan gravely. "A red one and a white one, if the myths are true."

A blue flash of light sparked deep in the woods, and the Violet and Green Lanterns glowed brightly. The Blue Lantern had been broken.

Rhea looked over at Fyair, who no longer posed a threat from his place on the ground -- but now the mountainous man had been bound to the Green Lantern, and was a dangerous presence.

"If you have changed your mind," she called to Fyair gravely, "I'll allow you to follow us willingly to the settlement. Our mages may be able to remove that curse and seal the Lantern. It's your choice." She saw Fyair as a potential asset to the pirates' cause -- to further the development of civilization and to fight back the forest and the Kith. But if that princess came back for him, he might be an equally threatening adversary. It appeared that, for now, he had not chosen a side.