[center][color=red]The Narrow Gates, survivor's camp-- "The Crypt"[/color][/center][hr] [center][sub][written by Lovejoy & Fuzzyboots][/sub][/center] Mother Faina took a sharp breath as Solim's shared ether coalesced with her own. The act of taking in another person's ether had always been unnerving. There was something uniquely intimate about the experience that made every encounter slightly different. This time, however, she was overwhelmed with a multitude of different sensations. Perhaps it was the "residual ether" Solim called it when explaining what he could do. Within the solar, they now stood shoulder-to-shoulder. Even with the boon of extra ethereal energy Solim had granted her during the ceremony earlier, it took all their might to uphold the aegis. An extra Half an hour or so was all the time they had to keep their companions away from a fate worse than death, the unnatural cold. "Oh! How interesting. I wonder why I have never noticed before," Solim said with his usual jovial laugh, causing Faina to break from her thoughts. "Noticed what?" she asked, glancing at him. She noticed that Solim's smile did not hide the exhaustion in his eyes. Dark circles began to appear under his eyes and beneath the heavy cloak of his inquisitor's uniform Solim's movements were sluggish. Upholding the aegis was a bitter science, the most difficult form of ether manipulation known, and wading through ether exhaustion was something that only Protectors were used to. Solim was treading in dangerous territory, for though he had gifted Faina only a fraction of his own ether surplus, the aegis called for punishing amounts of ether, and Solim was not prepared for what it would cost him. "There are two," He replied as a matter of fact as he looked off seemingly nowhere. His stance changed however as he noticed Faina’s worried expression. "Worry not, I'm fine," He said as he steadied himself, placing a hand on one of the steel barriers that shielded the portholes of the solar from what was happening outside. Suddenly, the sound of screeching metal and the roar of icehounds could be heard coming from outside. Sensing something approaching, Solim hastily removed his hand from the steel plate just as a large gash sheared down its surface, blasting a shaft of afternoon light into the darkened room. The tear was not large enough for any icekin to breach their defenses, but still... at this rate it would not take them long to tear through. It was then that the two inquisitors heard it. The song. Somehow it seemed to be coming from somewhere within the room. An inky black mist started to fill the room. Just as Solim and Faina took their fighting positions, the mist began to coalesce and take form. What once appeared as mist took the shape of a human, not much taller than Solim. And with a strange, almost beautiful swirling motion the mist appeared to solidify until the smoke-like entity hardened into shards of deep-blue crystal. A knight, like something from Lanostran legend, stood before them. Its armor was as azure as the sky, and its crystalline armor was strangely ornamental. It clutched a diamond-sharp broadsword and a mirrored shield in its gauntlet-clad hands. Its black gazeless stare was focused on the two inquisitors, though there was only darkness in the slot of its ornamental visor. In an instant, it brandished its sword and dashed toward Faina. Faina did not get the chance to ask Solim what hell he was talking about as she prepared for battle. A shiver ran down her spine as she watched an armor-clad knight unlike anything Faina had ever seen before coalesce into existence from the black mist. This thing, whatever it was, was not natural In a moment of pure instinct, she side-stepped as a massive sword fell into the space she had just been standing.Solim reacted with the same swiftness. Pivoting towards the knight, Faina took in a deep breath and focused on the thumping of her heartbeat. Thump, Thump….Thump, Thump… one more heartbeat, and her spellblade would appear in her hand. Letting out her breath she could just about feel its handle against her palm. “Mother Faina...The Aegis!” Solim cried out in warning. With Sentinel back in her quarters, it was only natural to call upon her spellblade. However she wasn't as skilled with it as her normal spear and thus it would require more Either than she could spare. Calling upon the ethereal blade threatened to take down the Aegis barrier. Mother Faina cursed her stupidity. A visible ripple cascaded across the barrier as she dismissed the weapon hastily before it could completely form. Undeterred, the knight poised itself to strike again. It lifted its blade and brought it down toward Faina in a powerful downward slash. In an instant, Solim summoned a paling and dove in front of his warsibling, the knight's crystal blade striking the magical forcefield and repelling backward in the knight's grip as a flash of concussive defensive magic blasted forth from the point of contact between shield and sword. From behind the golden veil of his paling, Solim could glimpse a crackling scar where where the paling had been damaged by the knight's blade. A weak cascade of ethereal mist began to flow from the scar and soon the paling itself faded to nothing. He could not maintain a paling for an extended amount of time, Solim realized-- not with his ether reserves so low. He would need to "flash" the paling to parry the knight's blows, a skill that only the most battle-ready of his warsiblings had mastered. It would allow him to call the paling for instances of a second to defend against attacks in order to keep his ether usage to a minimum, but his timing needed to be perfect. "Come, wretched demon!" Solim spat at the knight, unsheathing his scimitar from its curved scabbard. The blade had been forged and enchanted by Warband Goliath's own artificer, the genius blacksmith Mother Zante, and it would not fail him against this monster. Its sharply-honed blade pulsed slowly with a deep emerald light as a series of gears and mechanisms spun within the scimitar's scabbard. [i]Convergence[/i] was the name Mother Zante had given the blade, and Solim had sworn to her that he would not dishonor it. The blade was a thin, as light as a dagger, and made for rapid incisional strikes, but not meant for defending or parrying thus Solim’s paling flashes would prove key to this battle. Despite it not being built for defending, there was another unique aspect to the blade, and as the knight raised its blade for another attack, Solim focused his ether on the myriad runes and machinery encased within the sword’s scabbard. In a flash, Solim carved through the air in front of him, the blade recoiling with emerald energy as a loud sonic boom crashed throughout the chamber, rattling the iron plates on the portholes and sending everything not nailed to the ground flying. The scimitar glided through the air and at the apex of its deadly arc a wave of blade-sharp wind screamed forth from Convergence and streaked toward the knight with all the force of a gale. Sensing the destructive power of the incoming magical attack, the knight quickly abandoned its planned strike and raised its reflective tower shield in attempt to block it, but it was to no avail, for as soon as the emerald wave of wind energy exploded into the shield its massive crystalline surface was shattered in a storm of crystal shards. The knight was so caught off-guard that it failed to notice Solim’s proceeding advance. The inquisitor has followed his magical attack by dashing toward the knight and jumping in the air, his blade primed to strike at the slit between the knight’s helmet and breastplate. Hidden by the spray of crystalline mist that now shrouded the room, Solim drew the blade back to strike cleanly and evenly, but then something happened. A [i]pulse[/i] from somewhere far away. Those who wielded ether to perform sorcery were well-versed in how to keep it from spiking during battle, but when something caught them off-guard, say, a sneak attack or a trap being sprung, an individual’s ether could erupt in intensity for a split moment. A “magical shock”, so to speak, and in the instance before Solim could deliver the deadly blow to the knight, he felt it. It was… a gasp, of sorts. [i]Fear[/i], primal and young, from somewhere across the ice. Faina, still tethered to him, seemed to feel it as well, for she looked through the torn open portholes across the glacier where the army of icekin waited. This momentary distraction was all that was needed for the knight to shoot its gauntlet-clad hand at Solim’s throat and use his momentum to slam the inquisitor’s weakened frame down into the hard floor of the solar with such force and cruelty that both of Solim’s arms snapped at the elbow from the impact. Through dazed eyes Solim watched helplessly as Convergence slid across the floor away from his reach, and when the inquisitor faced upwards to gaze at the crystalline face staring down at him, he found twin abyssal pools gazing into his own eyes. The knight did not wait and began to crush Solim’s throat. Icy-fingertips dug into the soft meat of Solim’s neck. The black orbs of the knight’s eyes seemed to expand and darken the world around them, and soon there was only darkness and the sound of his Faina screaming from somewhere far away. He was now drowning in that darkness and he remained in that purgatory for some time, unaware of time and the world passing. Until suddenly, a strange, yet familiar buzzing tickled him awake. Solim struggled to open his eyes, but when he did, he found himself within the darkness once more, but there was something [i]else[/i] in there with him. A brilliant streak of ethereal light was attached to a ghostly outline of the knight. The demon was still positioned over him, its phantom hand gripped around his throat. The shining streak of ethereal stretched out towards the pure black distance to somewhere nearby. Solim then stared down at his chest and saw another streak, this one much more feint, leading towards a phantom outline of Faina, who had now stumbled down to one knee as the last of her ether drained from her. Her eyes burned with both fear and rage as she was struggling to get up. And then, almost imperceptible to him, a third rope of light, this one as thin and ghostly as spider-silk and anchored to Faina’s chest, sped off towards the inky darkness in the opposite direction to some unknowable distance. The one from earlier. [i]Tethers[/i]. Of course. Solim could feel the knight’s fingers on his throat and he could sense that he was not long for the material world, but he had to do something. He raised his own ghostly arms, broken and shattered, and with great concentration reached out to the shining tether that was connected to the knight, and gripped it with all his strength. The world went white as the light from the ethereal tether slowly bloomed outward and washed out the darkness. When Solim opened his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar place. He was floating over trampled ice, his boots off the ground by a good ten feet and his broken arms hanging limply at his side. His body was transparent, and could see the snow falling through him. After coming out of the momentary shock, Solim finally gazed around him. Hundreds of icekin stood around him like statues, completely motionless. Their bestial faces were expressionless, their eyes milky white. He turned around and saw the edge of the cliff, and down below, the half-frozen water and the three ruined arks mashed together at the base of the opposite glacier wall. He was there. Or [i]here[/i]. Right in the middle of it. The icekin legion. Solim floated nearer to one of the icekin warriors. It stared straight ahead, its body as still as stone. It didnt even seem to be breathing. Every single icekin seemed to be in similar circumstance. Were they kind of spell? Or was this how the icekin acted when they weren’t fighting? He wondered if they would even notice him if he wasn’t currently in his ethereal ghost form. And then he heard noises coming from deeper within the ranks of motionless icekin. He squinted his eyes, trying to look across the mass of icekin bodies, but could not see anything. He floated through the bodies, towards the source of the noises. As he made his way through the ranks, he found that the icekin were being stationed further and further apart, until finally he reached his destination, a wide open circle within the legion. What first caught his attention was the strange silver ship, a steam ark of sorts, parked neatly and undamaged on the surface of the ice. He had never seen a steam ark like that-- it seemed neither Lanostran, T’saraen or Varyan in design, and certainly nothing like the garish ether races that the nobility used. But it was the two figures in front of the ark that interested him most. One was a tall, thin woman wearing a mish-mash of different bits of armor, akin to what an ice pirate would wear, but there was no mistaking the amber light of her Omestrian eyes as they scanned the ice around her like a hawk. She held a Lanostran gunlance in one of her hands, the twin bladed-cannons primed and ready to fire. And in the other, she gripped a catalyst humming softly with ethereal light. That was when Solim noticed it. The soft pleasant whurl of an aegis encasing the space around them. Impossible. Was she an apostate inquisitor? It couldn’t be. There were no records of Omestrian apostates. If there were, there would’ve been grave consequences for his brethren in the Seminary. Solim focused attention to the second figure, who seemed even more out of place. It was a teenage girl, no older than sixteen, wrapped in a simple fur coat, like something a peasant would wear. Her hair was a pale silvery blonde, long and unkempt, and when Solim focused on the girl’s face he found that it was marked with tattoos. [i]R’heon tattoos.[/i] The girl was lying on the ground, staring at the empty ice in front of her. Her right arm was outstretched and tense, her gloved hands were gripping something tightly, but strangely enough, it was as if whatever she was holding on to was floating a few inches off the ground. Solim’s eyes grew dark. This girl. This was her. [i]The Singer[/i]... the one who’s song brought the icekin. And at this moment, she was somehow controlling the knight that was soon going to end his life. “What’s taking so long?” the Omestrian asked the girl. “There’s something wrong. He is already dead but--” Suddenly, a strange crunching sound, like ice falling off a glacier, exploded from the direction of the three arks. And not an instant later the girl screamed and fell to the ice, a gut-wrenching, excruciating scratching into the frost. Her Omestrian companion hastily fell to her side, a look of deadly panic in her eyes as she gathered the convulsing girl in her arms and retreated toward the silver ark. “We’ll return to the armada. Now order the beasts to attack!” The girl moaned in response, her emerald eyes filling with tears. She did not answer. “Do it, Moira,” the Omestrian woman hissed as she reached the entrance ramp of the shining silver craft. Not a moment later, the ark’s engines began to hum to life, and the icekin around them began to sir. It was time for Solim to return, though he shuddered what he would find when he opened his eyes in his own body again. The girl mentioned that he had died, but she was wrong. He was very close to it, but his spirit was not there. The miracles Lord Varya had gifted him with were uniquely powerful in their own way, and the inquisitor gave a silent prayer to the Ravenous Lord as he closed his eyes and willed himself back into his body. [center]***[/center] When Solim awakened, he found that he could not move, nor speak, nor breathe very well. But he could see, and what he glimpsed with his own eyes was the solar completely destroyed. The outer hull, steel wall and foundation and all, had been constricted onto itself, crushed and sheared together by an impossible force. He saw the broken remnants of the crystal knight’s shattered limbs lying all across the destroyed room, and, with his heart itself breaking apart as he realized what happened, he saw her-- Faina was lying motionless across from where he lay, her hands reaching out toward him. Her eyes drained of their color, only a faint blur of azure remaining within the grey-white coronas. Her cheeks were beginning to become sunken and her black hair was now streaked with white. She saved him. And had likely sacrificed everything in doing so. [i]Why?[/i] Faina had one spell that she never used. She didn’t need to, after all. She was their Protector. But when the knight was crushing his throat, she had summoned the very last pools of her ether to manipulate the magnetic forces of this place and tear the knight apart. Abandoning the aegis, all to save her warsibling from certain death. Solim tried to reach out to her, to call out her name, but found that he couldn’t. His body was broken, and his throat was in such ruin that he could no longer speak. There was still a chance that she could survive this, but it was not likely. She had consumed most if not all of her ether, the one lesson that all of their teachers had ingrained into them time and time again. If they could get her some Omestrian ether, she could possibly make it, but even then the chances were not good. If he could only reach her… Solim tried to move, but he could not. The trauma of the battle with the knight, and his own use of hiss projection ability had severely drained him of his own ether as well. But still, he tried to move. The sound of footsteps coming from outside the solar rang loud in his ears, and as they grew closer he managed to turn his head just enough to see Mother Albina and a group of soldiers walking into the solar. Alongside them were Father Boris, Captain Lyubchenko and what looked like Father Taerlach being carried on a makeshift stretcher. Solim looked to Albina and motioned toward their fallen warsibling. “Help her. Please,” he tried to say.