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[b]~Fort Daelantine~[/b]

Whatever resolve she mad managed to gather in spite of the horrible feeling she had about this entire place, it did not last long. As their group entered the fort and began to venture deeper, there was a mysterious crimson shade that covered the walls, and one that made the ground beneath their feet tainted. It took a moment for the already dazed Amy on the lookout for enemies to truly process what was going on, but when the rich iron smell hit her nostrils she froze up, and she finally looked down at the soggy mud that covered her boots, her eyes shooting wide in shock.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/9bM0h83.gif[/img]

Rapid and uneven breathing. [i]Dilated pupils[/i]. [b]Tense muscles[/b]. [i][b]Shock[/b][/i].

As the corpses mounted in her field of view, Amy's legs began to tremble, her fingers shaking as she had a hard time maintaining grip on her flute despite her knuckles going white from the effort. They... killed each other. Every last one of them. Brother against brother, comrade against comrade, some lay dead still wrestling each other as they did moments before their death. And most of them didn't die a quick death either... gruesome examples of those who carried on living long enough to spite the people they once fought besides littered the inner courtyard. That ominous, gut wrenching feeling that she felt outside and managed to push aside as she joined her group was back, several times worse now that she saw the carnage.

Whatever the spreading madness was that caused such massacre had left a deep, terrible imprint on this place that seeped like a deadly ooze or miasma into every crevice and corner, every crack in the weather-worn stone walls of the castle. It was a malignant force, festering in the shadows and growing into an incomprehensible abyss of terror. Amy was staring down into that abyss with every moment she was looking out for threats, and the abyss stared back at her with such a pestilent gaze that it left her gasping. This place, this... force, was one of indescribable evil and hostility. And Amy felt like it had singled her out, the one person most observant to it's effects. If this assault on her senses was anything like what overcame the garrison of the fort, she could hardly blame them from turning each other and succumbing to madness.

The world was spinning and she couldn't keep up, the only thing still keeping her on two feet being the terror she felt when the thought of falling over in the blood soaked mud crossed her mind. Still, she couldn't help herself, the muddled noises of her comrades and some third party talking barely registering in her mind. Amy was in a world of her own, her sight reduced to a small island of color amidst and ocean of black as she stared at the corpses who wielded their weapons as if they needed to slay their comrades once more. She could feel her body on the edge of giving up, the sickness of this place slowly overcoming and muffling that desperate last call to action that her mind was able to muster, and the darkness taking hold of her periphery taking hold of all that she could sense. All was consumed by shadows...

What happened afterwards was a blurry mess of pictures and emotions. All she knew is that someone had grabbed her arm and tugged her, and that when she came to her senses she was outside the fort with Serenity.

She wanted to usher a quiet "thank you", but instead she finally fell to the ground and threw up with a panicked groan, a fit of cough coming over her afterwards as the irrational terror began to clear from her mind, like a rolling fog slowly disappearing as the sun comes up. She had never felt anything nearly as potent as this, and even the graveyards filled with sorrow did not have such a lasting imprint that could affect her days after the people had passed. Then again... she had never been on a battlefield, and she imagined that this was the real deal, the way those places would feel as well. Coughing up a little more slime, Amy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pushing herself up to her feet. She picked up her ivory flute that she had dropped when she fell, and wiped off some of the mud from it before she shakily turned to Serenity. She wasn't sure what to say to the girl after her performance of... well, falling apart. For her first assignment, she didn't expect to find piles of corpses of people who murdered each other. She had a new understanding of the feeling that was trying to ceaselessly tear into her, even now, outside the castle walls. Maybe the others weren't susceptible to it, but when she was trying to keep her senses open for danger, it was able to strike her at her weakest. There was no excuse for her weakness in the face of such massacre, but she felt like she understood it a little more now.

Nobody wants to grow accustomed to such a feeling, but Amy was forced to rapidly adapt if she wished to be of any use. Looking down at her flute for a moment, her mind wandered to old teachings she received when she was still just a kid, and her powers were starting to manifest. This sort of... magic, was exactly the thing that the clerics had warned her of. The sort of forbidden and malignant powers that those taking care of her feared she'd develop. The ability to warp the minds of others to make them commit violent acts. The same magic she swore never to practice in her life.

Her grip tightened around the smooth surface of her flute, fingers going numb from the hold, and the gaze she had averted from others until now finally fell upon Serenity.

Maybe Mayon had sent her here, on this mission, for a reason. Surely the goddess would teach her clerics the most valuable life lessons through experience. Such coincidences did not happen without a higher purpose, and she was supposed to carry out the will of her goddess when this type of magic was concerned.

[color=f49ac2]"Serenity..."[/color] She whispered quietly before she turned to take a look at the knight who had dragged her out. Under the shining light of Mayon, her face was now filled with a new shard of crimson, one of anger and determination. [color=f49ac2]"I... we, cannot let the same fate befall our fellow knights. I know you can't feel it, but a shadow falls over this fort, smothering the senses with the last thoughts and emotions of the dead. If whoever, or whatever caused this massacre is still around, then this could be a trap, set up just for us Roses. I can't know for sure, and the fact that we haven't been attacked offers little comfort, but..."[/color] Her eyes shifted to the side, past the large doors and towards the rest of the group as they confronted the unknown girl. [color=f49ac2]"She's got compatriots, I can feel them. Maybe they didn't kill anyone here, but they could've caused this massacre for all we know. Call me crazy, but..."[/color] She fell silent for a moment as she turned around and she let her senses, both physical and magical, search for anything that was out place, any sign of a trap or a spell ready to be unleashed at them. The sort of hostile intent that this whole fort seemed to be festering with. [color=f49ac2]"Either this is an ambush waiting to happen with the same spell that took care of the garrison, or someone is really bad at cleaning up after themselves."[/color]

She had all but forgotten about her previous weakness from before. Surely the adrenaline pumping through her veins helped tremendously, and her hands were still shaking, but Amy was convinced that whatever was waiting for her comrades in the fort wasn't something they could fight only with their swords. More than anything she wanted to help them, and that same conviction that had been drilled into her since childhood now began to surface in the face of adversity. She had experience the evil nature of the fort, and she had felt it's overpowering effects on the mind. As much as she hated to admit that she wasn't cautious enough when trying to understand it, and that the sea of blood had bested her timid nature, she felt like she now understood what needed to be done if such a force tried to take control of her.

Her head twitched, like an animal reacting to a sound that no human could perceive. For a moment her crimson eyes scoured the horizon, and then with a few bold steps she closed the distance to Serenity, and grabbed onto the girl's wrist, pulling her hand closer. [color=f49ac2]"Please, let me show you what I see. I need you to understand my concern."[/color] Within the second, Serenity could feel the cold creeping up her arm, the uncaring and evil energies of the place that was felt by Amy penetrating into her own mind. It was but a fraction of the whole, limited by Amy's abilities to convey such information to people she had so little connection with, but it was more than enough to give the girl a taste of what the young cleric feared the most.

[color=f49ac2]"Promise me to stay close, alright? If you feel anything weird like this coming onto you, clouding your judgement and testing your resolve, grab my hand. I know how it looked just now, but... I [b]can[/b] protect you from magic that would try and alter your senses. If worst comes to worst, I should be able to put you to sleep before you turn on anyone, but I trust that won't be necessary."[/color] She stared directly into Serenity's eyes for a good few seconds, her fingers firmly gripping the knight's wrist in a way that more pleaded for the knight's cooperation than commanded her obedience.

Finally she relented and let go, dusting herself off for the second time tonight in front of the castle gates, and then beckoned for Serenity to follow as she followed in the footsteps of Lein and Steffen who had finally returned. If anything was going to go down, she felt she'd be much more useful inside with the rest of the Roses, rather than staying outside and being unable to help them out.