Veti laughed softly, and shrugged a little, and gave Artie's neck a loving squeeze before she stood to her feet. "I'm sorry, Daisy, that was a lot and hey, I already know I'm the Queen of Awkward Silences," she quipped to Reaper. "No need to answer now - probably not the time anyway. Need to get this 'Key of Life' here back to a certain goddess and... "

The werewolf's voice trailed off a moment, turning her face upward as if to test the winds, though there were none to be had here.

And then Veti realized, there was. It was a warm, subtle breeze, a zephyr that moved playfully among these strange, weary travelers, like delighted laughter - for that is very much what it was. The lights that shone among them - not a one disappointed the goddess as she moved as she could among them here in the Vaults. The Key of Life, her own precious creation, knew its Progenitor. Her call lifted the werewolf's hand skyward with the Ankh, floating easily above the travelers' heads some twenty feet.

As it rose, the Ankh began to glow a deep amber-gold from within its depths, a fiery light that intensified in brightness until it shone like a second sun, near painful to look on.

"Well done, travelers." Isis' voice moved amongst the breezes, tickling the vast, supernatural greenery about them, the scent of verdant life near palpable now. "You will not be able to return the way you came. The way back to the Library through here is closed to you now - but no, you will not be left here in the Vaults after all your troubles. Your party will return to... London, yes werewolf? To the offices of Bain & Hoyle on the Thames?"

Veti could only nod her response, as pleasantly dumbfounded in the presence of Isis, the very embodiment of [i]Life,[/i] as she'd been amongst the Irish stones - perhaps even more so, now that She was no longer "simply" a woman, or "simply" a kite.

And the goddess too, could at last savor the brilliant aura of each as she would, the spectacular glow of both the living mortals and the living souls of the undead. 

Their lights, their myriad colors, were simply... [i]Magnificent.[/i]

Overhead, the Key of Life burned brighter still, blazing now as if made of the very stuff of the sun itself, roiling to its molten depths. The burst into shards of every color and none, a silent supernova of perfect, blinding intensity that suddenly collapsed back into itself - and then winked from sight as if it had never been.

"To Atticus then. Farewell beautiful travelers." The voice of the goddess seemed no more than a whisper now. The daylight of the Vaults almost as dim as dusk to Veti's eyes as she blinked, rubbing at her light-spotted eyes with a grin.

The silvery light of the lotus was the veritable the moon to the sun of the Ankh, a cool, rain-kissed wind replacing the warm breeze as the flower opened further still, as if finally sharing the essence of its own soul. More than just a key it seemed, like living moon-filtered pollen the wispy tendrils descended, snaked among the party and wrapped each in a tender, misty caress.

Veti laughed with the purest joy she'd known in nigh on a year now, waving farewell to the enigmatic Vas'o'los before sprinting to her lover, throwing herself in his arms. [i]"We'll be traveling[/i] together[i] from now on,"[/i] she whispered in his ear before kissing him fully, eagerly, as the lotus' mists wrapped around them.

As peaceful as the wings of the goddess had transported them to the Library, so to was travel by the breath of Isis. Each of those who chose to see Max returned from the gates of death would find safety, assurance, even joy if they would as the darkness closed about them briefly, a warm cocoon through space and time in the arms of a Mother. 

And then a gentle rebirth as the darkness lifted, to a sight far removed from the strangely bucolic wilds of the Vaults. Veti opened one eye mid-kiss, to peer around at her surroundings for a moment when she felt her boots touch solid ground once more. The grand hall inside the London office of Bain & Hoyle. Mixed feelings of course, but at least she knew damn well the bedroom accommodations were first rate. 

She didn't bother to wonder how they'd managed to land inside the keep proper, past the enchantments and the guardian Oni. Frankly, at this moment Veti had her hands full and her mind very pleasantly "otherwise occupied."