The New Deal

Rahsaan felt out of breath, though he figured he shouldn’t be considering it was Voriel who had been battling the goblin hoard. He sat a few feet away from Arabelle- who thankfully wasn’t harmed- and laid back against the rock wall. They had battled deep into the mountain, and Rahsaan was now wishing he was back in that relaxing spring upstairs. He opted to just settle for a drink from his canteen before he felt a now familiar hot prickle against his chest. He picked up  the mask where it dangled from his neck, while it emitted a faint glow.  He raised a brow in bewilderment.

“You want to talk right now? You recovered that fast?”

He did not get a reply, but the mask did shine brighter for a second as if responding to his question. He sat crossed-legged and stared past the dull silver facade, seconds later looking up to see . . .  Complete darkness.

All of his companions had vanished, but it was as if the entire scene had disappeared with them. It was not like his visions before where he stood in a distorted, misted version of the land. He was alone, and  even his own breaths  and heartbeat were muted in this void.  And there was certainly no angel to be found.

“Uh, Voriel?” He said, somewhat more timidly than he meant. “If you have something to tell me, I am ready.”

From out of the black came a sound. One might have mistaken it for a laugh if it were possible for a whisper to chuckle; for it was not an actual voice but merely the presence of noise fading in and out quickly. It could have just as easily been a residual effect of the ringing in the ears from the explosion that had seemed to rock the foundation of the mountain a few hearbeats before. But still, this felt different.

As Rahsaan spoke his question, the pitch black void uttered only the echo of his own voice.

After what seemed an eternity something hovered ever present just off the edges of his vision. Rahsaan knew something moved in the darkness, or was fairly certain there was a presence nearby. The nebulous unseen entity said nothing. Instead Rahsaan felt as if his body was at the same time being groped, his face caressed and his skin formed goosebumps as shivers ran up and down his spine.

In the space between heartbeats, there was absolute silence and total stillness-the monk's heightened senses detected that he was helpless, and completely immobile as he was restrained by some dark force.

He felt the caressing of his face shift and head towards his mouth. His lips were pried open and he felt as though he was beginning to drown and choke but at the same time burn from within as if his insides were boiling from an uncontrollable grease fire that he'd once seen burn down a building in Nova Vaasa.

Right as he started to become completely submerged, and the heat reached its most unbearable point, on the outer edge of what he could audibly hear were the whispered words, "You can save yourself..." spoken in his own voice, though the words did not come from him.

As soon as he did not get an immediate reply from his angelic guide, Rahsaan’s stomach dropped. Whoever authored this vision, whoever reached out to him made it very clear this was not Voriel. He tried his best to withdraw from the creatures frigid touch, but found no strength to move a single muscle. And to make matters worse, wherever he was, it was far from any divine influence.

“Voriel! Help . . .” He yelled, though his words died in his throat as the entity silenced him. He tried to cry out in pain, unable to scream as his chest felt as if it would burst.

There was nothing he could do to stand against this, no way he could fight back. As if his cowardice on the streets hadn’t proven to him time and again,  the only thing he knew besides pain was how useless he was without Voriel.  To which Voriel would try and tell him otherwise, the monk could hear the angels voice commanding him to resist this fell beings influence, that it would cower before the light he bore within.

Amidst the terrifying and torturous ordeal, as if responding to his own faux voice and the unspoken words of his guide, he managed to choke out,

“How?”

The drowning sensation slowed, but the fire he felt coming from within set new thresholds of pain previously untapped and unknown.

"How?"

The featureless void echoed the frail question-whether this was to serve as a form of mockery or merely because the void was contemplating the answer remained unclear.

The monks insides felt as though they were ready to erupt as the pain was so intense it was blinding.
"Deny your limitations"-The voice resembled Izek.

There were no echoes. Only silence followed.

"Resist your Doubts about what is possible"-The words sounded familiar but at the same time unplaceable, but heavy emphasis was placed on Doubts.

More silence. The drowning sensation began to return but the heat slightly lessened.

"Surrender your mind" The words again resembling his own voice.

Then there was nothing. The heat was gone, the drowning sensation gone. Rahsaan simply floated. Though he remained restrained and immobile, he did feel things again...suffering, pain, loss, grief, tradgedy, anger-the emotions surged over him, through him. They felt alive, as if everything he'd ever felt up to the current moment had just been a taste, but now he was getting the total sum of all of it all at once. The emotions themselves also seemed to be sentient acting outside of Rahsaan. They all jockeyed for a turn impaling him with essences of themselves, hell bent on trying to break him.

Then he was again left immobile and alone. All the torrential assaults of emotions gone. He was left with nothing. No one. The feeling of being fully and completely devoid of hope his only companion.

"Free yourself-the power you need lies not without but within. It yearns to be unleashed. Long have you toiled at the hands of those who would control you, who deem themselves better than you, who limit you. Accept yourself as you truly are-be reborn" the voice pulsates with each pump of heartsblood, the tone sounding like Xandra.

He heard the whimpers from the hunched, crumpled form of Chime, cowering beneath the rest of her family who dangled by their necks over the walls of Kantora.

He heard Conrad call out his name in desperation, the boys cries growing distant as the guards dragged him away to his doom.

He heard the sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh, then a pair of wet lumps land upon cobblestone, followed by mocking laughs.

When the memories subsided, he found his eyes still burning from the tears. Each of those came to pass for a simple reason: He was not strong enough to intervene.

Or was it . . . he thought he wasn't strong enough?

Deny limitations . . . no, this entity was not referring to his feeble body. He knew the spark of the divine was there, that was how Voriel could lend his own growing powers. But what if . . . this creature referred to something else? Something even Voriel did not know? Couldn't know?

"I did not come to you because of what you are," He remembered Voriel's advice, "I came to you because of what you can become. ."
Voriel had woken a part of him- but only half. And now, the other started to stir from its slumber.

"Xandra did not have power over me." Rahsaan said with realization, "Those guards or those mageseekers did not either. I chose to let them rule over me. I believed that I was powerless."

The palms of his hands began to glow- one with a pure, white light- the other a deep red flame that reached up his arm.

"Light and darkness. Good and evil. These are just distractions put forth by those in control so they can continue to oppress those beneath them!"

Rahsaan's eyes glazed over, peering past the darkness of the domain, "Not even you will control me."

No sooner had he spoken the words, he regained his full range of motion. He felt himself ripping not only his arms free of his bindings but the black bonds themselves tore loose.

He felt his body surge upwards like a cannon shot, his momentum only continuing to grow.

Rahsaan then noticed the smallest pinprick of light pierce through the black. The light seemed to grow wider and brighter, but Rahsaan just instinctively knew it was simply because he was getting closer.

When at last his entire body was bathed in the light he felt the last shreds of darkness fall away and he took in deep, clean, full breaths for what felt like the first time. His lungs burned as he sucked in fresh air.

Before him towered Voriel-a look of deep concern and maybe even fear worn on his face. The angels once snow white wings now were both dark grey and nearly black. His hands were crimson colored and dripping something. Off to his side the comparably small form of Mahlajai gazed on in obvious confusion.

Voriel spoke first, "What just happened...wh--what have you done?"

Mahlajai looked between Voriel and Rahsaan..."Well-we found him. But, this feels like more of a private conversation so I will see myself out."

Rahsaan's elation over his regained freedom deflated once he saw Voriel's form. He couldn't have done that . . . could he? He blinked a few times in disbelief and stammered, "I . . . I . . . something came to me instead of you, Voriel. I think it was trying to possess me- or worse. I could not use your . . ." Wait, couldn't he have tried and just blast it with holy fire? In his fear, the thought didn't even occur to him. Still fumbling over his answer he continued, "Or I should say, you were not there and I did not know what to do so I . . . tried something else?"

As if noticing Mahlajai for the first time,  he said, "Wait! Do not leave! I do not really know what I . . ."

He looked back between the djinni and the angel, " . . . Unless, this is still part of some sort of test?"  He asked with a slight wince.

Voriel said nothing. His focus shifted to his own hands and wings.

Mahlajai turned to face Rahsaan inquisitively, his questions and rate of speech speeding up, "Speak quickly-what do you mean you tried something else? What test are you talking about? Was it the moose man? Did you give something to the mad mage? Why were you hiding from us? What did you not want us to see? Wh--" the djinn's words were cut short.

"I did not abandon you. Neither I nor my strength ever left you. I just fought to save you. This possession you mention-did you accept it?"

"I was not hiding from you!" Rahsaan shot at Mahlajai maybe a bit stronger than he intended. His tepidness changed to frustration as he continued, "See here, the mask got my attention just like when you try and talk wherever we are right now, Voriel. And then I focused, I was sent to a place of complete darkness. I was alone except for this entity that spoke to me in my own voice, my brother's, and a woman's I would like to forget. But I was restrained while it tortured me with my worse memories and burning pain. It then said I could save myself by using my own strength as accepting myself for what I am. But I realized it had captured me because I let it, so I told it I did not have power over me and it left." His tone turned more and more unsure as he realized what had happened seemed somewhat unbelievable.

He sighed, "I presume Izek was not lying and if he is my brother, than I too have that fiendish whatever he has. I think that this creature was wanting me to admit it. But I did not really- accept anything from it. But I presume the creature's flight was actually you, Voriel?"

Mahlajai's face hardened. "You were tortured...assuming you're telling the truth-for less than five minutes, and you mean to tell me that you did exactly what it wanted you to do?"

The djinn gestured a hand at Voriel, "We were in the middle of discussing exactly where you went when his wings changed color and he started dripping what I assume is blood from his hands when you come flying up to join us."

Mahlajai turned to face Voriel, "I was tortured for half a millennium, so believe me when I say this seems more like a lie or some parlor trick. Either that or your vessel has as much fortitude as a tin cup. If what he says is true however and he did surrender himself to whatever new form of hell this is...because you both are bonded-you have been corrupted."

Voriel nodded to Mahlajai, his face unreadable.
Turning to face Rahsaan, the angel lowered his head, "Your suffering did not come from my hands...nor did your salvation. That you would even doubt that means that I have failed to guard you yet again. Now I grow more certain that I can do nothing to save you from yourself. I am blind. I am no divine being, I am nothing and no one. I have no purpose. "

Voriel then lowers himself to the ground and weeps.

Rahsaan’s heart sank as he said in nearly a panic, “I did not do what that creature said! I .  .  . I did not mean for this! I have to be able to fix this, or Elias or Mercurian can help! Right? Please?”

Mahlajai just shook his head as Voriel continued to weep, the blood dripping from his hands like tears. Rahsaan wanted nothing more than to run, leave this corrupted angel and disapproving genie to flee to a place where he could not cause anymore damage. He instead stood dumbstruck. Was Rahsaan really this foolish, feeling so triumphant only seconds earlier? Was he as weak as Mahlajai said, tormented for only a few minutes before he doubted Voriel, playing right into that fiend’s hand?
There was nothing else he could say as he stared dumbly at the two spirits.

Wait a minute.

If he had caved so soon, and Mahlajai said that they were wondering where he was when Voriel started to bleed- Voriel should still be recovering as he had dismissed himself only a few minutes prior. Not here crying over his own failings.

And since when was Mahlajai this short with anyone?

The urge to run flared once more, this time for a very different reason. Instead, blue flame enclosed his hand as he called, “You may have fooled me once, but you will not do so again! Leave me, or else you would like to face  the real Voriel.”

The weeping angel and the angry djinn's forms melted down into a puddle, their bodies and faces intermingling before fading away, as once again the monk was enveloped by darkness and the light he had been in vanished like smoke.

Only now he sat still looking at the mask he always carried. His eyes piercing through the otherwise empty void.
The mask did not glow and was ice cold to touch. Concentrating on the mask actually seemed to help still his mind and ease his nerves.

The darkness began to slowly dissipate before he finally found himself once more seated in the dwarven mountain citadel as he had been.
The torch light flickered in the stone carved tunnels and halls, and struggled to shed much light at all due to the thick rock-dust cloud that seemed to billow steadily into the confined space from the cave in the group had just caused.

Curled up into a little ball to his nearby immediate right was the tiny form of the Vistani girl. Dwarf miners and warriors rushed past in every direction some carrying the wounded, most dragging dead goblins or stone debris away on train carts. Gohzrik was over with Eylylyn trying to help coordinate troops, while Aspen, Elias, and the recently arrived armored borcan knight did their best to tend to the hurt and injured. No sign of Bissandrei yet, but one of the others mentioned that he'd gotten out of the cave-in in time and was nearby.

Arabelle's cries were almost drowned out by all the noise, but when she saw Rahsaan's face and that he'd come out of his trance she rushed over to him, wiping her eyes in a failed attempt to conceal her emotional state as she through a stuffy nose but a forced smile said, "I wasn't sure you were going to come out. You seemed really sad. I thought you might have been hurt and the others just didn't see it. Are you going to be okay? You saved me."

Looking up from the mask, Rahsaan stared past Arabelle in a empty stupor, ignoring the commotion around him. A second later he looked back onto the tarnished mask's surface, exhaling one more time before he hid it back behind his shirt.

"I  . . . I think I will be.  My meditations are not always so intense." He blinked against the dust, "Though you should not be thanking me. I should have taken you back to your family, not brought you into the midst of all this." He answered, motioning limply to the scene around them. "Hopefully these dwarves are able to get a handle on this soon so that we may leave this place though I am grateful for their hospitality."

Considering the others mostly ignored him when he communed with Voriel, he thought he sat there in silence, but the girl seemed to notice something was amiss about him. Impressive as she knew him for only an hour or so.

"You said I seemed sad. What was I doing a just now?"  He then raised an eyebrow, "And did you do something to snap me awake?"

Arabelle followed his gestured hand with her gaze resting upon the passing crowd. "I sm sure you outsiders had your reasons. To be honest I'm just happy to be away from that smelly old fisherman. I think he was going to try and drown me."

Looking back to Rahsaan, "I've lived my whole life outside the walks of Villaki. I don't think I've ever been more than a stone throw from our camp...and I am definitely not near that now."

She still wore her forced smile but it seemed to be shifting into a genuine one the more she spoke, "When I was asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said I wanted to just go somewhere different...father always told me to be careful what I wished for...I guess he was right."

At the Aasimar's questions, the young girl spoke softly, "To me it almost looked like you were lonely. You were sitting there and your face was all scrunched up like you just had a sour apple or something. Madam Eva used to make that face all the time...before she got real sick."

Arabelle shook her head, "No, I didn't do anything...at least I didn't think I did. You were here with your eyes closed tight, and I was just laying here out of every ones way-thinking about what would have happened to me if you hadn't come. I gave your other friend some of Madam Eva's secret juice that used to make her feel better when that scary monster clawed him up real bad, but the rest of the time I just tried hanging on tight to you to make sure I didn't fall. I was holding my head like this when you woke up." She tilts her head to the side, trying to explain what events led up to the monk waking up, but its clear that she's not a mage. "Maybe that helped you wake up? Can you always fly?"

As she asks this question, there is a battle skirmish that erupts nearby with a few straggling Goblins that were quickly eliminated, but not before they managed to kill a few more dwarf miners and wound a soldier with an arrow, the blood and screams of pain of the monster howls echoed loudly in the hall.

"I think it'd be really fun to be able to fly." As she says this she scoots close to Rahsaan and grips him, but Rahsaan noticed that her eyes were closed and tears were beginning to roll down her face-the conversation her only real distraction from the death and chaos that surrounded her. He also heard her attempts to sing her rendition of happy birthday ...

"From good friends all true, from dead friends all blue, may the devil pass ye by Arabelle, another year or two..."

She repeats the eerie refrain again and again, the tears continuing to stream down her face.

Rahsaan thought over what the Vistani girl said as she continued to speak; she did not seem to know what had happened to shake him from his stupor any better than he did. At her eagerness to talk about his ability to fly and realizing she had already seen Voriel in all his splendor, he says, "No, I cannot fly all the time. It is very tiring so I try and only use it when I really, really need it. Though I suppose to would be nice to soar on my own, seeing the land from far above . . ."

Though he stopped when he saw her tears, "Arabelle?" He took hold of her shoulder, though she still continued to speak her prophetic rhyme paying him no attention, "Arabelle!" He called, his voice rising above the babel. This was no good. She was not able to hear him while in her trance- knowing that it was bad enough when Madame Eva had visions, he did not want to think about what would happen to the girl. What was it she saw?

Not even fully understanding what he was doing,  instead acting on impulse, Rahsaan placed his hand on her forehead, "Do not carry this burden alone. Please, share it with me."

When Rahsaan touched Arabelle's head her chanting stopped. However, the scene around him shifted to mere moments ago. He was being born aloft, held tightly and secure within Voriel's arms-clearly this scene was from Arabelle's perspective. He looked down and saw the battle scene arrayed before him. The vast force of the goblin army marched seemingly unopposed save for a lone metal beast. It growled and bellowed loudly, before sharp monstrous claws spread wide from its sides and began hacking and slicing through pale skinned and furry creatures. The black monster's eyes seemed to pierce straight through you. It spewed flaming chunks of metal destruction that trailed smoke and boomed like thunder, the smell of burning skin and brimstone filled his nostrils.

Turning away from the horrible scene to look back upon her saving grace, revealed a new form of terror. Instead of seeing a glowing divine creature, Rahsaan saw a figure wreathed in flame. Its sharply fierce features and fiery eyes bore nothing but wrath and sought the destruction of everything it gazed upon. The flying creature, that held Rahsaan in an iron grip, looked upon Rahsaan and Rahsaan felt his entire body grow limp. The eyes of fire bore through Rahsaan. Rahsaan's entire sense of self worth was weighed, measured, taken stock of and found left with everything to be desired. His very soul was judged as unworthy of salvation and whose only true place belonged to be cast down for being unrighteous.

The gigantic fiery wrath bringer raised up his spear meant to be wrought for destruction, surely spelled only doom for the tiny figure that seemed to only be a weight that barely impeded the flying monster. Just as the spear tip was about to strike and deal out its deadly force-the memory goes black.

Rahsaan is then brought back to the present, to see Arabelle staring back at him with eyes wide in shock and horror and anger. "Why did you do that? Why did you save me?!? Why didn't you just let me die? You saw--you saw how little my soul is worth... "

Rahsaan withdrew his hand wordlessly, a mildly concerned but otherwise blank expression on his face, cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He had seen a side of Voriel he knew about, but never personally witnessed.  However, the vision made him feel even more foolish.

How did that fiend fool me for even a second? Voriel would fight until death before falling to his knees and crying.

Startled by Arabelle's demeaner, he turned to the girl with a look of shock, "Save you? I . . . did not do anything. I think. I just wanted to see so I could understand better. I do not know exactly I did. "

He closed his eyes and shook his head twice, "Though I do not think it helped me."

Quickly processing what he saw, he added, "But Voriel was fighting to protect you that whole fight. I know that he meant you no harm." He frowned,  "And what do you mean you are worth nothing? You revived Alias back there. No, that does not matter. Your father would be devastated without you, and I am sure your friends want you back home. Do not think you are worthless for even a second." The intensity in Rahsaan's voice grew with each word he spoke.

"You do not see these things often, do you?"

The little girl backed away slightly as she considered her response to Rahsaan's passionate words.

"I see glimpses of things that could be, things that are, and things that might have been. I have read the cards with Madam Eva before. I have seen many outsiders suffer and die in countless ways all without ever actually witnessing it in person. I have watched it play out many times and never done anything to stop it. I helped your friend Elias because I didn't want anyone to die or get eaten or become one if those monsters or--"her words trail off.

Arabelle turned away, "But I've never been this close to death. I've never been in a battle like that back there-never seen so much blood and devastation...and I have.."Arabelle visibly shivers, "Never seen a demon of the underworld-nor do I wish to again. He is dangerous! You should not have made whatever deal you did with his kind. Madam Eva warned me about fiends and devilry. Believe whatever you want about him but I know what I saw, and that flying fiery fiend wants to see the world burn-me along with it."

She turned back to look at Rahsaan, "'I am too small to make much difference and too little to be worth making a fuss over. Probably die off before I reach my next birthday'-thats what my uncle Malferran used to say. And he was right. None of the other Vistani children like me because of everything I see; they are scared of me. I doubt my father even knows I'm missing, with as much wine as he has been drinking lately. Madam Eva's the only person who remotely really ever cared for me but she only did it to prepare me for when she dies because of my visions...and she's been sick so long I don't think she even remembers me. No...I am worth little more than the few silver falcons I could hope to bring. They're all probably better off without me. Maybe if my mother was around things would be different but honestly you should have just let that demon skewer me on his spear."

Arabelle looked down at her feet and said, "I'm glad we had this talk. Its really made me see things more clearly--now I know what I need to do." As she finished her words, the Vistani girl rose up and went over to Mercurion, reached down and grabbed his gun, turned it on herself and fired.

The black void washed over the scene again, draining all light away-the last mental picture left in Rahsaan's mind was the headless crumpled and slowly falling bloody form of Arabelle before she collides with the ground.

As Arabelle goes on about Voriel, he continues to stare at her in disbelief. As she resolves about what to do next, when she stands up Rahsaan says, "Voriel is no demon. What you saw had to be some sort of trick so that we will distrust one another. Know that both he and I are . . ." He stopped and leapt to his feet when Arabelle held up the pistol, his scream almost loud enough to be heard over the blast.

When his found himself floating in the darkness once again, clutching at the mask in his hands, he gasped.

"What? I never woke up?!"

He felt no relief knowing that he saw was not real. Now the panic truly began to settle in. How long was he to remain in this hell? How could he be certain of anything? He had fallen for anything that claimed to be Voriel, Mahlajai, and Arabelle and only realized long after they had given themselves away as frauds. The frustration, the confusion . . . that was is. He would take no more.

"Stop with this illusions" He cried out to the void, "You try and get me to abandon Voriel, to side with you and join the forces of the damned. You only know lies and cruelty, demon." He tried again to call forth the heavenly flame from his palm, "And I will take part in either no longer." Though his words sounded courageous, his irregular tone was anything but.

His hand began to glow a bright blue as flame began to form. The darkness seemed to almost recoil instantly at the presence of the light. In its wake Rahsaan found himself standing in a grey pea soup thick fog or mist. Vague outlines of shapes and figures moved past him, while others stood motionless and still.

The closer he got to any shape the more clear it became. Rahsaan realized slowly based on the clothing and buildings that he was in Nova Vaasa. He stood just outside the church of the Iron Faith's doors.

He saw a man step out wearing a thick black cloak and who quickly tucked away a long sword in the folds of the cloth.
This figure was followed by several others. One resembled the armored knight that Rahsaan and the others had killed in Villaki recently.

The group members were each distinct but all wore the same style of long black cloak.

Rahsaan followed the group through winding city streets, down narrow alleyways, across a few roof tops, before climbing down into the underground waterways and sewer system.

The labyrinthine passages wound in circles before doubling back and crossing over itself. The group then settled in a central hub before climbing up and out. When they reached the surface Rahsaan didn't recognize the surroundings. He heard them speaking but couldn't quite make out the words. The few things he could pick out were names...Voriel, The brotherhood of the whip, Beast of Ehrendton, and lastly-the Black Duke.

The group then parted as a familiar face stepped out removing the cloak. Chime strode forward and said to the gathered group, "He fled the city with the holy relics. Our patron spirit now inhabits him and will surely kill him just as soon as --..."Her voice mumbles something before she redons her hood and another steps forward but does not reveal themselves, "Does anyone have connections with our sister churches in Hazlan or Gundarak? We will need to expand our influence otherwise in order to reclaim what the boy has taken. I tell you plainly and without trying to be a total doomsayer -without Voriel guiding our blessed hands, the church of the lawgiver will likely fall before harvest this time next season."

The scene then slowly returns to the mist and the gathered group fades from sight.

Rahsaan's heart skipped when he saw Chime. He was convinced by now everything shown before him was a lie, seeing that this creature took the opportunity to mock Voriel at every turn. Chime was the last person to side with the Lawgiver, and the attempt to persuade him otherwise was a laughable. It was the only truth to the vision that gave him pause. Her perfectly parted light brown hair that framed her face just right, her soft green eyes that even now seemed to sparkle amidst the gloom, her unique- at least from where was from, anyway- glowing, tanned skin. The greater part of him knew it was false, yet a part of him did wish that she stood only a few feet away-the part that had told the rest of himself he was fine never seeing her again.

As the vision faded he took a few instinctive steps toward her, opening his mouth but unable to speak before she disappeared.

"So you have failed to trick me for more than a moment. Now you are content to just taunt me over what I cannot have, what I left behind? What is your next futile attempt?"

The mists parted, before Rahsaan had even finished his sentence.
The scene showed Chime still in her black cloak alongside the armored figure, both standing alongside another cloaked figure.

They stood in a forest eerily similar to the same forest Rahsaan had been through before arriving outside the village gates of Barovia.
They looked behind them, Chime's face watched in horror as the rest of the cloaked figures that had been at the secret gathering grasped at their necks, before falling to their knees. The mists themselves tore at the cloaked figures, ripping at first cloth, before tearing into flesh and bone, and then blood until finally nothing remained.

Chime turned to the other cloaked figure, her voice filled with terror as she rapid fired the questions, "Where are we? What just happened to them? Why did we make it through?"

In response to her questions a voice echoed through the woods, a voice Rahsaan had heard before-back at the mountain cabin where the group had faced down zombies for the first time. "Welcome to my kingdom. You are my playthings. I am the master here. Whatever gods you served before, can no longer help you. Whatever tasks you set out for-now has come to an end. You will remain here at my leisure...until I no longer find you entertaining."

The armored knight spoke, with a thick Kantoran accent, "Whatever you are strange voice-the power of the Iron Faith is mightier than thee. Our patron will smite you low. You are noth--..."his words die out and he begins to cough and then scream before he raises his helmed visor and spits out blood along with his tongue.

The armored knights eyes grow white in fear before changing into a glowing reddish hue. His visor slams shut. The other unknown cloaked figure looked on, as Chime upon seeing the scene vomited.
The voice spoke again. "You ARE Mine! To do with as I please...and...to cast aside when I am done." The now possessed armored fighter turned to face Chime, who for her part had just finished wiping away the last of her spittle and went pale as she saw the knights raised sword. She dropped to all fours and cryingly sobbed, "It was a lie! I wanted to just buy Rahsaan time to get away! I led you all on this goose chase for him! Have mercy! Please don't kill me! I will do anything! Please-- pl-" the knights now crimson stained sword dropped to the ground-Chimes lifeless body fell to the forest floor as her head rolled to the feet of the remaining cloaked figure.

The voice spoke again, "The beast of Ehrendton, the black duke himself--You are my prisoner. You alone will keep your sanity. These others souls now belong to me. Your death will come in time, but for now-do as you will."

The cloaked figure fled off into the woods, as the armored knight seemed to shake himself free and looked upon the decapitated creature before him, and let out a worldess roar as he saw his own blade still wet with her blood.

Seeing Chime fall on her knees and beg for her life, Rahsaan could no longer stand still. He shot forward, only to realize no matter how swiftly he moved, the scene playing out before him came no closer. As the sword fell, Rahsaan let out a unheard scream.

It is not real . . .

The Aasimar fell to his knees.

You know it cannot be . . . Chime would never work with the Lawgiver . . . even to try and save me . . . she is alive . . . she is still back in Kantora . . .

He squeezed his eyes shut.  

Waiting for you . . .

He clasped both his hands to his face, the weight of the visions too much to bear. His entire form shook as he sobbed. Gone was his defiance toward the fiend or whatever creature afflicted him with these illusions. He admitted he was nothing more than this monsters plaything, falling for each mirage after another,  a dark, lonesome place where no one- not even Voriel- could save him.

That even all he had done, he was still a lost, terrified child.